Skip to main content

Meet Tessa — Core Product Design

minute read

7.19 Tessa

Coupang's employees all believe in themselves as leaders and drive innovation. Today, we’ll meet a leader of the product team that is achieving Coupang's vision and mission. Coupang’s Product Designer Tessa has been leading Coupang's design for three years and has succeeded in overcoming great challenges and making outstanding achievements.  

Tessa’s Core Product Design organization develops products in line with Coupang's e-commerce strategy and new business initiatives that optimize the customer's experience. Continue reading to see how Tessa strives to achieve two main goals for the business with her team: 'business growth' and 'customer-oriented design.’ 

 

Hi Tessa, would you please introduce yourself?  

Hi, I’m Tessa. I’m in charge of the Core Product Design team for the Coupang app. Before joining Coupang, I led large projects as a Fintech UX and IT consultant in the finance sector. At Coupang, I have led my team in the e-commerce business for three years.  

 

At Coupang, we believe you faced many challenges yet achieved successful initiatives. What is the most memorable challenge for you?  

When I first joined Coupang, the product design team was at a new starting point in the early days of the Coupang app service. I remember launching the Rocket Wow and Rocket Fresh services and preparing for the Coupang Eats project, which was a whole new business. 

Among many, the most memorable project was the one developing an ad design feature. We took an unconventional approach to find the optimal design by running A/B tests with the designs updated on a daily basis. And we achieved the target revenue in just three months. It was an opportunity to witness how our designs lead to changes in business revenue figures and we got to experience the real impact.  

 

It sounds really exciting to have one's work make a direct impact on the business. What makes Coupang unique to make such experience possible?  

Coupang employees commonly cite the development speed as one of the strengths. In some cases, it only took two weeks to launch an app at Coupang, whereas it requires six months to one year for other companies. This is possible because we have strong teamwork and a solid collaboration structure, backed by Coupang’s leadership principles and a data-driven culture.   

 

Fast development requires several tradeoffs. We put emphasis in “Ruthless prioritization,” one of the leadership principles at Coupang. To deliver the top priority job, we should be bold yet flexible in reprioritizing existing tasks at times. Solving problems for our customers is the top priority for us. 

 

You have achieved many goals so far. Do you have any new goals?  

Coupang has quickly addressed and responded to many issues with a startup’s mindset. Yet we need to invest more with a mid/long-term perspective. We have grown this much with Coupang’s unique fast speed and logical approach, and a journey longer than what we have taken so far is ahead of us.  

 

My goal as a product designer and a team leader is to create yet another Coupang’s unique customer experience based on my experience and know-hows. 

As mentioned above, along with the company’s fast growth, we are now working to efficiently manage the design development history, principles, and product alignment. For the short term, I aim to build a unification foundation for all the organizations at Coupang and achieve more growth on the design aspect.   

벽, 실내, 침실, 회의실이(가) 표시된 사진

자동 생성된 설명

As a leader, how would you like to grow your team?  

I want each team within the Core Product Design organization to become a real specialist and grow as a leader in their teams. So there was an organizational change to make this happen. I want to make sure that each team can build data infrastructure, process, and more to lead such projects on their own.   

There could be things we can miss while growing fast. So we always welcome anyone with passion that is willing to develop and build a culture with other team members, instead of simply living their personal legacy.  

 

What would you like to say to prospective applicants who want to join the journey at Coupang?  

Prospective candidates must think hard about which service they want to build their career as designers. Everything that my team does impacts our revenue, which means everything we create such as the design components, copies, interactions, flows, and others. We have an environment that is one of the most influential in Korea. For anyone who wants to make a direct impact on customers and the business with their design, Coupang is a perfect place. 

Coupang is undoubtedly one of the best places to become a true data-driven designer. I highly recommend those who want to gain business insight into how design can drive direct business growth and improve customers' experience with design to join us. 

  

Coupang's product designers create designs to improve customer experience through UX research, analysis, and user testing, and experience the growth of services every day. With a customer-oriented goal, we are waiting for the challenge of those who want to grow with the business. Apply now