COMPANY
Shopify
ROLE
Lead Product Designer
Team
PM · Engineers · Content · Data
· SEO
Timeline
5 Months
The Challenge
Only a small percentage of merchants successfully connected with the right Partners.
Discovery was fragmented across multiple directories with inconsistent data, unclear credibility signals, and operational overhead for Shopify.
The Opportunity
Could we consolidate partner discovery into one scalable self-serve experience?
The Outcome
The redesign unified multiple directories into a single experience focused on trust, comparison, and direct merchant-to-partner communication.
The work also reduced maintenance complexity by consolidating legacy systems and workflows.
Understanding the Discovery Problem
Merchants weren’t just searching for a service provider.
Merchants weren’t just searching for a service provider.
They were evaluating:
- expertise
- trustworthiness
- communication fit
- pricing expectations
- platform specialization
Existing discovery experiences were fragmented across multiple Shopify-owned surfaces with inconsistent structures and data.
This created confusion for merchants and operational overhead internally.
Merchants also struggled to compare Partners effectively because::
- profile quality varied significantly
- credibility signals were inconsistent
- search and sorting behaviour could be manipulated
- Communication often moved outside Shopify immediately
Understanding Trust & Marketplace Complexity
Research and discovery
To understand how merchants selected Partners, I:
- audited existing partner surfaces and workflows
- interviewed merchants and Shopify Partners
- analyzed historical matching and drop-off data
- explored how credibility and comparison influenced decision-making
Several patterns emerged:
Trust was the primary blocker
Merchants lacked reliable signals to evaluate partner quality and expertise.
Reviews, badges, specialization, and previous work all influenced trust, but these signals were inconsistent across experiences.
Comparison was difficult
Different directories used different structures and metadata, making it hard for merchants to evaluate Partners side-by-side.
The “middleman” model created friction
Merchants and Partners often preferred communicating directly through email or Slack rather than through Shopify-managed communication flows.
Designing Marketplace Trust Signals
The redesign focused heavily on helping merchants make informed decisions confidently.
To guide evaluation and comparison, I explored:
- verified badges and specialization indicators
- standardized profile structures
- clearer service and expertise information
- richer filtering and sorting systems
- intake details that improved lead quality
The experience balanced merchant flexibility with signals that improved trust and reduced uncertainty.
Exploration & Iteration
We explored multiple approaches to simplifying partner discovery and reducing friction.
Early concepts included:
- unified directories
- enhanced filtering
- trust signal systems
- self-serve discovery flows
- direct communication models
Over time, the experience evolved from a fragmented ecosystem into a more scalable marketplace model centered around transparency and self-service.
The Final Experience
The final experience consolidated multiple partner discovery surfaces into a unified marketplace experience.
Rather than relying on Shopify-managed matching workflows, merchants could browse, evaluate, compare, and contact Partners directly.
Key features included:
- standardized Partner profiles
- improved filtering and sorting
- clearer credibility indicators
- direct merchant-to-partner communication
- reduced operational complexity across systems
Unified directory experience: A centralized browsing experience helped merchants discover Partners more efficiently.
Improved comparison and filtering: Structured metadata and filtering systems made it easier for merchants to evaluate Partners based on expertise and business needs.
Direct connection workflows: The experience supported more direct communication between merchants and Partners while improving lead quality through better intake structure.
Impact & Reflection
Impact
- Consolidated multiple partner discovery systems into a unified experience
- Reduced operational complexity and maintenance overhead
- Improved trust and comparison within partner discovery
- Supported a more scalable self-serve marketplace model
What I Learned
Designing marketplace experiences requires balancing::
- merchant confidence
- partner visibility
- operational scalability
- ecosystem incentives
I also learned that trust isn’t created through a single UI element, it emerges through the consistency of the entire discovery and evaluation experience.