This is an example of doing research, discovering problems, and selling the product owner on targeted solutions.

From there, iterating on solutions that fit into a broader vision for the future, then paring back to meet an MVP-level build.

This turned out to be a rebrand with a few additional items added. But there was a lot of iteration that led to this.

The problem for the users was being able to quickly locate items they purchased frequently on the site. For the business, the problem was retaining repeat customers.

During my initial research ( regarding personalization ), I became aware of the key difference between personalization and customization, and that when surveyed, users tended to prefer the customization.

A design podcast revealed that Amazon's budget for personalization was 150M and they had a team of 300 people working on it. Since I was essentially a team of one, sans large budget, I began to question if personalization was feasible.

• The shopping list was utilized by users who come to the site repeatedly
• The shopping list user-base was far more likely to be a member of the loyalty program ( Balance Rewards)
• The shopping list was used more frequently for online shopping than in-store shopping
• The most frequent next page visited from the shopping list was the shopping cart

All of these facts about the shopping list indicated that despite low overall visits, there existed a fair amount of potential for creating a potent online conversion funnel for frequent users.

What if customer had control over their recommendations? To share this early idea, I created a quick wireframe:

Thinking of all the potential user-journey steps that might involve the shopping list, what sort of features might fit? 

Simply making an online version of paper shopping list would leave little room for features. It's just a list of things that the user wants to buy, and by definition the user must take action to create the list, meaning there is no value for the list until the user dedicates themselves.  

So how might we make the list more useful to first time user's who have accounts but have not used the list before? How can we expand the list analogy to carry more features than a pad of paper?

Inspiration arrived from music streaming sites, which offer lists created by the user, but also auto-generated lists and curated lists. What if the shopping list behaved more like a playlist? 

This first example was created quickly to illustrate the idea so that I could share it with others. Even in the first iteration, it's clear that by adding new categories of "list" we can stretch the analogy to put more useful content in front of the user.

Here is another early version, the mobile checklist for in-store use:

To make things visible for stakeholders and management, I created a series of four prototypes tracing a progression from a basic list to an expanded version.

Here are a few different attempts to condense everything into a mobile format.

Only the MVP version was built, but by imagining a much more elaborate version, the list has room now to expand and perhaps a plan.

This project taught me the idea of Maximum Viable Product, or  imagining the full version with all of the bells and whistles, and then paring down from there. Kind of like buying the cheaper version of a car and seeing a slot in the dashboard where the heated seats button would go on more expensive models.

While it's not the right approach for every situation, imagining the maximum version allows the designer to plan space accordingly, and share a vision that extends beyond the initial MVP.