Prime Onboarding
I led UX design and strategy for a new Prime onboarding journey, built to scale across countries and languages for more than 200 million members.
- Strategy
- Personalization
- Global scale
Most new members joined for free delivery and never found out what else their membership included. Their only welcome was a single email, and a large share canceled within the first 60 days.
I turned onboarding into a strategy of 10 personalized touchpoints, from a welcome survey to a benefits tracker. Each one works on its own or as part of the whole, so every market could launch what fit.
Drive engagement, reduce churn
At Prime Worldwide I owned Onboarding and Acquisitions. The existing onboarding was lacking: one welcome email that didn't explain the membership and didn't drive engagement. With my PMs and engineers, we decided to build a complete onboarding experience and strategy.
Members didn't see Prime's value because they didn't know what was included.
Getting to know our customers
I pulled from customer feedback in Amazon's research database, studies from the product and UXR teams, and regional teams for market-specific insights. I also met with teams in each market to learn their metrics and country-specific pain points.
Many members cared about one benefit, fast and free delivery, and didn't know about everything else included.
Crafting a global strategy
I brainstormed onboarding ideas, used them as conversation starters and worked through them with my PM. We defined 10 touchpoints. Each one works as part of a complementary whole and also stands on its own, so we could solve for different launches and markets.
Getting leadership on board
My Sr. Manager of Product needed something to take to leadership, so I made a storyboard of the journey. It got us buy-in and aligned our partners in different markets.
Personal by design
The strategy centered on a hyper-personalized experience, using AI and ML to surface content based on each member's choices, engagement, orders and interests.
Built for scale
It meant balancing what members needed with business priorities. I used research to lead with the most-used benefits and agreed on the order with product leadership.
We matched touchpoints to markets and tested in a few before rolling out wider, so we could refine first.
I reviewed local research for each region, stayed in regular contact with regional teams, and chose illustrations so the experience would feel universal.
Components could be added to placements across Prime without breaking other parts of the experience. Built on Amazon's design system, with accessibility standards reviewed throughout.
Technical constraints meant simplifying some projects. I put fast-follow improvements on the roadmap to protect the long-term vision.
Five touchpoints, up close
Each project went through rounds of usability testing on flows, copy and clarity, followed by fast iterations, with design reviews and regular check-ins with product and engineering along the way.
Adaptive onboarding survey
A quick survey about each member's interests, so the rest of onboarding could be tailored to them. We tested two experiences.
B launched in others, including the US
Onboarding messaging
Welcome messages with touchpoints throughout the journey, tailored to different member cohorts.
Prime tour
A short, easy-to-follow tour to help members get familiar with Prime.
Benefits value tracker
A simple way to see which benefits you've used and understand the value of your membership. Top benefits were prioritized with user feedback and data.
Later, we added Prime Savings to highlight how much members saved in total.
Prime Check-in
A gamified experience to drive engagement and help members learn about Prime.
It launched in the US and the UK, and engagement metrics went above our projected estimates.
The impact
Testers described it as simple, clear and intuitive, and many found benefits they didn't know they had.
Regional teams said it met or exceeded their local goals. The mechanisms I introduced improved cross-functional alignment: storyboards created early clarity and a shared vision, and fast-follow improvements supported scaling.
What I learned
This work improved the experience for more than 200 million members worldwide, and many of the improvements became part of the standard experience, adapted by locale. I left Amazon while results were still being shared internally, but early performance made a strong case for continued investment.
Confidential information has been omitted or blurred to comply with my NDA.