MACY’S
ProHOW app

Illustration of a Macy's Pro How branded price tag with a red star and a strap.

Context

Large retail organizations face a persistent challenge. Knowledge is fragmented, informal, and unevenly distributed. In fast-moving environments like fashion and sales, learning is often experiential, social, and time-sensitive. Traditional training systems fail to keep pace.

This project emerged as a long-term initiative to explore how people actually learn on the job, and how technology could support continuous skill development without interrupting performance.

The effort required sustained discovery, organizational alignment, and cross-border delivery.

The Process

Mobile phone displaying Macy's Pro How app with options to log in or create an account.

01 / Problem Framing

Key challenges identified early:

  • Learning content was static while the business was dynamic

  • Knowledge lived in people, not systems

  • Existing tools prioritized compliance over growth

  • Sales and fashion teams needed learning that was:

    • Contextual

    • Social

    • Immediately applicable

The central question became:

How might we design a system that supports how people want to learn while driving measurable performance outcomes?

A smartphone displaying a social media profile page of James E Harvey, who is identified as a stylist. The profile shows cover and profile pictures, badges for interests or achievements, follower count, and posts. The profile includes some placeholder text and two images at the bottom of the screen.

02 / Approach

Deep Discovery and Learning Research

I led initial research focused on:

  • How sales and fashion professionals acquire expertise

  • Motivations tied to growth, recognition, and success

  • Informal learning behaviors inside retail environments

  • This work revealed that learning was Peer-driven, Reputation-based, and strongly tied to personal ambition

Feature Strategy and System Design

Based on insights, I evaluated and shaped features around:

  • Knowledge sharing rather than top-down training

  • Short, consumable learning units

  • Social validation and contribution

  • Discovery over instruction

The system was designed to reward participation, not enforce consumption.

Product Direction and UI Design

I defined the product direction and translated it into:

  • A clear interaction model

  • Scalable UI patterns

  • Simple contribution and discovery flows

The UI emphasized clarity, speed, and low cognitive overhead, essential for retail contexts.

Mobile phone displaying a social media app with a grid of six fashion photos, featuring women with fashionable outfits and accessories.

03 / Outcomes

Successfully delivered a Beta version into Macy’s environment

  • Validated assumptions about social and peer-driven learning

  • Created a functional knowledge-sharing system adaptable to other industries

  • Demonstrated the ability to lead a complex, multi-year initiative from concept to delivery

Beyond the product itself, the project demonstrated the viability of learning systems as performance enablers rather than training tools.

Why This Matters

Learning as a system, not content. Focused on enabling knowledge flow rather than building a content library.

  • Motivation-first design. Aligned features with ambition, recognition, and peer respect.

  • Simplicity over exhaustiveness. Prioritized ease of contribution and discovery.

  • Tight design–development loop. Reduced handoff friction across geographies.

These decisions kept the product grounded in real behavior rather than idealized learning models.

A woman in a cream blazer and patterned blouse stands in a retail store, holding a smartphone displaying an online shopping site.

It demonstrates my ability to:

  • Lead long-horizon initiatives with sustained complexity

  • Translate human learning behavior into scalable systems

  • Operate across research, product strategy, design, and delivery

  • Align stakeholders, developers, and business goals over time

It positions me as a builder of systems that enable growth, not simply an interface designer.