A digital community connecting entrepreneurs
Designs uniting those who power Amazon’s global supply chain
The Challenge
Amazon Global Communities is a platform designed to connect strategic partners within Amazon’s supply chain. By facilitating these connections, the community enables partners to share knowledge, seek mentorship, and enhance program satisfaction, ultimately leading to longer and more successful partnerships with Amazon.
Despite a strong desire to network, community members struggle to form meaningful connections in the digital space. The virtual environment makes it challenging to humanize interactions, leading to "random and anonymized" conversations that fail to sustain genuine relationships.
Additionally, members have expressed the need for in-the-moment, one-on-one conversations to keep certain topics private, such as those involving sensitive subjects or business struggles. They often resort to sharing their personal phone numbers or email addresses, which is not ideal.
The Objective
Make the community a better place for fostering meaningful and long-lasting connections.
Role
Lead UX designer
Duration
6 months from initial design to implementation
Team
7 project team members including designer, product managers, engineers, and data analyst
Opportunity Statement
How might we help community members connect more effectively, so they can unlock the community's potential for professional development and business growth?
What insights do we have about customers?
Clickstream data indicates that community members are interested in learning more about their peers. The Profile page ranks #3 in site traffic. On average, 42% of active users click on member profiles each month, and 22% of these users explore the Activities section to learn about the content produced by other members.
It is very lonely when you are starting out. Everyone needs a soundboard. So I want to talk to as many people that I can, just to see what their best practice are, or try to avoid any pitfalls that they had.
Moneshia, DSP Owner in San Diego
Research participant
In addition, community members have expressed the need for in-the-moment, one-on-one conversations to keep certain topics private, such as those involving sensitive subjects or business struggles. Without an intuitive private messaging feature, members often resort to sharing their personal phone numbers or email addresses, which is not ideal.
Below: community members sharing personal contact info in comments
User research
How do community members build connections today?
Networking in the digital community has been ineffective due to random, anonymized, one-to-many communications. While members message or respond to each other, they don't consider these interactions genuine connections.
Through Ignite, there isn't necessarily a meeting where we've developed a friendship or colleague relationship, nothing like that. I see similar names, often, but there isn't anything more than just commenting, liking, and sharing and things like that.
In-person events, social media groups, and shared projects have been more helpful in building connections, because they (1) provide an environment for facilitated and in-depth conversations within a small group setting, and (2) allow members to connect through common interests or shared goals.
I made connection through the Accelerator group with four other AFPs, and we've always kept in touch, to this day, we're like texting each other on a weekly basis.
What are the motivations behind networking activities?
Credibility
One way to identify people with credibility is by learning about their background and history. This helps “contextualize some of their responses, and give weight or credibility in a way where it's so abstract right now."
Mentorship
Members earlier in their tenure lean into each other for support, and seek advice from more tenured members to get ramped up.
Business philosophy
Members are interested in each other's leadership styles, thought processes, and different views on problems. These shared values help members identify like-minded individuals and learn from each other.
Support systems
These close groups allow members to share information and validate their decisions: "Not only are they friends, but they are also support systems. I talk to those people at least once a week. They're almost like unofficial advisors."
Where are the opportunity areas in current experience?
The current experience has many usability issues and lacks key features that would encourage connections, such as a robust profile page.
It contains redundant information such as login and read time statistics, which are not helpful for understanding a member's background. The "Top Posts/Replies" section often includes outdated content that may no longer be relevant, even if it was popular.
Design ideation
Insights from user research suggested several opportunity areas, but we must prioritize one to begin with. My initial design effort focused on the Member Profile page and the Chat feature, as they were most desired by users and were most impactful in fostering connections.
Optimizing Discourse Chat: Custom integration and usability testing for a seamless experience
The Chat feature was implemented using a plug-in from Discourse, our technology provider. This cost-effective option reduced development time, but the plug-in required customization for smooth integration. My task was to bridge the gaps in the user journey not covered by the out-of-the-box experience, and ensure the feature fits seamlessly into the community experience.
Below: Identifying gaps in user journey not covered by the out-of-the-box experience
To validate design decisions, I conducted usability testing with 9 community members (research plan + full report). The study answered key questions like:
With minimal prompts, can members naturally discover the Chat feature in the app?
Can members use basic Chat functionalities without any issues?
Can they find the pathway to customize their Chat experience, and how helpful are these options?
Debating the "Follow" feature: Balancing connection and privacy in a professional community
One hotly debated topic was whether to allow members to "follow" each other. While this feature helps sustain connections, stakeholders had concerns about data privacy and the community resembling social media rather than a professional platform focused strictly on business.
To address these concerns, I proposed guardrails for proper usage, and provided design rationale using quantitative and qualitative insights.
Members already attempt to connect by repeatedly liking or commenting on specific individuals' content. In the Upshift community, 55% of active users repeatedly liked a member's posts more than 6 times per year, and 23% did so more than 12 times. Similarly, in the Ignite community, 25% of active users liked a specific member's posts more than 12 times per year.
This suggests that in a tightly-knit community, members recognize each other and seek to develop connections with those who can be potential resources.
Below: Rapid ideation using low-fidelity wireframes
🌟 Design handoff
❶ Non-tech solutions
Through extensive user research, I identified opportunity areas in various aspects of the community experience beyond the product space. To ensure a holistic approach, I translated these research findings into actionable non-tech solutions for the cross-functional teams of Events and Community Engagement.
Enable members to extend their conversations beyond one-off online interactions
In addition to large annual events like Ignite Live, host regular coffee chats, regional meetups, and small virtual events within the community. These should be organized in small group settings to allow for in-depth, focused conversations.
Encourage connections made at in-person events to carry over to digital community
Currently, obtaining contact details during events is challenging, leading to lost connections once the event concludes. One solution is to add a QR code to each attendee’s badge that directs to their community profile page. From there, members can communicate via DM or follow each other for future interactions.
Target on members earlier in their tenure and offer mentorship opportunities
New community members struggle to identify peers by competency or know who to approach for specific advice. To foster connections earlier on, community teams can help members identify mentors and network peers outside of their station or region based on specific competencies.
❷ Reimagined member profile experience
Unveil the full story behind every profile
The redesigned profile page offers a comprehensive snapshot of each member.
It provides richer details on their background and domain expertise while adding personal touches.
This information not only allows for self-expression, but also helps others understand the member's skills, trustworthiness, unique perspectives, and potential as a resource.
Explore member activities
Members can easily view each other's past activities in the community, providing a fuller picture of their background and personality.
Discover connections
The Highlights section encourages members to connect by suggesting potential learning opportunities and emphasizing common interests.
Never miss out
Members can follow each other and enable notifications to receive updates.
This not only helps sustain connections, but also keeps members informed about Amazon announcements, as they will be notified whenever an Amazonian they follow publishes a post.
Stay connected
Members can start private conversations using preferred methods, avoiding the need to share personal contact information in public discussions.
The built-in chat feature seamlessly integrates into the community experience, facilitating real-time conversations for members who prefer to remain on the platform.
First-time user experience
To ensure a smooth feature adoption, the design encompasses onboarding experience with tips and guidance throughout the application.
Enhanced profile control and privacy
When members view their own profile, it closely mirrors the public version, providing an accurate preview of what others will see.
Information on following and followers is visible only to the account owner, ensuring data privacy and distinguishing the community from conventional social media. Members can also remove someone from their followers list as needed.
Effortlessly update profile
Members can effortlessly update their profiles with just a few clicks. Each prompt inspires them to add new skills, update their bio, or showcase recent achievements.
They can instantly preview how changes will appear to others, ensuring their profiles accurately reflect their personality and professional journey.
Unlock full profile potential
The profile completion meter motivates members to enhance their profiles by linking progress to specific, actionable tasks. Progress is calculated based on predetermined weights assigned to each profile attribute.
Measuring success
Fostering connections through non-tech solutions
The non-tech recommendations from this research inspired the execution of events. Starting in 2023, the Events team launched "Ignite on the Road", a regional event series that fosters an environment for DSP to DSP connectivity.
In 2023, over 1,800 DSPs attended the series across 42 cities, achieving an average Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) of 95%, surpassing the goal of 80%.
The highest CSAT score of the survey, with an overall 98% average, shows the community feels strongly the event provides them a space to connect with each other. A majority of the community (89%) says the event provided them with actionable learnings to take back to their business.
Nate
DSP attendee of Ignite on the Road
I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to connect with fellow attendees, industry professionals, and members of the Amazon team. The event fostered a sense of community and collaboration, allowing us to exchange ideas, share experiences, and establish meaningful connections. I left the event feeling inspired and motivated to apply the knowledge gained to my own work.
My idea of adding QR codes to attendees' badges was also implemented, bridging the gap between in-person networking events and the digital community.
Phased release of community enhancements
The Chat feature was implemented first, and the rest of the Profile page is still in development phase. Chat witnessed a strong adoption across all communities, exceeding all success metrics like message volume and number of active users.
Within 4 weeks of launch, total clicks on the Chat page increased by 167%, and continued to rise by 233% in the following month.
Communities saw an average of 30% of weekly visitors actively engaging with Chat — a usage rate 10 times higher than the legacy mail feature.
Below: Spike of page visits during launch period
Amanda
VP, Amazon Transportation Partner Experience
Love seeing all these improvements to the Community experience for our partners. The adoption of the Chat feature is particularly encouraging as this platform is all about connecting community members and I love that we’re giving them another way to do that. Thanks for the great innovative ideas and work – keep ‘em coming!
Matthew
DSP in Salt Lake City, UT
I love the new member profile page! It's so easy to showcase my skills and connect with others who share similar interests. The new chat feature is a game-changer too—it's convenient for having private conversations right within the app. Kudos to the team for making these improvements!