Intro
During my time at Growfi, I designed two community commerce app MVPs for buyers and seller apps. I helped the company validate the idea and generated a significant brand exposure for Growfi.
Role: Product Designer | Worked with 2 x Developers, 1x Manager, 4 x Customer success team, 2 x Marketing team | Average Timeline: 7 months
Skills: UX, UI, Research, Mobile app design, Wire framing, Prototyping, Dev Collaboration, Presentation, Stakeholder Alignment, Copywriting, User testing
Context
Growfi harnesses the potential of human connections to empower individuals and MSMEs in the vibrant and diverse landscape of SEA. Recognizing the untapped market and opportunities in Myanmar, Growfi ventured into the region with the aim of supporting local communities through online platform which combines elements of commerce, social interaction and storytelling. However, they faced a significant challenge: the need to test and validate the effectiveness of the product idea. The journey of 0 to 1 was filled with excitement and possibilities.
We saw:
• Most local businesses primarily conducted offline sales, while some adopted a dual approach, utilizing social media, phone calls, and physical shops for their sales.
• A few leveraged established platforms to expand their reach or grow, but the competition was fierce, less profits and experiences were not designed for community sellers and businesses.
• There was also a significant rise of home made food and handcraft businesses during the Covid.
• Some businesses lacked digitalization know-how, some faced high commission fees, and others struggled with online presence management.
We decided to:
• Create MVPs focusing on food, craft, and services targeting three specific townships for easy tracking and better engagement.
• Conduct partner onboarding and consumer research within targeted townships. (Onboarded 100+ sellers/partners)
• Prepare policies, community guidelines, user testings (for both buyer and partner apps), and partner software training to nurture the high quality of offerings, communication, and the establishment of a fruitful online community.
Buyers:
They can browse, consume location-based interesting content, shops and menu, chat with sellers, place orders with easy payments, track, reviews and more.
Partners(sellers):
They can manage their online stores, orders, chat with buyers, update menus, and cash out.
Buyer and Partner Apps
Buyer App Homepage
More
In addition to rigorous internal testing, I took initiatives in user recruitment and user testings, conducting sessions at key development milestones. I crafted comprehensive guidelines and questions, and conducted insightful interviews with team, identifying opportunities for enhancement across offerings, services, UX, visuals, copy, and performance. Through user testings and partner training conducted prior to the soft launch, we received great feedback and further strengthened our offerings.
Impact
The integration of third-party mobile wallet payments, utilization of cross-mobile development, engaging content storytelling, branding, and user-friendly app interfaces were key factors that made users fall in love with products. As the product designer, I took satisfaction in creating what I would call 'Minimum Lovable Products.' Grow gained 1k+ users upon soft launch, reached 1.9k Facebook social followers within a short time.
Unfortunately, Grow stopped its operations after running for 7 months due to the Covid and political crisis in Myanmar.
