Best Buy Enterprise CMS

Challenge

Throughout 2014, Best Buy had me lead the experience design of an ambitious content management system it was developing internally. The main purpose was to centralize all non-product related content for the company’s digital properties under one unique, platform-agnostic system. This was driven by the C.O.P.E. principle (Create Once, Publish Everywhere). The team was a developer-only agile team following a cadence of weekly sprints. They were clamoring for a UX resource and making do with bootstrap’s out of the box features in the meantime, but content managers were beginning to express frustration with many of the UI limitations that were gradually starting to surface, so I was eventually budgeted in and assigned to the team.

Approach

Immediately, I introduced the lean UX principles of designing alongside development, white-boarding as a group to develop an foster shared understanding of design hypotheses, assumptions and problems, while validating with our users as often as we could (our users were right there, on Best Buy campus.) In addition to this, I championed a significant shift from folder-driven file organization to a tabbed/metadata-driven findability system, I distilled interface needs to most efficient user-serving functionality, keeping frequent tabs with end users and stakeholders to identify and prioritize other desired outcomes into the agile cadence, as these evolved over time.

Results

By the end of the year, content publishing times had been reduced from 3 minutes to ~2 seconds and we were also able to reduce user training hours by over 200%. Both product leaders embraced lean UX as a result and have been practicing it since. The three of us actually read Jeff Goshelf’s Lean UX in a “book club” cadence, meeting every three days to discuss a chapter as well as practical applications or applicable cases we had encountered in our respective careers.

WHAT
Enterprise Content Management System
(single UX resource within agile team)

WHO
Best Buy

WHEN
2014

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People at Best Buy said

Alfonso is the real deal: a UX designer who actually listens to users and crafts experiences that cater to their needs, an Agile collaborator who moves fast and enhances the work of everyone on his team, and a hilarious motherf***er who’s a joy to work with. I’ve personally partnered with him on projects ranging from micro-interactions to enterprise-scale content management systems, and I can tell you: if you want a creator who can think big without missing the details, you’re going to want Alfonso on your team.
Nathan McIntyre UX Architect, Best Buy
Alfonso has been a joy to work with. His intense passion for UX has helped to drive our group forward. The vast experience that he’s brought to our team has been invaluable in helping us elevate our work to new levels. He’s also shown a great blend of creativity and work ethic in driving our clearance digital experiences and several internal systems forward. On top of that, he’s driven some quick turn concept work that’s helped us better communicate with the business. His talent and experience have made him an invaluable member of our UX team.
Greg Bro Managed me at Best Buy & worked with me at Slalom
Alfonso is an inspirational UX/Ix Designer with strong work ethic. I have learned a lot about LeanUX, design, usability, and the creative process from working with him. He pulls from a mix of instinct, user intuition, and keen eye for what works. I’m sure we will see many great things come from Alfonso in the future, he is a rock star!
Evelyn Quinn Product Leader