Simpler foundations, faster releases
A major omnichannel retailer shipped mobile releases every four weeks on top of an API surface of roughly 200 methods. Simplifying that surface halved the release cycle, and checkout work lifted conversion and payment completion.
- Mar 2019 — Apr 2021
- Mobile & checkout
- With the CTO
completion
conversion
release
Starting point
Hoff is an omnichannel furniture and home retailer, roughly a $600M business with around 6M monthly users.
The mobile apps and checkout ran on a shared API surface of roughly 200 methods, and mobile releases took four weeks.
My role
Product Manager for mobile and checkout, working with the CTO.
What I did
- Simplified the API surface
Worked with the CTO to cut the shared API surface from roughly 200 methods to 120, which cut mobile release cycles from four weeks to two.
- Modularized checkout
Broke checkout into modules so it could be improved piece by piece.
- Improved local payments and checkout UX
Added local payment options and UX improvements that raised checkout conversion and payment completion.
What changed
API methods went from roughly 200 to 120, mobile release cycles from four weeks to two, checkout conversion rose 0.8%, and payment completion rose 7%.
Summary
Speed came from subtraction: a smaller API surface doubled the release rate, and a modular checkout with local payments converted better.