Mailchimp
As the fourth person hired by the founders at Mailchimp, I helped transform a tiny email tool with a few thousand customers into an industry leading SaaS product with 15 million customers and more than $750 million in ARR. Mailchimp was acquired by Intuit for $12 billion. Working in the leadership team, I helped shape company strategy and establish an award winning design practice that inspired and influenced the SaaS industry.
Roles: Director of UX, GM of New Products, VP of R&D
Team size: Varied, largest team was 16
Product Impact
Founded award winning UX design practice, first designer hired
Shaped brand voice and personality
Partnered with lead engineer to transform proof of concept product into a stable, profitable platform
Co-created company and product strategy from early to mature stages
Helped grow company from a few thousand to 15 million customers with product generating >$750mm ARR
Led and managed multiple major product redesigns and feature roll-outs
Led multiple use research initiatives that influenced the direction of the product and company
Team & Operations Impact
Hired and built foundational teams including product design, UX research, front-end engineering, new products, and R&D
Coached junior talent and supported their growth into leadership roles
Led creation of two design systems
Co-created voice and tone guide, first of software industry
Communicated strategy and vision to teams at all hands and team meetings
Partnered closely and built alliances with engineering, product, support, and marketing
“Aarron was an exceptional people manager and leader for our product team. Everyone relied on Aarron to be our signal in a sea of noise, for everyday he brought a wellspring of perspective and insight to our projects. Aarron's particular skill I remember most was his ability to align a team around a singular 'north star' to help motivate and inspire. Aarron is quite simply one of the most brilliant, empathetic people I've ever had the pleasure of working with. ”
Todd Dominey, Senior Director of Design
“From a front row seat, I've seen how Aarron's love of teaching and storytelling gains organizational support for projects and ideas large and small. He has a rare combination of solid research chops, killer design skills, and a gift for communication. There's no better UX pro out there.”
Gregg Bernstein, Research Manager
Design system
In 2010, as the business and the scale of the product grew, we needed to streamline or design and development process. At that time design systems were nascent and very few were being used at scale. We produced one of the earliest design systems on the web and published it early on to inspire a deeper conversation in the design community.
User personas
With significant product strategy changes on the horizon, our user research team conducted a study to better understand the traits, behaviors, and needs of Mailchimp customers. We created detailed persona documents but needed to find a way to get everyone in the company thinking about the people we served. We created a series of persona posters that hung in the heart of Mailchimp headquarters—near the espresso machine—to serve as a constant reminder to all that our customers are at the heart of all our design decisions.
Gemini
As General Manager of New Products, I built and led a team of designers, researchers, and engineers who created a multi-user email app code-named Gemini. The product let teams aggregate multiple email and social accounts, assign messages to one another, add notes, tag messages, escalate urgency, follow threads, and prioritize messages. We created a working web and mobile app, pricing structure, and go-to-market strategy. The product eventually became Mailchimp Inbox.
Use password geminimc to view product demo video.
2013 Redesign
As mobile devices became ubiquitous, we set out to totally rethink Mailchimp from top to bottom. Our work was informed by extensive user research that provided insight into the changing way people work and collaborate across devices and locations. Our team created a video showing the vision of the experience we were creating for our customers.
We redesigned the entire web app, marketing site, and created new mobile apps. Our work won multiple awards.
Designing magical moments
The broad creative freedom we were afforded at Mailchimp set the stage for a variety of experiments, the most famous of which is the high five moment after a user sends an email campaign. As users of our own product, we knew the stress one feels before sending a campaign and joy that follows when your email lands in inboxes. It feels like someone should high five you for a job well done!
We designed an experience that celebrated the emotion of these moments. Tens of thousands of customers posted on social media their love for this Mailchimp experience.
Voice & tone
As the company grew, we had to find a way to unify or writing style across teams and platforms. We published a voice and tone guide, one of the first in the software industry, with a unique twist. It presented guidelines for our standard brand voice and how the tone shifts in varying emotional contexts. Our voice and tone guide proved to be an inspiration to many design teams and was frequently cited at conferences and in publications.
Awards and recognition
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2011 - 2013
2011 .Net Mag redesign of the year
2013 .Net Mag redesign of the year
2013 Good Design Awards
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2014 - 2017
2015 Webby Awards
2015 Creative Loafing ATL Best of
2016 Communication Arts Annual
2016 AIA Regional Design Awards
2017 3 Gold One Show Pencils
2017 Cannes Grand Prix Lion