UX Leadership in Conversion Optimization
The Opportunity
In 2019, Consumer Reports observed mobile traffic steadily climbing, but mobile conversion rates lagged. One friction point stood out: the add-to-cart experience. It was cluttered with competing options, heavily marketing-driven, and hadn’t evolved with changing user behaviors.
This wasn’t framed as a UX problem yet—but it was clearly a UX opportunity.
Role: UX Manager
Organization: Consumer Reports
Team: Senior UX Designer: Tak Omura
Focus: Establishing UX as a strategic partner by identifying, championing, and delivering high-impact conversion opportunities.
The Challenges
This initiative faced several organizational hurdles:
The work was not on the official product roadmap
Marketing-owned conversion testing, not Product or UX
A key open question: Would the business even consider a single-offer experience?
Success would require influence.
Leadership & Process
As UX Manager, my role was to create momentum where none existed.
Partnered with Tak to translate research insights into a clear hypothesis
Rapidly built a prototype that demonstrated the value of focus and simplicity
Socialized the concept across teams, using storytelling—not metrics alone—to align stakeholders
Identified and partnered with the right executive sponsor to prioritize the test and move it forward
This wasn’t about asking for permission—it was about making the opportunity impossible to ignore.
The Outcome
Version B outperformed the control by 17.6%
Average order value increased by $0.41
The winning experience was rolled out to 100% of users