Background
As www.HM.com had become more and more important for H&M Group, the business, in 2019, launched “Business Tech”, a modern product organisation to bring the ownership back in house.
With the new organisation structure of domains, groups and product teams, the site became richer. But as the product teams were empowered to drive launches themselves, the overall experience started to get fragmented. For example the main navigation became more and more busy with no clear hierarchy of importance.
A dedicated design and brand team
The Creative Director for H&M and I decided to stand up a team of brand designers, product designers and frontend developers led by a senior Product Manager.
We place the team in Berlin on purpose to separate it out of HQ in Stockholm and tasked them with redesigningHM.com, web, mobile and apps from the top down creating a coherent brand— and user experience.
Once the the conceptual direction was complete, the rest of the product organisation could deliver on their individual deep user flows.
The focus and clarity this approach brought meant that the end-to-end redesign was made possible and delivered faster than predicted.
When we first discussed this approach. I was conscious that there was a risk of alienating the wider product org as this approach is counter to the classic empowered agile teams. But my worries were unfounded as the approach gave all the product team a clarity of their responsibilities and ability to move fast simply by looking at the concepts.
Not only did we end up with a modernised HM.com, we also set the ground work for introducing external brands to the HM.com digital experience.
HM.com home screen (previous)
HM.com home screen (new)
HM.com navigation (previous)
HM.com navigation (new)
