sakura bravo - TaDa Product General

Project: TaDa Delivery de Bebidas, evolution and growth.
Date: Sept 2021 - October 2023
Position: Head of Product Design
Expertise: Design, Product Strategist, UX Research.
Tools: Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, Jira, Confluence, Notion, Miro, Power BI, Data Studio, Slack, Dovetail, Baymard Institute platform.

01. Context

During the pandemic, when delivery platforms experienced explosive growth, a team from ZX Ventures, the innovation arm of AB InBev, drew on the experience of the Zé Delivery app in Brazil to develop a white-label e-commerce platform. This project aimed to help all the countries in the Americas and Africa where AB InBev operates expand their reach with Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) platforms. With a startup mindset, an agile and swift expansion plan was implemented, reaching six countries in the region in less than a year.

Due to its success, this app and website, initially branded according to local businesses, adopted a global identity, leading to exponential growth and extending its presence to more than ten countries across the Americas and Africa.

✨ At the beginning of the expansion, my role was to introduce design and agile processes to enhance product quality and position my team in a more decisive role within a work cycle where the developers' voice was dominant. The development team was not accustomed to working with Product Designers, but I was able to adapt and effectively lead this change.

When the rebranding took place, I played a key role in the strategy for adapting the existing white-label UI Kit. I also ensured that the accessibility of the components was considered in relation to the new brand's color palette, demonstrating my meticulous attention to detail.✨

Thanks to the strong relationship we established with the Growth and Global Marketing team at AB InBev, we were able to join forces and conduct the first user research for the product. We were rigorous in methodology, recruitment, and selecting an external collaborator who would also handle the analysis. As a result, we obtained the first user profiles based on qualitative and quantitative research.

TaDa Delivery App before the migration.

In this project, I personally contributed in the following areas:

Planning and negotiation with the four participating countries.

Creation of recruitment screeners and interview scripts.
Conducting interviews.
Analysis of the collected data.
Backlog management to balance this effort with the operational tasks my team and I needed to maintain.

02. The major problem to solve

Sales were increasing and becoming increasingly difficult to manage both economically and logistically. At that time, my team and I were focused on the operation and innovation of the Direct to Consumer app TaDa Delivery. The related platforms were services provided by third parties with their own designs: V-Tex for Seller and Admin users, and Tookan for delivery drivers. This was when we made the strategic decision to move away from external providers and bring the work in-house.

What Did This Mean for My Team and Me?

With this change, we merged with another branch of the business (BEES), which had a design team of over 50 designers at Mid, Senior, and Manager levels. We adopted their processes and the well-established HEXA Design System that BEES used for its nearly 10 B2B platforms. Initially, this move represented a step up in quality as we were able to use consolidated design artifacts.

03. Action Plan

Integrating my team into BEES' new work environment with workshops and training meetings about the products, the areas, and members of the new team.

Adopting the HEXA Design System: I asked to my new manager a shadow to help us while we where working in some flows and a introduction workshop.
"Translating" the current DTC app flows to HEXA components on demand.
Negotiating with Product on the features needed for the MVP from a user perspective: This was a big part of my day because I was highly argumentative with research results and data.
Negotiating with Product on the priorities for redesigning or deprioritizing certain features based on quantitative and qualitative data: Long meeting here 😅
Expanding our responsibility from one app to two apps and two platforms, thereby increasing our impact to three additional user types: Seller User, Delivery User, Admin User (Fig 1 more explanatory)

Fig 1

04. MVP and future: ✨The results✨

Successful Launch in Honduras as a Pilot: The initial launch in Honduras served as a seed project, establishing a successful foundation.
First Sales Managed by a Control Team: Sales were initially handled by a dedicated control team for a week, followed by a broader release in the capital city of Honduras.
Adoption by Seller and Admin Users: The platform saw adoption from both Seller and Admin users.
Visit to Honduras for User Feedback: Conducted a visit to Honduras to gather feedback from Seller and Admin users.
Successful Adoption of HEXA and Legacy App Adaptation: Successfully integrated the HEXA Design System and adapted the legacy app to the new MVP version.
New Work Plan and Opportunity for Feature Redesign: Developed a new work plan and identified opportunities to redesign features necessary for the app’s relaunch in other countries.
Integration of My Team with the New Product and Development Teams: Merged my team with the new Product and Development teams.
The Current App Version: The current version of the app reflects the culmination of all this work (watch the video!).

My role as a Head of Product Design of Global Platforms

Product Strategist

My role involved defining the features required for the re-launch in each country. This process was not just about identifying the features, but also about understanding and addressing the unique local and general needs of product agnostic platforms.

Design Leadership

Guide and manage the efforts of my team, a diverse group of 8 Senior & Mid marvelous Product Designers and 1 Content Designer, all located in 3 different countries (USA, Mexico, Brazil), to address redesigns and emerging changes.

Design Studio

Drive and maintain the quality of the solutions in collaborative work within the team, discussions, and presentations of:

Proposals
Final designs
Maintain formats, order, and communication (Design Ops)

Executing UI

Since we were in a volatile and hectic environment, and there were surges where my team was saturated, continuing to execute tasks and backlog projects was a regular part of my activities in addition to my leader and manager tasks.

One example: during the VTEX-to-BEES design system migration, I personally designed the full user-facing communication sequence for the legacy app shutdown — a month-long progression of in-app moments, each with a distinct narrative arc, building anticipation before the migration and ultimately enforcing the switch once the transition window closed. I pushed for this approach using data from a prior rebrand, which showed user complaints were rooted in change aversion rather than usability issues.
Another example: I maintained continuous ownership of the Club TaDa loyalty program from its first version through its final iteration. I personally led stakeholder definition sessions and designed the initial flow architecture for the legacy app — deliberately structured to be provider-agnostic, which meant that when the program was later redesigned to align with Zé Delivery's version and migrated to the HEXA design system, it connected to the new structure with minimal rework. I executed directly at each critical transition point: defining the original flows, retaking execution when a team member departed, and personally implementing the final round of changes before my departure from the company.

UX Research
- - Manage and seek resources to execute User Research (before and after a release), as well as manage internal efforts to receive data that will provide feedback on the released flows.
  - In addition to working on cross-functional communication of results across the organization to, continue to advocate for user voice and presence in product development.
  - Due to my experience in UX research, I was able to design the usability testing strategy, define and develop initial artifacts (screeners, scripts), train designers in this regard, hire external agencies, and review their inputs with knowledge of cause. This significantly increased the quality of the information received in the opportunities to touch users.

One of my proudest accomplishments is scaling the TaDa Delivery app across eleven countries. Through streamlined processes and a collaborative environment, my team consistently delivered high-quality, aesthetically pleasing, and user-friendly designs. Despite organizational changes, I remained dedicated to motivating my team and ensuring exceptional results.

In all my endeavors, I've strived to empower my team, provide clear guidance, and foster an environment where innovative ideas flourish. Colleagues and leadership have recognized my dedication to excellence and ability to navigate challenges with poise.

I'm very thankful and proud to have had the opportunity to collaborate on this challenge. I learned a lot about global startups, global companies, and global teams, so the experience became a milestone in my working life.

If you have the opportunity, please download the app, enjoy it, and give it some love.

Cheers 🍻

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