Tanya Malan, Director of U/X and Ecommerce at Bonobos
U/X is such an interesting area in the ecommerce world that has moved to one of the biggest growth areas since Covid hit. Being able to optimize digital sales and create a better user experience is a skill. It combines high level tech knowledge with modern day emotional IQ skills. Throw in a research element and you have a multifaceted discipline that few can master.
We were excited to be connected to Tanya (from previous Pink Tank feature, Janey Wong) to learn more about U/X and to feature a woman in this industry, which is primarily male driven. She has taken control of her own career and it has led to her relocating globally and capitalizing on opportunities. Read on to find out more about how Tanya got started in U/X, what U/X and ecommerce entails, what she loves most about her career and more!
(Pink Tank Group): Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you ended up as Director of Product Design and U/X with Bonobos?
(Tanya): I grew up in South Africa, and went to high school in Ghana. After I graduated my family immigrated to New Zealand where I completed my Bachelor of Arts majoring in Media and Psychology. After graduating I decided to complete a Masters Degree in Screen Production. I had always wanted to work in film and television, but as I started learning more about UX & Product design and how it blended the interest that I had in people and psychology with skills I developed from screen production like storyboarding and motion design that had developed, I decided to explore it further. I have always liked problem solving but wanted to pursue a career that gave me a creative outlet too, so UX design was a natural fit. After graduating I started building websites for friends, which led to projects for small companies, each time landing bigger projects that pushed me to deepen my technical skills in research, design and front-end development. In the beginning I ended up doing a lot of these projects freelance in order to build a portfolio. In 2013 I moved to London, and that’s where I landed my first official UX role for a company that was developing technology that would allow real-time video capture and sharing. It was in this first role that I learned how to become a jack of all trades, doing graphic design for RFPs, designing logos and building brand books user research where I would observe our customers using the technology in their own environments and of course designing new features for the platform. I ended up moving to NYC and worked at some amazing startups before landing at Bonobos, where I have led UX & Product design for the past 4 years, and recently have taken on overseeing e-commerce as well.
(Pink Tank Group): Since Covid hit, ecommerce has increased dramatically for the average consumer. Mobile has become the new storefront. How did it impact your role with Product Design and U/X?
(Tanya): Bonobos started off as a primarily ecommerce business so the importance of mobile was no surprise to us. We had actually started to see this shift in desktop to mobile traffic several years ago which had major implications on our web KPI’s, namely conversion as mobile traffic converts significantly lower than desktop, which is an industry wide trend. Over the past 4 years my team has spent a lot of time researching the reasons for this, and a lot of what we discovered was around the customers' intent. Many of our customers browsed Bonobos on their mobile devices, with no intent of purchasing at that point in time. A lot of customers quoted wanting to see larger images as a reason for making their final purchase decisions on a larger screen, but many also felt that the smaller device was more prone to making mistakes when filling out billing and shipping information so preferred to do this on a larger screen. So our team has and continues to do a lot of work around optimizing our sales funnel and experience for mobile, for example improving the UX of forms in checkout and finding ways to reassure the customer throughout the funnel. We have also moved to designing mobile first, as well as having our stylesheets be written mobile first.
(Pink Tank Group): U/X is an area that not a lot of people know too much about. What is something that people would be surprised to know about the role?
(Tanya): I think people don’t always realize how broad UX is, and how many different skill sets and specializations there are within it. For example, the UX practice includes research which requires specific knowledge of research methodologies and the ability to derive insights, but it also includes micro-interactions and animation design, which requires deep understanding of motion practices and algorithms. Some UX designers do front-end development and therefore need to know how to write javascript and use version control applications. I think the fact that it encompasses so many things is one of the reasons people don’t know a lot about it, because it’s currently hard to define given its breadth. Being good at every aspect of UX is near impossible, so often people need to choose between being a generalist or going into a specialization such as UI design or user research.
(Pink Tank Group): What do you love most about your career?
(Tanya): I love how many industries I have been able to learn about. Part of what I love about working in technology and specifically in UX is that you can work in and build knowledge of any industry you might be interested in. I have worked in media, commercial real estate, fitness and ecommerce to name a few, and I would one day love to work in health or education. The fact that the skills I have in product development can be utilized in different organizations and industries is really exciting to me. When you work in UX you are responsible for understanding your customer and business if you are going to solve their problems, so you naturally have to gain a deep understanding of the subject matter. That deep understanding I have spent gaining the past 4 years at Bonobos, around our customers and business is how I have ended up leading the e-commerce team as a whole.
(Pink Tank Group): Do you have any advice for the next generation? New graduates or people just starting in the product design industry?
(Tanya): Don’t over-analyze. I spent a lot of time reading about UX, about best practices and methodologies early in my career, and while these are really helpful, I found myself over-engineering research studies or agonizing over designs which at times was paralyzing. If you try to do UX the right way or exactly by the book, you’ll have a hard time in certain organizations getting anything done. A lot of the articles I was reading were coming from people operating in large, well-resourced organizations, but not every UX team has these resources. The best thing you can do is deliver value to your customer early and often as well as consistently and get feedback from them. On a more tactical note, document your work and successes. One of the most challenging tasks is putting together your portfolio, but if you do this along the way with each project, you’ll save yourself a lot of trouble when you go to update your resume and portfolio which is critical to landing a UX role.
(Pink Tank Group): What has been a career highlight for you?
(Tanya): I think my career highlights are always around learning or gaining knowledge as these experiences are how you grow your career. One that stands out to me is doing a Design Sprint that was led by Braden Kowitz. The Design Sprint is a well known process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing ideas with customers that was developed at Google Ventures. Braden, who was a Google Ventures Partner at the time, contributed to this framework so getting to be part of a sprint that he was moderating and running was an amazing learning experience. I had read the book and been part of multiple sprints before, but watching how he communicated and led the sessions took a lot of what I knew in theory to a whole new level.
(Pink Tank Group): What do you think is one thing women can do more to support each other?
(Tanya): There are a lot of super tactical things we can do to support one another such as mentorship, listening, and promoting each other's work. However, I think the best thing we can do to support women is assuming positive intent. Most of us have probably had a work relationship with a woman that was difficult, a relationship that despite “knowing” that we should be supporting women, is hard to do. We all believe we are empowering other women and for the most part we probably are, but there are instances where we dislike someone or feel like they don’t deserve our support. It is these more difficult relationships where I have struggled, and my way of dealing with those relationships is really making sure that I look at her behaviors as coming from a good place, actively looking for the qualities that make her a good leader or professional. Focusing on the positive qualities helps ensure we don’t fall into the subconscious trap of putting one another down, as I do believe it is unintentional, but something we all have to actively work on.
(Pink Tank Group): Pass it forward! Who has inspired you in your career?
(Tanya): I have been lucky to have come across a lot of great leaders in my career. Most recently I have been inspired by my current boss Helena Tse. She is pretty tough and results driven but is also a great leader and puts as much energy into helping grow her team and people as she does hitting her numbers. When I think about who I look up to, it's usually those who have impressed me with their leadership as that is the key to growing people’s careers, and the people who have grown me have done so not necessarily through their knowledge of UX, but by their ability to help me grow as a professional and get the best out of me, and I would like to do the same for my team and peers.
