Deckers Brands
In the midst of rapid growth, I led a product design squad to help Deckers build a new set of retail and operational applications.
At a high level, these tools tackled:
- Retail sales support, clientelling, and point-of-sale
- Inventory management for newness and carryover
- Wholesale sales order management and shipment
- Sales forecasting & demand planning
Our conversations with Deckers (parent brand of UGG, HOKA, Teva, etc.) began in 2021. They were experiencing strong growth in product sales but were struggling with operational efficiency due to a myriad of outdated and disparate tools.
Together, we formed a partnership where a small product design team—led by me—would work in lockstep with a product owner and set of subject matter experts on the Deckers side. In this way, we were able to create a replicable team model that enabled us to move from simpler and more straightforward products into deeply complex operational processes.
We used a hyper-collaborative and transparent approach throughout, especially considering we operated as a fully remote team. Using Miro and Figma, we were able to share work product and process frequently, and close feedback loops quickly.
The tools we've created have generated millions in operational upside but have also vastly improved the employee experience for folks involved, since they played a key role in shaping the solution.
Some of my key learnings from this work:
- Designers need time to prepare for and debrief from reviews—protect their time and set expectations accordingly
- A Business Analyst skillset is essential for complex product design, and yet, I've often found this role is missing on many product squads
- Think design system from the start—we planned for a reusable and extensible system across all the products we built, and this saved a lot of time and effort down the line.