Let’s be real — I didn’t plan this.

No calendar reminder, no digital detox challenge, no wake-up call from a wellness influencer. It just… hit me one night.

I was lying in bed, feeling weirdly sleepy but still glued to my screen, eyes half-closed, neck slightly twisted into an uncomfortable angle. I saw a reel that made me chuckle — silently, of course — then instinctively scrolled to the next one. And the next. And the next.

Forty-five minutes later, I realized I wasn’t even enjoying it anymore. I was just stuck in the loop.

Like a lot of people, I’ve had that nagging thought: “Maybe I should use social media less.”
Also, like a lot of people, I did… absolutely nothing about it.

A friend once told me, “Why don’t you just control how much time you spend instead of quitting?”
Valid point. But here’s the thing — I’m not exactly a paragon of discipline. If something’s giving me dopamine, I’m all in until it starts breaking things. (And this is one trait I know all too well about myself)

And at some point, it did.

I knew something was off. But I still kept scrolling..

I’d be in bed, eyes half-open, still swiping through reels or random nonsense at 3 or 4 AM. Then I’d try to force myself to sleep and end up getting a whopping 2 hours before I had to start my workday. Rinse. Repeat. Regret.

I started noticing the fallout everywhere — my energy, my focus, my mood. Even writing, which used to be second nature, felt like a chore. I wasn’t burned out, I was just… hijacked. And most of the time, it was the algorithm in the driver’s seat.

Personal turning point — what made me stop, finally

What actually made me stop — and I mean really stop — was a random Saturday night. I was bouncing between Instagram and my WHOOP stats, just casually checking my screen time and recovery score like it was no big deal. But it hit me: I was spiraling. Again. I needed to improve. I needed to be better—not for the aesthetic, not for anyone watching, just for myself.

That moment felt small at the time. But it was the switch.

Data doesn’t lie — and my WHOOP wasn’t happy either

So here’s where things got especially real: I wear a WHOOP band (which I’ll admit, I mostly got because I like data, and as in-depth as possible). But over time, it stopped being just a wearable and became a reality check.

My sleep was all over the place. My recovery was consistently low. My resting heart rate was creeping up. HRV was a mess. And yeah, I was waking up feeling like a bus hit me — even on days when I hadn’t done anything to earn that feeling.

I’ve only been off socials for a week and a half now, but I’m already seeing trends moving in the right direction. Still too early to publish a case study, but let’s just say WHOOP’s not yelling at me as much.

(Should I drop screenshots here? Debating.. Ah, well, maybe I’ll come back to this article in a month’s time and update it.)

The feeling of space, the strange silence that followed

The first night without Instagram felt weird. I was still wired. Still staring at the ceiling. I didn’t sleep immediately — I just lay there, half-anxious, half-relieved. I still had Reddit (I tell myself that’s “info” and not doomscrolling) — but even that started to fade over time.

Eventually, I’d catch myself reaching for my phone… and stopping.
Then one night, I just slept. No scrolling. No screens. Just peace.
And it started happening again. And again. And now it feels… normal.

So what did I get in return?

✍️ I started writing again
Not just Jira comments or Slack pings — actual long-form writing. This post? Wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

🔧 I made stuff again
I started building and fixing the little things I had on the back burner. Scripts. Flows. App ideas. The kind of creative work that gets buried under noise.

🧘 I remembered how to sit with silence
Less noise, less comparison, fewer hot takes. I stopped reacting so much and started responding more thoughtfully — even if just internally.

🛌 Sleep improved
Cutting out late-night reels gave my brain a chance to actually shut down. Shocker, I know.

💪 I revisited habits I kept sidelining
Working out more consistently. Picking up a book, even. Small things. But they make a difference.

🧠 Mental clarity
This one snuck up on me. I’ve always considered myself more of a closeted extrovert, but this pause gave me the time to focus inward instead of spending hours daydreaming about someone else’s curated life. No more letting influencer reels dictate my standards for what life should look like.

📲 Still kept up with memes
Because come on. I’m not that detached.

🎧 Started listening to music again
And not just in the background. Full albums. Playlists. Late-night deep house hits that reminded me what it’s like to enjoy things for their own sake, not just while multitasking.

If you want a vibe shift, here’s one I’ve been looping: Late-night Deep House • Spotify — headphones recommended.

🤝 Staying socially connected
Even though I went off socials, I didn’t socially exclude myself. I’m still very much in touch with my people — we still catch up, make plans, send memes, and talk about random life stuff. The only difference? I’m not doomscrolling between every interaction.

What I Don’t Miss

• I don’t miss the tired, dull-eyed mornings.
• I don’t miss the brain fog from app-hopping every 10 seconds.
• I don’t miss the endless mindless scrolling that left me feeling mentally drained and questioning my existence.
• And I definitely don’t miss pretending that doomscrolling is “just how I relax.”

You don’t have to go full hermit

I’m not saying delete your Instagram and disappear into the woods. But if you’ve ever caught yourself doomscrolling and feeling worse, maybe it’s worth trying a step back.

You don’t have to commit to a full detox. Start by removing the apps from your phone. Or just log out. Or mute everyone except your 5 favorite accounts. Whatever works.

I just put up a quick story saying I’d be off for a while and to message me on WhatsApp if it was important.

Turns out, that was enough.

Final Thoughts

We’re all just trying to stay sane in a world that throws a million things at our attention span every day. I didn’t expect logging off to be the reset I needed, but it really was.

I’m not anti-social media. I’m just learning to be more intentional with it.

So if you’ve been meaning to take a break, or even just need a bit of space from the noise, take this as a sign. One that’s written by a real human, not algorithmically inserted between two ads for investments and an app you’ll never use.

You’ve got more attention than you think. Don’t waste it.

TL;DR

• Social detox ≠ anti-social
• I write more. Think better. Sleep better. (WHOOP agrees.)
• Creative energy is back.
• Still meme-aware.
• You don’t have to disappear — just disconnect with intention.

That’s it. Go touch grass. Or write something. Or both.

Logging Off to Tune In: What I Gained from a Social Media Detox was originally published in Ounass on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

That’s how refAIned was born: a lightweight, AI-powered Jira app built using Forge, designed to help teams identify, understand, and action bugs faster through contextual AI recommendations.

The Problem

Let me paint a familiar picture:

• You open a bug ticket with two sentences of context.
• You manually search Jira for similar bugs.
• You message three devs who “might remember” something similar.
• You end up cloning an old ticket, updating a few lines, and hoping it lands somewhere helpful.

This workflow not only wastes time but also leads to poor triaging, inconsistent labels, and a backlog filled with noise. One can only have so many meetings to keep refining tickets manually. It’s costly in terms of time.

What we needed was a way to make Jira “remember” what happened in the past — and use that to guide current ticket hygiene.

What is refAIned?

refAIned is a Jira Forge app that combines:

• RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) for surfacing historical tickets
• Google Gemini for summarization and recommendation
• Jira REST APIs to push intelligent suggestions directly to the ticket

Think of it as your AI-powered Jira assistant that helps you clean up, enrich, and align bug reports using real historical context.

Use Cases

• QA Teams can reference past regressions quickly during test cycles
• Engineers can see related issues without deep-diving manually
• Teams can move tickets through the triage process faster with better suggestions and fewer blockers

How It Works

1. Trigger: A user invokes refAIned from a Jira ticket.
2. Embedding: The current ticket is processed to extract context, but is not yet converted to embeddings.
3. Search: It performs keyword-based matching against previously cached ticket content.
4. Prompt Construction: refAIned builds a prompt including the current ticket and summaries of similar issues.
5. Gemini Response: Google Gemini processes the prompt and returns:
   - A brief summary of similar issues
   - Suggestions for components, labels, or status updates
6. Jira Update: Suggestions can be reviewed and applied directly using Jira’s REST API.

Architecture Diagram

Tech Stack

• Atlassian Forge (Jira App Platform)
• @forge/storage for key-value storage (chunked historical data)
• Gemini API for LLM-powered responses
• Jira REST API v2 for updating ticket fields

Key Implementation Snippets

1. Defining the Jira Issue Action (manifest.yml)

modules:
  jira:issueAction:
    - key: gemini-ai-action
      resource: main
      resolver:
        function: resolver
      title: Ask refAIned
      description: Get AI assistance for your ticket
      icon: assets/logo.png
      viewportSize: large
      customUI: true

  function:
    - key: resolver
      handler: resolver.handler

Forge App Scopes and Permissions

Forge requires apps to explicitly declare permissions in manifest.yml. These scopes ensure transparency and enforce access control.

permissions:
  external:
    fetch:
      backend:
        - "*.googleapis.com"   # For Gemini API
        - "*.atlassian.net"    # Optional Atlassian services
  scopes:
    - read:jira-work
    - write:jira-work
    - read:jira-user
    - storage:app
    - read:confluence-content.summary
    - read:confluence-content.all
    - read:content:confluence
    - read:page:confluence
    - search:confluence

2. Fetching Jira Ticket Details (src/resolver.js)

import api, { route } from "@forge/api";

const fetchIssueDetails = async (issueKey) => {
  const issueResponse = await api.asApp().requestJira(route`/rest/api/3/issue/${issueKey}`);
  const commentsResponse = await api.asApp().requestJira(route`/rest/api/3/issue/${issueKey}/comment`);
  const issueData = await issueResponse.json();
  const comments = await commentsResponse.json();
  return { issueData, comments };
};

3. Frontend ↔ Backend via Forge Bridge (src/index.jsx)

import * as bridge from '@forge/bridge';

useEffect(() => {
  const fetchDetails = async () => {
    const result = await bridge.invoke('fetchIssueDetails');
    if (result.success) setTicketDetails(result.data);
  };
  fetchDetails();
}, []);

const onSubmit = async () => {
  const result = await bridge.invoke('refineTicket', { prompt });
  // Handle AI suggestions
};

Implementing Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)

1. Storing and Managing Historical Data

RefAIned needs to store and access data from past Jira tickets to provide relevant historical context. Due to Forge’s storage limits, we chunk ticket data into smaller parts to store it safely.

# Chunking Data for Forge Storage (src/resolver.js)

async function cacheRawProjectTickets(projectKey, tickets) {
  const CHUNK_SIZE = 200000;
  // Estimate average ticket size...
  // Split, store as raw_tickets_<project>_chunk_<n>
  // Store metadata listing all chunks
}

INFO    17:19:49.368  60b60e03-1afe-4583-957e-41684c51878a  Found valid metadata with 432 tickets in 4 chunks
INFO    17:19:50.027  60b60e03-1afe-4583-957e-41684c51878a  Retrieved chunk 0 with 125 tickets
INFO    17:19:50.027  60b60e03-1afe-4583-957e-41684c51878a  Retrieved chunk 1 with 125 tickets
INFO    17:19:50.028  60b60e03-1afe-4583-957e-41684c51878a  Retrieved chunk 2 with 125 tickets
INFO    17:19:50.028  60b60e03-1afe-4583-957e-41684c51878a  Retrieved chunk 3 with 57 tickets
INFO    17:19:50.028  60b60e03-1afe-4583-957e-41684c51878a  Retrieved total 432 tickets from cache
INFO    17:19:50.028  60b60e03-1afe-4583-957e-41684c51878a  Using 432 cached tickets for simple search
INFO    17:19:50.028  60b60e03-1afe-4583-957e-41684c51878a  Searching for relevant tickets among 432 tickets

# Leveraging Confluence for Broader Context (and Future Vectorization)

In addition to historical tickets, documentation in Confluence provides critical context (architecture, UAT notes, retrospectives). refAIned enhances Gemini prompts by:

• Fetching & Caching relevant pages from pre-defined spaces (e.g. “Investigations”)
• Keyword-based Matching to identify top documents
• Prompt Augmentation with summaries of top-matching pages

2. Fetching Historical Data for RAG (src/resolver.js)

async function fetchHistoricalBugs(projectKey, startDate) {
  const jql = `project = "${projectKey}" AND issuetype = "${issueType}" AND created >= "${startDate}" ORDER BY created DESC`;
  let allIssues = [];
  let startAt = 0;

  while (true) {
    const issuesResponse = await api.asApp().requestJira(
      route`/rest/api/3/search?jql=${jql}&startAt=${startAt}&maxResults=50&fields=key,summary,description,status,comment`
    );
    const batchData = await issuesResponse.json();
    allIssues = allIssues.concat(batchData.issues);
    if (startAt + 50 >= batchData.total) break;
    startAt += 50;
  }

  return allIssues.map(issue => ({
    key: issue.key,
    summary: issue.fields.summary,
    description: issue.fields.description,
    comments: issue.fields.comment?.comments || [],
    status: issue.fields.status?.name,
    fullText: `Ticket: ${issue.key}\nSummary: ${issue.fields.summary}\nDescription: ${issue.fields.description}`
  }));
}

Future State

In future versions, Confluence pages will be embedded into vectors and stored in a vector DB (like Pinecone or Weaviate). This will enable semantic search, meaning the AI can retrieve contextually similar documents even without exact keyword matches.

2. Constructing the RAG Context Prompt (src/modelContext.js)

const generateRagContextPrompt = (similarTickets) => {
  if (!similarTickets?.length) return "";
  let context = "Related tickets that might help answer this question:\n\n";

  similarTickets.forEach((ticket, index) => {
    context += `Ticket ${index + 1}: ${ticket.key}\n`;
    context += `Summary: ${ticket.summary}\n`;
    context += `Description: ${ticket.description?.substring(0, 300)}...\n`;
    if (ticket.resolution) context += `Resolution: ${ticket.resolution}\n`;
    if (ticket.comments?.length) {
      const lastComment = ticket.comments[ticket.comments.length - 1]?.body || '';
      context += `Latest comment: ${lastComment.substring(0, 200)}...\n`;
    }
    context += '\n';
  });

  return context;
};

3. Enhancing AI Context with modelContext.js

Beyond dynamic ticket and RAG context, refAIned enriches Gemini with static knowledge.

• Standard AI Instructions (tone, format, do’s and don’ts)
• Project Metadata (technologies, domains, ticket types)
• Common Acronyms (e.g., SC = Store Credit)

1. Standard Instructions (src/modelContext.js)

const STANDARD_INSTRUCTIONS = `
You are refAIned, an AI assistant integrated into Jira. Your goal is to provide helpful, accurate responses based on the ticket information provided and your knowledge of best practices.

When answering:
1. Be concise but complete
2. Provide specific, actionable advice when possible
3. Reference similar issues if they're relevant
4. Format responses with proper markdown
5. Acknowledge limitations when unsure

Avoid:
1. Making assumptions about missing details
2. Promising timelines
3. Speculating about business decisions
`;

2. Project-Specific Contexts (src/modelContext.js)

const PROJECT_CONTEXTS = {
  'ONM': {
    description: 'Ounass Magento project',
    technologies: ['Magento', 'PHP', 'MySQL', 'Redis'],
    keyComponents: ['Catalog', 'Cart', 'Checkout', 'Payments']
  },
  'ONFE': {
    description: 'Ounass Frontend project',
    technologies: ['React', 'Next.js', 'TypeScript'],
    keyComponents: ['Homepage', 'PLP', 'PDP', 'Account']
  }
};

// ... other project details ...

const generateTicketContextPrompt = (ticketData) => {
  const projectKey = ticketData.key.split('-')[0];
  const projectContext = PROJECT_CONTEXTS[projectKey];

  let contextPrompt = `You are refAIned, an AI assistant for Jira. You're currently viewing ticket ${ticketData.key}.
Summary: ${ticketData.summary}`;

  if (projectContext) {
    contextPrompt += `\n\nProject Context (${projectKey}):\n- ${projectContext.description}\n- Technologies: ${projectContext.technologies.join(', ')}\n- Components: ${projectContext.keyComponents.join(', ')}`;
  }
  return contextPrompt;
};

// ... (JIRA_PRIORITY_NAMES, PRIORITY_CONTEXTS, etc.) ...

This preloaded information helps Gemini respond with greater accuracy and domain awareness.

4. Calling Gemini with RAG Context (src/resolver.js)

const callGeminiAPIwithRAG = async (prompt, ticketData, projectKey) => {
  const contextPrompt = generateTicketContextPrompt(ticketData);
  let ragContext = "";

  const historicalBugs = await fetchHistoricalBugs(projectKey, "2024-01-01");
  const relevantTickets = findRelevantTicketsSimple(prompt, historicalBugs);
  ragContext += generateRagContextPrompt(relevantTickets);

  const fullContext = `${contextPrompt}\n\n${ragContext}\n\nUser Question: ${prompt}`;

  const response = await api.fetch(`https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1/models/gemini-1.5-flash:generateContent?key=${API_KEY}`, {
    method: "POST",
    headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
    body: JSON.stringify({ contents: [{ parts: [{ text: fullContext }] }] })
  });

  const data = await response.json();
  return data.candidates[0].content.parts[0].text;
};

Challenges

• API Limits: Jira’s Forge and REST API rate limits require batching updates.
• Storage Quotas in Forge
• Token Management: Gemini API needed secure token handling from Forge.
• Prompt Shaping: Getting useful summaries from Gemini took prompt iteration and data pruning.
• Lack of Semantic Vector Search (currently keyword-based)

Future Plans

• Migrate to vector-based semantic search and not rely on text-based analysis
• Add feedback loop: Let users thumbs-up/down Gemini’s suggestions
• Build out a Slack integration for ticket summaries
• Add support for additional issue types beyond bugs
• Include confidence scoring for suggestions
• Integrate with other services or include application embeddings to suggest solutions to tickets

Conclusion

refAIned is an experiment in making Jira smarter, not more bloated. By applying LLMs and RAG to everyday triage, we’re not only cleaning up noisy backlogs but enabling better decision-making from the start.

While this app is currently an internal tool and very much a work in progress, the vision is broader. With further enhancements — like semantic vector search, Slack integrations, and cross-project applicability — refAIned has the potential to evolve into a fully-fledged marketplace app for the wider Jira community.

refAIned: Leveraging AI to Streamline Bug Triage in Jira was originally published in Ounass on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Teams that prioritize effective communication and collaboration often build superior products. Strong communication ensures everyone is aligned and working towards the same objectives, reducing misunderstandings and enhancing productivity. Ultimately, a team culture that values both collaboration and communication goes on to build better digital products whilst taking care of the customer experience.

These are some of the few qualities that we focus on while working and collaborating at Ounass.

A bit about Ounass

Ounass is a luxury e-commerce platform that caters primarily to the Middle Eastern market, particularly the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, and Qatar. Launched in December 2016 by the Al Tayer Group, Ounass offers a wide range of high-end products, including women’s, men’s, and kids’ fashion, beauty products, home decor, and gifts.

Ounass prides itself on providing a premium online shopping experience. This includes 2-hour and same-day delivery within the UAE, and express delivery options for other regions.

Ounass has established itself as a leading online destination for luxury shopping in the Middle East, combining high-end international fashion with exceptional service tailored to the regional market.

What’s this story about

This story is about how we conducted ideation workshops for our Catalogue chapter, bringing together 24 members from various departments to collaborate and brainstorm on some key strategic areas. This collective effort significantly helped in shaping our catalogue product strategy for the year.

The primary goal of the workshops was to generate fresh ideas, identify user problems, and propose new product features to add to our backlog. By doing so, we aimed to build these solutions, and simultaneously enhance the buying experience for our customers.

What’s the Catalogue chapter?

The digital e-commerce journey begins when a customer opens the app or visits the website, and it culminates when they receive the product and are satisfied with both the item and the overall experience.

Given the complexity of this journey, with numerous critical components influencing the user experience, we at Ounass have segmented these elements into multiple chapters.

The Catalogue chapter begins when a customer enters the app through the homepage and continues until they reach the Product Details Page (PDP). This chapter focuses on the overall navigation and search experience, ensuring that customers can easily find what they are looking for. Once an item is added to the cart, the journey transitions to the next phase, which is the ‘Checkout’ chapter.

Identifying the problem statement

We gathered numerous actionable insights from our primary and secondary research and identified two key problem statements to address.

1. How do we improve ‘feature abc’
2. How do we reduce drop-off for ‘feature xyz’

Due to compliance reasons, we cannot disclose more details of the problem statements.

We wanted to avoid working in silos and incorporate the point-of-views of other departments as well. Given that multiple departments contribute to the product, we decided to bring everyone together for an Ideation Workshop. This collaborative effort ensured that we leveraged diverse perspectives and expertise to address these problem statements effectively.

What’s an Ideation Workshop

According to the NN Group,

Ideation is the process of generating a broad set of ideas on a given topic, with no attempt to judge or evaluate them.

An Ideation workshop is a structured, collaborative session designed to generate a wide range of ideas and solutions for a specific challenge or project. These workshops bring together a diverse group of participants, often from different departments, to brainstorm and explore new concepts in a creative and open environment.

While the eventual goal of ideation activity is a design that solves the given problem, the focus of ideation is quantity instead of quality.

Selecting the Ideation techniques

There are various ideation exercises to choose from, depending on the problem statement and the group participants. What works for one group might not work for another, so it’s essential to conduct thorough research, generate personas, and ensure you are addressing the right problem.

In our case, we had two different problem statements, and we used two different Ideation techniques for it.

1. Lightning Demos
2. Crazy 8s

A few things to keep in mind before the workshop

Since you’ll have people from different departments, it’s crucial to respect everyone’s time and efforts. Make sure that the workshop is not only fun and engaging for the participants, but is also effective and fruitful for addressing the problems at hand.

Have a fun ice-breaker

Start with a fun, non-work-related ice-breaker to make everyone comfortable and get the ball rolling.

In our case, the ice-breaker question was

Your name, your Ounass team, how long have you been working here, and ‘Who would you invite to dinner (dead or alive), and why’?

Solve the right problem

Understand the problems your users are facing through research and insights. Create a presentation that includes data, numbers, and personas to set clear context for everyone.

A problem well-defined is a problem half-solved.

Supporting data

Ensure that you have actionable insights from data that support your problem statements. This helps in confirming that you are addressing the right issues.

Inviting the right audience

Invite the right mix of participants, balancing UX, product, and engineering and other verticals. Cross-pollination between disciplines will lead to a wide range of ideas.

Designate a facilitator

Assign a facilitator to lead the workshop and keep everyone on track. The facilitator can start with a brief presentation explaining the workshop’s purpose and providing an overview of the itinerary.

Choose a suitable location

Choose a comfortable, spacious, well-lit location where participants won’t be disturbed.

Prepare HMW statements

Prepare a list of ‘How might we’ (HMW) statements to turn the original challenge into actionable questions for the ideation session.

The Workshop Day

We booked a meeting room in a different office location from our usual workspace. A new location can enhance an ideation workshop’s effectiveness by stimulating creativity, reducing distractions, and encouraging openness. Being in an unfamiliar environment can spark fresh thinking, minimize everyday interruptions, and create a sense of equality, making participants feel more comfortable sharing their ideas.

We arranged for refreshments throughout the day, including morning coffee, mid-session snacks, and lunch.

We kicked off the session with a fun ice breaker, followed by a presentation outlining our current position in the Catalogue journey. This presentation set the context and discussed the larger team goals for the year. After sharing this with the participants, we moved on to the workshops.

We planned two workshops on the same day, each addressing a different problem. For the first workshop, we used the Lightning Demos method.

Workshop 1: Lightning Demos

Lightning demos are short, focused presentations that showcase a specific idea, product, or feature. They are a great way to share knowledge, inspire creativity, and spark discussions within a team or group. They are great for enabling creativity and setting the ideation session off to a strong start.

The core idea of Lightning Demos is to find as many great examples of other companies solving a similar challenge as possible, and leverage their key aspect in solving your own challenge.

It’s likely that someone has already tackled a similar challenge. By analyzing and implementing their successful approaches, we can transition into solution mode without needing entirely original ideas. The advantage of this activity is its flexibility — you can draw inspiration from any industry or company, not just your own.

Lightning Demos — Steps

Presentation and context setting — 15 min
Buffer — 15 min

Tool used: FigJam

1. Demo by the facilitator — 10 min
2. Idea generation — 25 min
3. Internal group sync — 10 min
4. Presenting to the audience — 10 min
5. Voting the best idea — 2 min

Total time ~ 1 hour 30 mins

Before starting, we shared our research findings and highlighted observed patterns to set the workshop’s direction and provide context for all participants. With participants from the ‘Data & Growth’ team present, any questions regarding a deeper understanding of the data were addressed there as well.

We divided participants into four groups, each including members from the Product, Tech, and Digital Trading teams to ensure cross-collaboration. Each group was assigned a unique ‘How might we’ problem statement to brainstorm and ideate on.

Step 1: Demo by the facilitator — 10 min

Once everyone grasps the problem statement and has sufficient context from research and data, we proceed to the main activity.

We gave a walkthrough to the participants on how to record their idea using the above template with a live demo. It’s crucial that we emphasize that Lightning Demos are about ‘showing’ and not ‘telling’.

Step 2: Idea generation — 25 min

In the next step, each participant independently researches existing products, services, or solutions that relate to the problem. The goal is to look for examples that are innovative, successful, or relevant.

We shared competitor analysis related to the problem statement for their reference.

We designated 25 mins for the activity (plus some buffer, if needed) for participants to gather their examples. This ensures the process remains quick and focused.

Step 3: Internal group sync — 10 min

In the next step, the participants in each group discussed their gathered ideas among themselves. They explained how each concept relates to and addresses the problem at hand.

Once everyone shared their ideas within the group, they selected the top five ideas that solved the problem statement in the best way. All these ideas were recorded in FigJam.

Step 4: Presenting to the audience — 10 min

After each group finalized their top five ideas, the next step was presenting these ideas to the wider audience. Since each group was given a different ‘How might we’ statement, they each had five unique solutions to share.

During these presentations, the audience engaged in two-way communication, asking questions and providing feedback. The session ensured that ideas were thoroughly discussed and refined through collaborative input.

Step 5: Voting the best idea — 2 min

Once a group presented all their ideas to the larger audience and participants had their questions answered and feedback addressed, we moved to the voting process.

Each participant had one vote to cast for one of the five ideas presented by the group. The idea with the most votes was deemed the winner.

By the end of the activity, we had identified the best ideas for solving the problem statements. These winning ideas will eventually be explored further.

Workshop 2: Crazy 8s

Crazy 8s is a rapid ideation technique often used in design sprints to quickly generate a wide range of ideas. This activity encourages participants to think creatively and push beyond their initial concepts, and is great for both designers and non-designers.

The purpose of Crazy 8s is to quickly iterate on ideas and explore different approaches without striving for pixel-perfect solutions, making it ideal for an ideation session.

In this exercise, participants create 8 rapid iterations of a potential solution to the problem. Each iteration is time-boxed (usually 1–2 mins) to encourage participants to let go of perfectionism and quickly explore alternative ideas.

Crazy 8s — Steps

Presentation and context setting — 15 min
Buffer — 15 min

Tool used: FigJam

1. Crazy 8s — 8 min
2. Idea selection — 15 min
3. Pitch creation — 10 min
4. Idea presentation — 5 min
5. Idea assessment and discussion — 10 min

Total time ~ 1 hour 20 mins

Before starting, we shared our research findings and observed patterns to provide context for the problem. Participants were divided into four cross-departmental groups from Product, Tech, and Digital Trading teams.

Each member had to come up with eight ideas or solutions that relate to the problem statement.

Step 1: Crazy 8s — 8 min

Once everyone grasps the problem statement and has sufficient context from research and data, we proceed to the main activity.

We provided a walkthrough and live demo on how to record ideas using the template, allowing participants to articulate their concepts in writing without the pressure of sketching. Each participant had to generate eight ideas for the problem statement, encouraging creativity and a broad range of solutions.

Step 2: Idea selection — 15 min

In the next step, the participants in each group discussed their eight ideas among themselves.

Once, everyone has shared their ideas within the group, they selected the top eight ideas (as a group) that solves the problem statement in the best way. All these ideas were recorded in FigJam.

Step 3: Pitch creation — 10 min

The next step was to create a pitch for their best idea that they want to share with the larger audience.

We walked the participants through the pitch creation board, what they should add, while addressing some of the questions like ‘Why will this drive impact’, and ‘Are there any quantitative insights to back this’.

We designated 10 mins for the activity (plus some buffer, if needed).

Step 4: Idea presentation — 5 min

Once all the groups were ready with the pitch for their best idea, the next step was presenting their pitches to the wider audience.

Each group selected a representative to present their ideas. Once one group completed their pitch, we moved to audience feedbacks.

Step 5: Idea assessment and discussion — 10 min

After the idea presentation, the session moved to audience feedback. This two-way communication allows participants from different departments to ask questions, share perspectives, discuss potential limitations, and provide constructive feedback.

Cross-departmental interaction enriches discussions with diverse viewpoints and expertise, leading to robust idea evaluations. After each group’s presentation and audience feedback, the next group presented, continuing until all ideas are thoroughly explored.

By the end, we had solid ideas addressing the problem statement, ready for further exploration and potential implementation.

Next steps post the workshop

After the ideation workshop, we had a wealth of ideas to explore further for both the problem statements. The Design and Product teams collaborated to categorize the ideas, identify the most promising concepts, and develop a roadmap for implementing the best ideas for our Catalogue chapter.

We also created an ‘Impact vs Effort Matrix’ to evaluate and prioritize the pool of ideas generated at the end of the workshop. This tool, commonly used in project management, helps assess tasks, projects, or ideas based on their expected effort and potential impact. By using this matrix, teams can focus on initiatives that offer the greatest benefit with the least amount of work, thereby optimizing resource allocation and enhancing strategic decision-making.

Learnings and Takeaways

This was the first time for Neha (fellow design colleague) and me, managing and facilitating an ideation workshop from start to finish. The workshop proved to be successful in addressing the problem statements we had identified and aimed to solve with our audience.

Some of the key learnings and takeaways include:

1. Maintain the scope: Clearly define objectives to keep discussions focused and relevant.
2. Strong and actionable research: Conduct thorough research to set context and guide participants effectively. This helps all participants understand why the problem exists and how they can contribute to solving it.
3. Specific design challenges: Narrowly defined challenges provide clear direction and focus, allowing participants to channel their ideas toward specific issues.

Wrapping up

In the end, I would like to thank everyone who was involved in the planning and execution of the workshop. The product and design teams, all the participants from the different departments that took time out of their schedule, and dedicated an entire day for the workshop.

A huge shoutout to Ant Milner (Lead Product Manager, Catalogue) for expertly leading and guiding us through the workshop planning.

Thanks to my fellow design teammates, Neha Chavan (Associate Product Designer and fellow facilitator) and Dawid Tomczyk (Product Designer) for their assistance during the workshop.

A special thanks to Dinesh Golani (Head of Product) and Onur Yüksel (VP of Commercial, Product & Growth) for their continuous support.

Congrats, you have made it till the end. Thank you for reading this article. I hope it added some value to your design work and enlightened you with a few processes. Feel free to share your feedback — what you liked and what can be improved upon.

Arrivederci!

Supporting links

• Ideation for Everyday Design Challenges
• Effective Ideation Exercises & How to Use Them
• Lightning Demo: A Fast Way to Ignite Inspiration in a Design Sprint
• Ideation Workshop Tips: Run a Dazzling, Effective Session | dscout
• How To Run An Effective Ideation Workshop: A Step-By-Step Guide

How we conducted a Product & Design workshop at Ounass was originally published in Ounass on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

E-commerce involves making big decisions behind the scenes. Growing your customer base can be challenging in the first few years, but building a profitable business over time is even more challenging. Many E-commerce players around the world have had to shut down despite having a large customer base because of profitability issues. In the past, it was tempting like a new shopping mall arrived in town yet offering many options at your fingertips but as more players entered the market, competition increased, and companies had to compete with each other through promotions, experiences, and more, which ultimately resulted in higher costs and demanding customers. The key to success in E-commerce is how companies use their time: In time while some companies focused on marketing, commerce/ unit economics or technology, others invested in acquisitions. We are now seeing companies specializing in unit economics & technology merging with platforms that have a large customer base, creating giants that other players must deal with. But what if you are still trying to find your path in this challenging industry?

PROFITABILITY

Typically, a healthy profit margin for E-commerce businesses in 2023 falls between 10% to 20% where net profit margin is a measure of how much of a company’s sales revenue it keeps as a profit after subtracting all its costs. Though this numbers vary along with the size, market and industry: Amazon net profit margin as of December 31, 2023 is 5.29%. When we talk about profitability, the first thing that comes to mind is the cost or margins. Simple math tells us that plus and minus equals zero. However, the level of plus and minus has a lot to do with how smart our decisions are. At the end of the day, we all want our costs to be low and margins to be high. Every player wants to have it all.

When it comes to operations, there is a great amount of autonomy and transformation available and required to build a successful business. Although there has been a lot of innovation happening in the last 10 years, operational costs do not change overnight: Seeds get planted and grow over time. Balancing your growth along with additional headcounts for sure is not sustainable and costly than investing on autonomy. With so much technological advancement in this era, almost everything is doable and can be achieved in less time. However, Humans might be the slowest factor to adopt new changes. Psychologically, almost all the gears of transformation have resistance to change, likely due to the reality of devaluation or simply struggle to adapt. That being said, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t invest in operational innovation & excellence but practically, it might take longer than you expect to see the results. At this point, you need to rethink your strategy and find a way that can create a faster uplift.

Marketing can be a significant cost for businesses as well. However, e-commerce marketing is often more cost-effective than traditional marketing. Traditional marketing may require a significant investment in physical materials and media space. In contrast, digital marketing strategies such as SEO, email marketing, and social media campaigns generally require lower upfront costs. Moreover, they provide measurable results and can precisely target potential customers, resulting in a higher return on investment. In addition to traditional marketing, an effective e-commerce marketing campaign employs various competitive strategies to promote products or services. Some of the different types of e-commerce marketing are Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Paid Advertising, and Influencer Marketing.

Next stop comes to mind is Margins. Margins can vary depending on the market or sector you are in. In some sectors, you may find many vendors who are willing to use unit economics with an assurance of sell-through. However, this rule applies only where the functional value of the assortment is higher than the psychological value in which brand loyalty is low. In the luxury market, margins are typically tight, brand equity is highly valued, brand image is king, and sales channels are queen, leaving little room for unit economics. In contrast to other sectors, you will not find many vendors eager to sell more at a lower price in the luxury industry.

This is because luxury is all about EXCLUSIVITY — it’s not fashionable when everyone has it.

Therefore, to grow your business profitably, you need to carefully consider your finances. Do you have enough investment to enjoy higher margins by purchasing assortments, or will you pursue concessions — also known as a marketplace — and accept lower margins? Or maybe you will do both or even build your own private label? Ultimately, you need to decide what strategy will work best for you. Maybe you will set it up front, maybe you will experiment and learn.

OWN OR OPERATE

E-commerce offers numerous advantages over brick-and-mortar stores. You have infinite space to display your products at a gradual tech cost. However, higher technology costs are necessary to provide a smooth user experience and to implement profitable strategies especially if you are entering to many region with their own challenge. Gradually lower costs applies to pure marketplace dropship players who do not have inventory or warehouse costs. While that may seem tempting, it is not as straightforward as it seems.

In today’s competitive market, customers expect instant gratification, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. With so many sectors offering fast delivery, customers have a higher appetite for quick service. It’s essential to keep in mind that fulfillment decisions are highly associated with customer experience and loyalty.

In E-commerce, a positive post-purchase experience is crucial for customer loyalty. It can make all the difference between a customer buying again or not from an online store.

If you don’t have a warehouse facility, you might lose customers to other players who do. That decision surely depends on market conditions and customer expectations. You also need to decide whether you want to outsource your post-purchase experience or brand it as your own. We also have been noticing players expert on logistics creating new brands to manage their own and other E-commerce players logistic operation’s. At the core, it’s important to ensure that after-sales including delivery is fast, personalized, clear, and available in the same channels as the purchase.

REPEAT CUSTOMERS

Businesses often put a lot of emphasis on marketing and sales, but they tend to neglect optimizing the post-purchase experience.

It’s important to realize that making a sale is just the beginning, especially if you want your customers to become repeat customers. Neglecting this aspect can as well be costly since the average customer acquisition cost has increased from $9 in 2013 to $29 in 2022, which is a 222% increase that continues to grow. It is important to keep in mind that a single negative experience after a customer’s first purchase with your business may result in losing them as a customer. On the other hand if positive, a customer becomes increasingly more likely to buy from you again as their number of purchase increases:

After one purchase, a customer has a 27% chance of returning to your store and if you can get that customer to come back and make a second and third purchase they have a 49% and 62% chance of making another purchase. On top, repeat customers generally spend more than new customers too — A research done by Bain & Company found that apparel shoppers spend 67% more per purchase after shopping with a company for 30 months or more and only 5% increase in customer retention produces more than a 25% increase in profit.

Although acquisition is an essential first step in the customer journey, prioritizing it may not be the most effective way to increase revenue. A research conducted with a sample size of over 1.1 billion shoppers and 250 thousand e-commerce brands has revealed some critical findings:

A significant proportion of an e-commerce store’s revenue comes from a small percentage of it’s customers.

Specifically, 41% of an e-commerce store’s revenue is generated by only 8% of its customers, and the top 5% of customers contribute to 35% of the revenue. These top 5% of customers are typically loyal, repeat customers who are highly profitable for the business. Benchmarks for customer retention vary from company to company, but for most E-commerce businesses, 25–30% of their customers are returning customers. Alex Schultz, VP of Growth at Facebook, also supports this metric and suggests that having 20–30% of customers returning every month and making a purchase from your store is a good sign for your business.

Repeat Purchase Rate is one of the most important retention metrics to track. It refers to the percentage of your current customer base that has made at least a second purchase within a year. Tracking this metric is useful because returning customers are more likely to make a purchase than new customers. According to Forbes, businesses have a 60% to 70% chance of selling to an existing customer, while for a new prospect, it’s only 5% to 20%. These numbers clearly indicate that prioritizing existing customers is crucial for achieving profitable growth.

The irony of profit is that it is closely linked to investment, which in turn depends on your financial situation. If you have sufficient funds, you can invest in and own a variety of assortment, run a warehouse, invest in innovation & technology, and hopefully keep up with rapidly changing customer demands to delight your customers. If you lack the necessary funds, you can operate as a marketplace, either using dropshipping or outsourcing warehouse operations to multichannel distribution centers for post-sale optimization. However, regardless of the option you choose, higher growth and net revenue will still depend on how successfully you manage your business 360 degrees.

INDICATORS & CATALYSTS OF SUCCESS

E-commerce conversion rate is a crucial indicator of your business’s success. However, it’s important to note that a higher rate isn’t always better.

It only indicates success when your session or user count is also increasing along with your conversion rate and not to the expense of deluting your profits. Although the concept is easy to understand, improving your E-commerce conversion rate can be challenging. The term “E-commerce conversion rate” refers to the rate of orders placed on your store. This metric may be called something else depending on the data source you’re using. Google Analytics uses the term “E-commerce conversion rate,” which has become the most common name. Others may refer to it as the “transaction rate” or “order rate,” but they all mean the same thing. To calculate the E-commerce conversion rate, you need to measure the number of orders and sessions (or users) in a specific period. Some prefer to use users instead of sessions because sessions can be manipulated. The E-commerce conversion rate essentially measures how many customer visits result in a purchase, whether the customer is new or returning is helpful in determining customer lifetime value and profitability.

The ultimate goal in commerce is to link supply and demand.

Whether it’s an offline or online store, the aim is to entice customers to purchase an assortment when they walk in. Among many factors, assortment might be the most customer-dependent decision as customer’s primary intention is to fulfill a physical or psychological need/want as they walk in. More often than not, the process is quite similar to brick and mortar stores: customers walk in, browse, and if they are interested, they delve into the details of an assortment. They search for their size, check the fit and if their interest is piqued and it turns into a demand or urge, they act on it and make the purchase.

One thing that hasn’t changed much is customer’s cognitive buying process.

Shorter spans exist with the availability of dependent factors. Saving payment method is very important for conversion rate optimization, it paves the way for recurring payments. Notebly, findings show that credit card availability and credit card use is important triggers for impulse buying on fashion especially for customers with hedonic motivations. Saving card information makes the first purchase easy, and subsequent purchases even easier. Therefore it shouldn’t be suprise seeing many player making intense effort to persue saving credit cards on customer accounts. Last but not the least, it’s worth considering whether each customer has the same probability of making a purchase to begin with. For instance, suppose I am size 40. Even though I have the same level of interest and purchasing power, can I buy an assortment if size 40 is out of stock? Or, if I’m French and there is no French size conversion available to find my body fit? Customers might not convert even if they intend to, which doesn’t get reflected in CR metrics.

AGILITY

In a broader sense, conversion occurs when a customer takes an action on your store that you want them to take. Each step of the customer’s cognitive buying process can determine where you fail, what needs fixing, and the frequency & amount of lost opportunity. Unfortunately, an uncaught lost opportunity have a snowball effect, particularly if it’s due to stock out. Depending on the level of urgency, price sensitivity, and brand loyalty, there is a high chance that your customer will either buy something else or buy from somewhere else. However, there is a silver lining — if the assortment is low in supply or scarce (especially in the luxury market), the faster you can supply it, the higher the chance you have of gaining a lost purchase. This is the reasoning behind back in stock notifications. Therefore, it is essential to monitor the demand and create mechanisms to ensure that you get the full potential of sales, especially when dealing with seasonal assortments where you have limited time to meet supply and demand.

Although you may check your sales every day, relying solely on sales as an indicator of demand can be misleading.

Fast-selling products that go out of stock quickly may seem short on sales as the time pass, making it harder to forecast demand. Indeed, you might find your overnight sold-out assortment ranking lower in a week. One advantage of an online store compared to a brick and mortar store is that you have many tools to track, measure, and remove any obstacles along the customer’s buying process on time to understand, adjust, and enjoy the full potential of your assortment and purchasing power of your customers which costs much less than other bits.

Marketplace Product Lead — Nergis Tamer

Note: The statistics used are based on publications online and I would recommend you to check yours to decide the best course of action :)

E-COMMERCE ZIPPED was originally published in Ounass on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Ever wondered what sets the tone for an amazing shopping experience — whether you’re strolling through a retail store or comfortably ordering online from your favorite spot? It all boils down to the payment experience! While other aspects of the overall journey may seem similar, there’s a unique parallel between the two.

Picture this: a customer navigating their beloved retail store versus someone scrolling through their go-to fashion website or app. The retail adventure involves leisurely strolling through aisles, while the online journey starts with choosing product categories. When it comes time to check out, the differences become stark. The retail checkout is refined and concierge-like, contrasting with the multifaceted steps of the e-commerce checkout — trusting the brand, selecting payment options, and sharing sensitive details.

The customer forward motivation in purchase journey isn’t always a guarantee, especially in the crucial moment of clicking/tapping the “pay” button. It’s like a rollercoaster of emotions, ranging from mild to wild. As customers teeter on the edge of committing their hard-earned money, the uncertainties around product/service fulfillment loom large. This becomes even more pronounced online, where the inability to physically experience the product or predict the service quality adds an extra layer of complexity.

In essence, the journey to completing a purchase online is a nuanced dance between the desire for a product or service and the apprehension tied to the digital transaction’s uncertainties.

Understanding the Online Payment Process

To fully grasp this digital payment ballet, we ought to break down the online payment process into key actors:

• The Merchant: The online platform or store to which you’re transferring your funds.
• Issuing Bank: The bank that has issued your credit card or your chosen mode of payment.
• Payment Gateway/Processor: The intermediary channeling a secure transmission of card data from the merchant to the receiving bank.
• Acquiring Bank: The bank that processes the transaction and transfers funds to the merchant.

Here’s a sneak peek into how a typical online transaction pans out:

Step 1. The cardholder enters details into a merchant’s (the vendor’s) payment page.

Step 2. The merchant receives encrypted card data and sends the card data securely to its payment gateway, which then passes the card data to the merchant’s bank processor via a secure connection.

Step 3. The merchant’s bank processor submits the transaction to the appropriate credit card network. Credit card networks are financial entities (e.g. Visa, American Express) that communicate and manage the processing, clearing, and settlement of credit card transactions.

Step 4. The credit card network routes the transaction to the customer’s credit card issuing bank. The issuing bank approves or declines the transaction based on the customer’s available funds.

Step 5. If approved, the customer’s credit card issuing bank sends the funds to the credit card network, which passes the funds to the merchant’s bank, which then deposits the funds into the merchant’s bank account.

Although the process may seem straightforward, several factors can disrupt it, leading to potential payment failures.

Common Reasons for Payment Fiascos

Authorization errors: During the payment authorization process, the bank or credit issuer might mark the credit card as missing, stolen, blocked, or expired. This, along with communication issues between the payment gateway and the bank can cause authorization failures.

Authentication issues: Incorrect details, unsuccessful OTP verification, or wrongly entered 3D secure passwords can lead to authentication failures. The customer would then receive a message from the bank notifying them of the problem with payment processing.

Payment gateway glitches: Sometimes, payment gateways may encounter issues resulting in payment failures. These issues are typically resolved quickly, and the customer’s money is either debited or kept secure.

Delayed success notifications: Occasionally, customers might not instantly receive notifications from their bank or payment platform confirming the success of their payment. The delay could be due to various reasons, and customers should wait a few minutes before contacting the seller or payment platform.

An unstable internet connection: A stable internet connection is vital for a transaction to go smoothly. Fluctuating internet speeds or prematurely closing the payment window can lead to incomplete or failed payment.

The ‘First Response Principle’ in Digital Payments

In the digital era where convenience is king, the importance of smooth, trouble-free online transactions cannot be overemphasized. But what happens when a customer stumbles upon an unexpected hurdle during the payment process? Well, according to recent findings, the majority of customers tend to reach out to customer support helplines. Ideally, these issues are resolved promptly or at the very least, within the expected response time, ensuring the customer’s money is not lost. However, it’s not all about the money.

While customers can retrieve their money, they often lose something far more valuable — their trust in your platform. This could drastically affect their willingness to make return purchases. And herein lies the challenge for any merchant seeking to flourish in the online space.

Have you ever heard of the term ‘First Response’ in the healthcare sector? It indicates how crucial immediate and effective response is during emergencies. Shouldn’t the same principle be applied in digital payments?

The ‘First Response Principle’ in digital payments emphasizes the need to offer immediate and efficient customer support to manage any issues that may crop up during the payment process. By extending this principle to cover the entire checkout journey, merchants can significantly boost customer confidence and satisfaction, which ultimately leads to customer loyalty and repeat purchases.

Embracing the ‘First Response Principle’ undoubtedly makes the customer’s journey less frustrating and more enjoyable. And a satisfied customer is indeed a merchant’s ticket to longevity in the fierce digital market.

Enhancing the E-commerce Payment Experience

Here are several strategies to design a flawless e-commerce payment journey:

1. Offer Wide-Ranging Payment Methods with Regional Bias: In today’s global business landscape, honoring customers’ regional payment preferences is vital. Accepting various locally preferred payment modes — such as credit cards, debit cards, digital wallets, or bank transfers — not only offers convenience but also increases the chances of successful transactions.
2. Apply Real-Time Card Validation: Nothing frustrates a customer more than transaction failure due to incorrect card details. Real-time card validation can detect inconsistencies in card numbers, expiry dates, and security codes before transactions are submitted, preventing the nuisance of payment failures.
3. Nurture fallback Payment Methods: In case of transaction failure, recommend an alternative payment method based on customer cohorts. Using machine learning algorithms to analyze user demographics, browsing patterns, and previous orders can help create personalized fallback choices.
4. Choose a Credible Payment Processor: A trustworthy payment processor with a proven record of minimal errors is a valuable asset. It’s essential to conduct a thorough comparison considering your specific needs. Tools, like address verification, can decrease billing information errors, leading to a streamlined checkout process.
5. Provide Clear Input Examples: To simplify the information entry process, offer clear instructions and correctly formatted data examples. Providing hints under labels makes it easy for customers to input their details, ensuring a smoother payment process.
6. Prioritize Fraud Prevention & Regulatory Compliance: Advanced fraud detection tools can help spot fraudulent activities while minimizing false positives, safeguarding both the business and customers. Staying attuned with payment regulations and compliance can prevent legal issues while ensuring data protection, industry standards, and necessary certifications are met.

To sum up, the payment experience in e-commerce is a critical aspect of defining your customer’s shopping journey. From the moment they decide to purchase until the transaction is completed, providing a smooth and secure process is crucial.

By identifying the root of common payment failure issues, adhering to the first response principle, and strategically constructing a superior payment experience, your e-commerce business can garner customer satisfaction and trust. This approach not only paves the way for immediate success but also sows the seeds for long-term prosperity in the competitive e-commerce marketplace. So, seize this opportunity to enhance your payment process and witness your business flourish!

Navigating E-Commerce Payments: The Smooth Way Forward was originally published in Ounass on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

At Ounass, customer experience is the key focus for the business. Part of that experience comes down to reliability and predictability around Order Management. As Ounass continues to drive the luxury online retail shopping landscape, online order tracking has become increasingly critical to its success. It is one of the most important factors because it allows Ounass to serve its customers with accurate shipping information.

Providing customers with accurate shipping information and tracking updates lets them know that they can trust and depend on Ounass, both of which are crucial to customer retention. It is a powerful way to improve the customer’s shopping experience.

What is the definition of order tracking?

Order tracking allows you to monitor all of your online orders and shipments and to communicate the order status to your customers at any point in time. It is composed of features like shipment tracking, estimated delivery dates, and frequent updates on the order status.

What kind of problems were our customers sharing?

What are other E-commerce stores doing?

We looked at Net-a-Porter and Farfetch on how order tracking is working on their platform. While comparing the two, I preferred how granular Net-a-Porter is with the details they share with the user vs Farfetch.

We also had a look at 2 local E-commerce stores based in Dubai: Noon and Namshi. The screenshot on the left is from Noon, which has more granular shipping details unlike Namshi on the right.

What was the order tracking experience on Ounass?

When we first designed the order tracking detail page, our intention was to release a manageable feature. The information was divided into Ordered, Shipped, and Delivered. The user was given the option to track their shipment in detail from the moment the tracking information was generated (Track my shipment would open a web view redirecting the user to the 3rd Party Logistics’s website).

However, what we observed is, in some cases, the tracking number was not always generated. We also did not have a system in place in which we would be able to communicate with users if their order was going to be delayed or split into multiple shipments. So, for example, if an order was not delivered on time, we would see a spike in complaints related to late delivery.

What are we trying to solve?

For the customers:

• The user should have visibility of a clear system that can inform them of the status of their order at that given moment.
• The user should be informed well in advance if their order is going to be delayed.
• The user should be informed if an item from their order is going to be delivered separately and how that would impact delivery estimates.
• The user should always expect their order to be delivered within the timeframe promised by the business.

For the business:

• Reduce the number of customer complaints.
• Reduce cost to the business. Dealing with customer complaints or inquiries can get expensive in the long run.
• Automate order tracking systems. The fewer calls the customer care team receives the more they can focus on other services.

The Solution

What are the key changes?

• Timestamps are highlighted and aligned to the left.
• Each primary order status is identifiable by its unique icon.
• For every primary status, there are micro statuses related to that order.
• We removed “TRACK MY SHIPMENT”. The user now has access to all order-related details on our platform.

What happens if an order is facing a delay?

The user will be greeted with a message on their order detail page that their order may face some delay in delivery. The same message will be highlighted on the order tracker.

What happens if one of the items gets canceled?

It rarely ever happens, but there is an edge case where an item in your order can get canceled. A common reason for cancellation is that the item went out of stock at the last minute just after the user completed his transaction.

In the event a cancellation occurs, we update the order tracker. The user can click on the ‘i’ icon or the item thumbnail to understand the reason for cancellation. The system is also automated to initiate a refund for that item. If payment was done via a cashless method, a refund is transferred to their respective payment medium. For cash on delivery orders, the total payment summary is adjusted accordingly.

What happens in the case of a return request?

On the same order tracker, the user can see the journey of their return request. The return journey is broken into 3 key statuses: Return requested, Items received, and Refund processed.

If the user wants to see the full history of the order since creation they can always click on the show full history link.

How are we splitting the order?

If items from a single order are going to be delivered separately, the user is informed immediately before they make the purchase. The user also has the choice to select from available delivery time slots, selecting when they want the different items to be delivered. As soon as the transaction takes place, the order is split into multiple orders with their own unique tracking information.

What are the other channels for communication?

• Email: When an order is shipped, an email is triggered simultaneously to the customer.
• SMS: 2 statuses are triggered — arriving today, and on the way.
• Live Tracker: If you are a customer in Riyadh or Dubai, an SMS with a link to the live tracker is sent when the order is out for delivery.

What was the impact of the solution?

Prior to releasing the feature in June 2021, the number of cases related to Status and Delivery queries was averaging around 20%. Post-release, over the period of 3 months by September 2021, we observed the queries reduced by 50%. As per our data from May 2021, 46% of the calls answered by the customer care team were related to order tracking issues. By September 2021, that number reduced from 46% to 4%! Postorder delivery NPS comments also showed a notable reduction in feedback related to delivery issues.

It is evident from the data the new solution impacted the customer experience in a positive way and at the same time benefitting the business. Safe to say we managed to

• Help our customers meet their delivery expectations
• Bring more satisfied loyal customers
• Reduce the support time and the cost to the business.

Why is online order tracking so important for an e-commerce business? was originally published in Ounass on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A day at Ounass — Lead Product Designer Edition

Being a designer is one of the most exciting professions I can think of. We craft the experience that a lot of people get to interact with every day. It is fun, challenging and rewarding at the same time. On June 4th, 2021, I completed 4 years at Ounass, where I am presently working as the Lead Product Designer. It’s a great company with wonderful people, and my experience here has been pivotal to my design career.

What is your life as a Lead Product Designer like?

Let’s first define what a Product Designer does. The Product Designer is in charge of the entire process of creating products and usable experiences, starting with defining the problems of real people and thinking about their possible solutions — and also help the business achieve its goals 📈.

My work life normally revolves around -

My day-to-day is incredibly busy, there are so many projects I have to overlook and execute at the same time: manage stakeholder expectations, align with every function, mentor my team, etc. It may sound overwhelming but I really love what I do. Nothing is more gratifying than knowing the positive impact your product has in the daily life of others.

Outside work, I am a gaming enthusiast, addicted to Japanese anime and a foodie. On my time off, my wife and I make it a point to go to exotic destinations as we both love to travel. Hard work has its rewards 😀.

Do you work with a team?

Yes, I do! Let me take this opportunity to introduce my talented design team: Rola, Dawid, and Neha.

Together we use the right ingredients to create the perfect recipe. It’s amazing how much we have achieved together so far. I count on their support every day.

Give us a peek into your regular workday

Setting up the agenda for the day

First, I will prioritize the tasks that need to get done for the day. This includes my commitments i.e. meetings, aligning with each designer, current product tasks, research, etc.

Daily Meetings with the Tech Team

Product + Design + Technology teams have short 15-minute catch-ups to give updates on what each colleague is working on.

Alignment with the Design Team

Every Thursday we have an alignment meeting for an hour. In this meeting, we discuss current projects and have a transfer-knowledge session. We also discuss upcoming projects and which design team member can pick them up. For the remainder of the meeting, each of us spends time updating the design system.

Heads-Down Working Time

At Ounass, we use end-to-end stories as the framework to drive a better user experience for our features. An End-to-End (E2E) story is a narrative of people with goals performing tasks to achieve business objectives. To better explain this, together with a Product Manager, we document business goals, product focus & scope, define user goals by mapping their journey through various cases, create proto personas, discuss product & technology risks and lastly check our existing data. It’s very critical that we have all the necessary information before we deep dive into design. This process helps us achieve the best possible version of the product feature right off the bat.

Cross-Functional Checkpoint

For every project we work on, we have checkpoints before the project is made live for our users. After the Product Designer & Product Manager have completed the design and documented the requirements, we have a product walkthrough with the rest of the Product Team and our stakeholders. The goal of this exercise is to get constructive feedback related to missing cases, better solutions, etc… whatever helps us build an awesome product. Similarly, after our alignment with the product team, we have an alignment with the Tech Team. Together, we understand the risks, timeline for development and get their insights on the product feature itself. The Tech Team then come back to us to do a product demo, an interactive experience where the developer demonstrates various scenarios. The team of quality analysts gets involved, with whom together we do a complete quality check of the product feature. The design with the Product Team usually focuses on this step to make sure all the cases described in the stories are working, the designs are pixel-perfect and we communicate back bugs for the development team to fix. When everything is working as expected and signed off by the stakeholders, we release the product for our users to experience.

What’s something you’ve learned over time?

Take a trip down memory lane with me to see what was going on in 2008. When I first started calling myself a designer, everything I worked on was to make sure that things look good. Fast forward a few years, I began to focus on users: the folks who actually use the product. The purpose was to create something that helps them in some way. Today my opinion is a bit more evolved: I design with the intent to help users and, at the same time, help the business achieve its goals.

As a Design Manager, leading people can be challenging but it can also be exciting and gratifying. I am accountable for the growth of my team. One of my favorite quotes is by John Maeda,

“The qualities of leadership are simple…They have to do with being able to listen well.”

On Udemy, I enrolled myself in courses on leadership and managerial skills. They helped me structure how I operate within my team. I was able to apply constructive processes that I feel have helped me manage my team better, care about their growth, and helped me with my own growth as a leader.

Advice for the day-to-day life of a Lead Product Designer?

People are not resources

Make a real effort to be invested in your team as people, not just as doers. That means establishing a real relationship. Get to know them as people, as much as they are comfortable doing so. With the right level of trust and openness, it makes talking about everything easier. In the end, you invest a majority of your time with your colleagues, may as well make an effort to get comfortable with them 😁.

The Art of the One on One

Perhaps the most critical time you spend with your team is during their 1:1s. It should be meeting regularly at least every week for 30–60 minutes. It should be a safe space where you and your team can talk openly about topics they are driving. Have an agenda, document your meetings and be consistent.

Hands Off

You’re generally hired to take ownership of a problem, develop elegant solutions and then work with a team of people to execute. The more ownership of that problem you take, the more praise you’re given and the more you level up.

However, in the role of a manager, often, it’s not your job to own the problem, the solution, or the execution. It’s your job to coach the person who is doing those things. While it’s entirely okay for you to collaborate with your team along the way, provide coaching, resources, and inspiration, you should not be giving complete solutions to your team with explicit instructions. As much as this sounds ideal in theory, it can be really difficult if you’re as picky as I am. If you can’t let go completely, do it bit by bit and trust your team will deliver.

Take breaks occasionally

You’re always going to be busy. Make it a habit to disconnect, go on vacations, spend time with your family and loved ones, and recharge. Our profession is dependent on creativity & problem-solving. Don’t let yourself burn out.

A day at Ounass — Lead Product Designer Edition was originally published in Ounass on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Ounass — Dark Mode

Turn the lights off and enjoy the luxurious experience!

In the iOS versions 13.0 and beyond, people can choose to adopt a dark, system-wide appearance called Dark Mode. Since the launch of this feature, a lot of popular apps have adopted dark mode as an optional browsing experience. Interestingly though, there aren’t many examples of E-commerce apps that offer a dark mode theme.

As Al Tayer Group’s first and exclusively digital e-commerce site, Ounass boasts over 500 luxury brands; and in the world of high-end brands and VIP customers, experiences are essential! They attract customers, engage them, and create memorable events that connect them emotionally to the company or brand. It was therefore only natural for Ounass to remain ahead of the curve and offer a unique experience that no other luxury competitor shares: Dark Mode.

Why Dark Mode?

Dark UI’s are dramatic, stylish, elegant and it compliments luxury. A black background design reinforces striking visuals, introduces a sense of mystery, has better contrast, and supports visual hierarchy.

Another benefit of Dark Mode is the importance placed on users’ health and wellbeing. The bright light of one’s white iPhone screen, set against a darker room setting has alleged damaging effects on users’ eyesight. The other commonly known advantage of Dark Mode is the reduced energy consumption on devices with OLED or AMOLED displays — longer battery life, here you come!

Design

The process was quite tedious at first: it was challenging to decide on a color palette that would ensure a balanced contrast, all the while maintaining a consistent and luxurious look & feel between both modes.

We started experimenting by removing all of the extra elements, and just focusing on the foreground and background colors — if you’re as obsessive as any designer is, you’ll know that grueling multiple iterations are key to any successful implementation.

Instead of going with an all-black background, we instead decided to select a dark gray shade to be our background color. Dark gray surfaces have the ability to showcase a wider range of colors, elevations, and depths, as shadows are traditionally more visible on gray settings (as opposed to a true black setting). In addition to this, light text on a dark gray surface also has less contrast than light text on a black surface, which allows users to browse and engage with the content with less strain on the eyes.

Once we were confident that we hit the right tone, we started injecting typography and visual assets to see how it would blend against a darker contrast.

✍ Keeping in mind the Design Goals

• Achieve a strong, dramatic look for striking visuals.
• Project a feeling of style and elegance, luxury, and prestige.
• Help focus and guide the user’s attention with minimal distractions
• Support visual hierarchy and information architecture.

Examples with Imagery

Examples with Content

Design System

The next step in our process was to make sure all the colors were mapped 1 to 1 to our existing color library. For other designers, the system acts as a guide they need to use while designing new features, and for developers to automate components with the right color output. This process is very important as it establishes a strong discipline for both designers and developers to follow.

Colors

Why do we need a system?

We can bucket it into 3 main principles:

• Efficiency: Instead of repeatedly building similar components from scratch, Design Systems enable designers & developers to reuse components and thereby increase efficiency.
• Consistency: Design Systems introduce a shared set of principles and rules to build components. It becomes much easier to create consistent experiences across different platforms.
• Scale: Increased efficiency and consistency lead a company to build faster products at scale.

Typography

Iconography

How to turn on Dark Mode?

1. Go to Settings > Display & Brightness.
2. Select Dark to turn on Dark Mode.
3. You can also set Dark Mode to turn on automatically at sunset or at a specific time. Go to Settings > Display & Brightness and select Automatic. Tap Options to set a schedule for Dark Mode.

The Future is Dark

Pun intended

This project wouldn’t have been possible without the support of our technology, product, and QA team. What started as just an experiment on our app’s A-Z Designer page tab, and getting excited over the idea of how the whole app could look in Dark Mode, eventually turned into a passion project for everyone in the team.

Want to experience Ounass, download the app here.

And don’t forget to check out how we designed the Ounass Native App!

Ounass — Dark Mode was originally published in Ounass on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Important is the most common word you can hear from the project managers during the planning stage. While urgent is the popular word used at development. For example, a feature can be important and a broken button can be an urgent issue but if you hear urgent too much, that means there is a problem with your team’s processes. After I notice there were too many urgent requests, I decided to research this topic and that’s how I come to know about the Eisenhower matrix. In this post, I will explain the topics below which will be further investigated in the matrix.

• What is urgent?
• How do you define important?
• What is The Eisenhower Matrix?

Let’s start with what the Cambridge Dictionary says as definitions of important and urgent:

important: “necessary or of great value”
urgent: “ very important and needing attention immediately

Eisenhower Matrix

Eisenhower Matrix is a good tool for teams who want to elevate productivity, have a clear focus, and correct prioritization on tasks on the basis of importance and urgency. It has 4 divisions as important, urgent, not important, and not urgent.

• Important and urgent: Do it right now!
• Important but not urgent: Schedule it to do later.
• Not important but urgent: Delegate these tasks
• Not important and not urgent: Skip tasks for now

Urgent means that you must take immediate action. These tasks need quick reactions, fast and short-term solutions in a hurry.

Important calls for tasks that need long-term solutions and it is crucial for your product. It doesn’t mean you have a long time to fix the issue as delaying it can cause a bigger problem.

“What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower

When you work in a large team or on a big project, one of the challenges you face is prioritizing the tasks and it is really “important” here to define which tasks are important or urgent.

Divisions of the Matrix

Crisis: Houston! We have a problem here and it is important. You will come across situations that are Life or Death and they will very rarely happen but once these are faced, immediate action is required. It can be an out of cash issue for coming payments or hotfix to an error on the homepage that may disable your customers to use your website.

Plans: Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making plans. This is the most utilized division for Software Development. All your scheduled tasks should be under planning such as future development or refactoring.

Teams should invest more time in this division to prevent crisis moments and interruptions. Tasks in Plans will directly contribute to your OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). For instance, in order to have a fast API response, you should plan beforehand. Education and training should also be in this chapter both in daily and work lives.

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower

Interruptions: Cases that fall under this cluster keep you busy but add no value to your life or project. So, you need to create some time for it or you need to delegate these tasks to somebody else. No, it is not important to read all your mails but you need to check them eventually in order to not miss any mail which needs a reply. Meetings are occasions where teams have the chance to discuss matters. Some of the issues mentioned may be of no importance to you but can be critical for others. A scheduled meeting, therefore, can be urgent to participate as a considerable amount of time is devoted by the team but may not be important always.

Distractions: This part includes all distractions you face in daily life which can be eliminated easily or you can do them in your leisure time. Checking social media, reading junk emails, or casual phone calls are a few examples. It is recommended to reduce or avoid the time you spend on these actions.

To Sum Up…

This blog post originated from a furious (😇) moment at work with too many so-called urgent tasks. Feeling over-stressed, it pushed me to go on a journey to understand how to prioritize tasks and define urgency. Once I googled the “definition of urgent” and saw the vast information about the topic, I decided to write a post about it.

Here I created a list for Dos and Don’ts to summarize the learnings.

✅ Do’s

• Do prioritize your tasks by clearly defining urgent and important.
• Do clarify why tasks are urgent with correct stakeholders.
• Do inform your teammates about tasks’ urgency or importance.

❌ Don’ts

• Don’t act urgently and define the importance of the task when you are not sure. If necessary, check with relevant stakeholders.
• Don’t behave like a task is urgent when it is not to get a quick solution.
• Don’t forget that the unnecessary pressure for non-urgent matters may cause your teammate to become unhappy.

References
You can find more information about Dwight Eisenhower here: — — https://medium.com/@KJ.Jones/the-eisenhower-matrix-for-software-developers-f6de69b7c57a

https://www.groupmap.com/map-templates/urgent-important-matrix

Definition of Urgent in Software Development was originally published in Ounass on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The world is fighting a pandemic. Most of us have never experienced anything like this in our lives. Almost everyone and everything has been impacted. Some industries are fighting for survival and some are trying to find ways to cope with it. And this article is a story of how Al Tayer Digital tackled this challenge head on.

Let me take you through the steps we took to overcome our challenges and continue working as usual.

· Transparent Leadership

· Devise a strategy

· Prepare and be ready

· Final Stage — Remote Working

· Fun activities

Transparent Leadership

In times of crisis, everyone can have their own leadership moment, regardless of their title.

This is one of the core values of our company and our leadership chose to continue doing it even in tough times. Leadership team took it upon themselves to keep the whole company aligned on what is happening and what we can proactively do to combat it. Key take away here — Leaders need to show their human side. They need to build trust that employee well-being is the top priority. Gone are the days where leaders used to communicate through emails. Our leadership team joined our company’s messaging channel and became more personally engaged with employees via face-to-face and/or video interaction with greater frequency.

Devise a strategy

“​In Crises, You’ve Got to Learn to Pivot, Not Panic”

We anticipated that in coming days we might have to work from home. Our tech teams are already used to working remotely. We have lots of people working from Istanbul, Sri-Lanka,Ukraine and even Indonesia. Having said that, we needed to make sure that non-technical teams can also continue working seamlessly in case needs arise. The strategy our company agreed upon was we need to make sure that every person in company can work from home. For the functions that cannot work remotely, a plan was created keeping safety of everyone while following guidelines provided by government.

Prepare and be ready

Our company proactively started creating VPN accounts. IT teams started taking necessary steps to enable remote working for everyone including approvals, authorization and readiness. Teams were asked to do a test from their homes and inform in case of issues. A mock drill was also conducted to see if we were finally ready or not to work from home. For the staff that could not work from home such as Studio teams and Warehouse, safety measures were identified. Frequent communications were sent to all employees.

Final Stage — Remote working

Taking note of the ongoing situations a final call was taken. We did it! All teams were able to remotely work. Small hiccups were ironed out. Most important thing we observed was trust. We needed to rely on our teams and they delivered. Managers kept in touch with their team members. We also had non work-related catchups frequently to give moral support. Key words here were — sympathy and empathy. We all knew we are in this together and each other’s well-being was of paramount importance. For faster response in uncertain situation in markets, we also created a “Emergency COVID Support” slack channel. This helped all the teams aligned in case of any emergency activities that we needed to do.

We did our first online townhall with more than 140 people and it was a success.

HR teams kept the morals high. Some fun activities organized by our amazing HR team included

· Home Workstation Selfie Contest, Yoga with team, Group Zumba Class and lot more fun activities :)

Even with all the pressure, we never forgot to thank and give a token of appreciation wherever it was due. This was a lesson for all of us on how we can adapt our strategies and plans with ever changing world. How leaders can have huge impacts and navigate the business if they have support of their teams.

At the time of writing, we are still working from home. Hopeful that this too shall pass and knowing that as Al Tayer Digital team, we are ready to face any curveball that life would throw at us together.

Some Fun Pics below :)

Thriving in times of Corona — A Lesson in Leadership and Strategy was originally published in Ounass on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.