A guerrilla UX project to improve Carousell

Disclosure: The author of this post is not affiliated with Carousell.

When I was moving apartments in Singapore, I tried Carousell for the first time. I was instantly impressed with its ability to monetize my unwanted belongings with speed and simplicity. Every sale felt like I was getting free money since the other alternatives were letting items collect dust at home or donating/throwing them away. From then on, I used the app extensively to buy used items for my new flat and later to sell most of my belongings when I left Singapore (adding US$5,000 to my bank account).

Carousell’s core value proposition is that you can buy and sell your items in just a few clicks. What’s exciting to me is that this service is making the used consumer economy sexier. In turn, it is activating idle consumer inventory, unlocking new household wealth, and addressing the huge problem of waste that plagues our consumption-driven economy.

I set out to improve the customer experience of the iOS app by reducing as much friction as possible from the buying and selling process. This was done through deliberate, incremental changes to the design that took into account both user and business objectives.

As a product manager with experience in product design and growth, I’m hoping to:

• Help Carousell users achieve their goal of buying/selling with as few clicks as possible
• Improve Carousell’s core business metrics: the number of listings and the time spent in the app

My process

I really like IDEO’s human-centered design process, as it attempts to balance feeling, intuition, and inspiration with rational and analytical thought.

Throughout the process, I also made sure that I was cycling regularly between divergent and convergent thinking to ensure that I’m:

• Keeping my mind open to exploring all possible solutions
• Keeping check of business objectives and general feasibility

Empathizing with the user

Defining the problem

Ideating and prototyping

Validation

Key takeaways