The company that solved dating! Every dating app solves the finding of people, but CanWe is the first app that helps people rapidly understand if the person they found, is even worth going on a first date with.
Role: Head of Design / Strategist / Product Vision / Building & Leading a Design Team
“One of my biggest takeaways while working with Yan is that Yan gives you room to grow—I was given many opportunities, and therefore gained plenty of experience, taking initiative in leading & conducting end-to-end research. He does not micromanage; Yan fully trusts his hand-picked team to keep on the path of the best user experience design.
I appreciate the support he offers to his team, both work-related and personal. When I was going through a rough patch, Yan made time to check in with me every morning.
Yan’s mentorships extends beyond design — he imparts a lot of wisdom gathered from his own experiences to incite thoughtfulness about our own lives. Yan understands the humanness of other people, because he understands he is human himself.
Filled with quirky history & tech knowledge, and the ability to counter and present a different perspective, talking to Yan will give you insights that you can reflect on and incorporate into your own thinking.”
Vicki Chen | UX Designer @ CanWe
Discovering…
When I joined CanWe (Unveil.Social) I spent my first month getting acquainted with the product in-depth, reading through all of the recent research, findings, and other documentation, meeting and getting to know everyone in the company, evaluating the current state of the product, projects in flight, and future roadmap.
About 60% Dropoff Rate at Signup
Many app downloads, incomplete signups, costly marketing, negative experiences, complaints, and low ratings.
User Acquisition Problem
The app's slow growth was caused by a lack of virality options, negative user experience, high signup dropoff rate, and low marketing budget.
Low Retention Rate
Many users abandoned the app due to navigation issues, a confusing offering, and the need for additional users to fully utilize it.
Reimagining the Team
Roadmap Talent Analysis
Identifying the talent gaps hindering fast delivery, quality improvement, and enhanced user experience & user growth.
Identifying talents internally
Before going outside to recruit, I decided to spend some time identifying existing talent, what are their strengths, and weaknesses, what motivates them, what they truly enjoy doing, and what makes their energy diminish.
Building the powerhouse
Discovered that our field researcher has a natural talent for UX Research, and transitioned her into that role, saw the raw talent of the UX Designer in Visual Design and Illustration, and began adding the missing pieces, developing a hiring roadmap for UX Designer, Product Designer, and UX Writer.
Designing 500% User Acquisition Growth
Leading and inspiring my team through a complete redesign of the mobile app from the ground up in just 6 months, leading to over 500% in user acquisition growth within the first 3 months of relaunching with minimal marketing budget.
Built, and led a multidisciplinary team covering UX Research, UX Design, Product Design, UI Design, and UX Writing.
Helped establish a research-first mindset and culture, implemented regular innovation and forward-thinking exercises through Monthly Design Jams, and along the way mentored and guided some team members into the roles they truly are passionate about, which helped tremendously with team morale, output, and overall happiness and satisfaction.
Worked closely with co-founders to establish regular product roadmap reviews, planning, and prioritization practices based on my Data Triangle System to make sure we are always on track, and meet our overall business and product goals.
Leading, inspiring, and supporting a team the right way leads to amazing results
New Users +470%
By reducing friction and improving the overall experience of App Onboarding flow, we have reduced drop-off and gained 2.4K new users.
Time In App + 11%
We have changed the entire experience of the app, making it more engaging, introduced an improved design of the Intentions Cards interaction, and created a completely new concept of Pre Date, which allowed users to quickly see if they are compatible for the first date, adding a product lead growth feature for users to share with none-users, increased user engagement and retention.
Sessions +572%
By revamping the entire experience, utilizing available technology of ReactNative that allowed us to build cross-platform, adding innovative ways of screening dates, and then aligning with them during the date, we saw a massive increase in user activity on the app, bumping user sessions to 13K.
“Yan is a true master of design.
His deep experience pushed our team over many significant hurdles and brought a level of sophistication far beyond our young developmental state.”
Russ Haywood | CanWe Co-Founder & CEO