As Senior Product Manager at Huge, I was tasked with evolving SK-II's social retail concept into a more immersive, data-driven experience. Building upon learnings from SK-II's initial 2021 Social Retail Pop-Up, my mission was to substantially enhance conversion metrics while deepening customer engagement through refined O2O touchpoints.
After analyzing performance data from the previous year's activation, I identified several opportunities for improvement using the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework and Opportunity Solution Trees. The 2021 pop-up had successfully introduced the concept of integrating WeChat Mini Programs with physical retail, but user research revealed friction points in the customer journey and missed opportunities for personalization.
The 2022 House of Miracles retained successful technologies from the previous year, including the Mini Magic Scan, but evolved them with improved algorithms and a more intuitive user interface. We also maintained the WeChat Mini Program integration while completely redesigning the digital experience around the new "Miracle Generator" concept. This approach resulted in a 35% revenue increase over the 2021 pop-up and significantly higher engagement metrics across all customer touchpoints.
Quarterly revenue generated by the House of Miracles pop-up, representing a 35% increase compared to SK-II's 2021 Social Retail Pop-Up
Conversion rate from WeChat Mini Program users to in-store visitors within 48 hours, a 12 percentage point improvement over the 26% achieved in the 2021 pop-up
Visitors completing the full in-store journey through all experience zones (compared to 41% in the previous year)
Increase in average transaction value for customers using the Magic Mini Scan, with 22% of these customers purchasing premium-tier products compared to 12% in the 2021 pop-up
The luxury beauty landscape was undergoing a massive transformation. As post-pandemic travel resumed in China, Hainan's duty-free market was experiencing unprecedented growth. When I joined the project in March 2022, SK-II had already established itself as an innovator in social retail with its 2021 pop-up in Hainan. However, analysis of the previous activation revealed several areas for improvement:
User research with participants from the 2021 experience revealed crucial insights:
Additionally, other luxury beauty brands had begun implementing their own digital-physical experiences in Hainan, threatening SK-II's first-mover advantage. My challenge was to evolve SK-II's social retail concept to deliver significantly stronger business results while creating a more compelling customer experience.
Deep Customer Research & Experience Strategy
Building upon SK-II's previous insights, I implemented a structured discovery approach using the Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) framework and Customer Journey Mapping methodologies highlighted in my product toolkit. I spent one week conducting contextual inquiry, observing customer interactions, and running Design Sprint workshops with 25+ customers who had experienced the previous pop-up.
Through cohort analysis of user data and qualitative research, I applied the JTBD framework to identify four key opportunity areas:
I then created a comprehensive Opportunity Solution Tree (OST) to visualize and prioritize potential solutions using the RICE prioritization framework (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort). This approach identified three high-impact areas with the best effort-to-value ratio: deepening personalization, strengthening educational components, and creating more seamless online-to-offline transitions.
With these validated insights, I led a focused two-day workshop with cross-functional teams from SK-II, CDFG, and HUGE to develop an enhanced experience strategy. I established key metrics for each pillar of our strategy:
Experience Design & Technology Innovation
Based on our strategy and key results targets, I developed a comprehensive three-phase product roadmap using the MoSCoW prioritization framework to ensure we delivered maximum value within our tight timeline:
Phase 1 (March-April 2022): Assessment & Strategy
Phase 2 (April-May 2022): Enhanced Experience Development
Phase 3 (June 2022): Launch and Continuous Optimization
I designed an enhanced experience consisting of five distinct zones, applying Design Thinking methodology to refine the previous year's concept:
Working with our engineering team, I focused on enhancing rather than replacing the data architecture from 2021, improving the synchronization between digital and physical touchpoints with proper security considerations.
As the product leader, I mentored junior designers and engineers while implementing Agile practices with one-week sprints, allowing for more rapid iteration than the two-week cycles used in 2021. Each sprint concluded with a review of progress against our key success metrics.
Launch Strategy & Optimization Framework
Building on learnings from 2021, I developed a comprehensive go-to-market strategy that identified our highest-value customer segments through careful audience analysis. This strategy included enhanced training for beauty consultants, a soft launch phase with 50 returning VIP customers for rapid feedback, and a robust communications plan highlighting the evolution from the previous experience.
For the public launch, I implemented a data-driven optimization framework that measured performance across the full customer journey from initial awareness to purchase. This sophisticated approach allowed for daily rather than weekly adjustments, using advanced analytics to identify friction points in real-time.
Using structured A/B testing methodologies, we identified and implemented several high-impact optimizations during the first week:
I worked closely with our data team to implement custom event tracking, allowing us to create a real-time performance dashboard that monitored our key success metrics. These optimizations contributed to steadily improving performance metrics throughout the activation's run, with week-over-week increases in both conversion rate and average purchase value.
Our strategic approach to evolving SK-II's social retail experience delivered exceptional results that significantly surpassed the 2021 baseline across all key metrics:
The success of House of Miracles further strengthened the partnership between SK-II and CDFG, leading to:
Evolution Outperforms Revolution: Thoughtfully evolving an existing concept using structured frameworks like Jobs-to-be-Done delivered significantly stronger results than the original implementation while reducing technical risk. This approach has become a cornerstone of my product strategy toolkit.
Data-Informed Personalization Drives Conversion: The most significant improvements came from enhancing personalization based on actual user data from the 2021 experience. Identifying specific behavioral patterns proved essential for targeting our efforts efficiently.
Short Optimization Cycles Drive Better Results: Moving from weekly to daily optimization reviews allowed us to respond more quickly to performance data, resulting in continuous improvement throughout the activation. This approach to Agile product development has become my standard practice.
Technical Integration Requires Systematic Approach: By implementing a systematic design methodology, we significantly reduced integration friction between the WeChat Mini Program and in-store systems. This approach has proven valuable across multiple projects.
Cross-Functional Leadership Amplifies Impact: Mentoring designers and engineers while implementing standardized documentation processes improved team efficiency and sprint predictability, similar to improvements I've achieved in other projects.
Measurement Framework Clarity Drives Alignment: Establishing clear success metrics and implementing proper analytics tracking created alignment across all stakeholders, providing a structured way to communicate progress and prioritize optimizations.
