The Challange
At Wix, we made a company-wide decision to make quality our pride and glory. This involved multiple teams tackling various aspects such as performance, SEO, production, accessibility (A11y), Service Level Agreements (SLA), and bug fixing. Our UX Guild took this challenge to the next level, focusing specifically on the user experience, which presented a unique set of challenges. Convincing different disciplines to invest in something they couldn't immediately see or measure was particularly difficult, especially when the payoff was expected further down the road.
To ensure that quality was not overshadowed by the constant push for new features, we needed a structured approach to addressing UX issues. This led to the creation of the 'Wix UX Quality Blitz' — a 1 to 3-day marathon held once per quarter, where the entire team, led by UX, focused on fixing as many flaws and overlooked issues in our products as possible.
UX pyramid by Stephen P. Anderson
To deal with the upper layers of the experience pyramid we must prioritize the quality of our products over expanding our offering
The Blitz targeted four main areas⤵
Content improvements:
Ensuring text is clear and helpful.
Experience issues:
Clarifying processes, simplifying navigation, and streamlining complex workflows.
UI and visual assets:
Enhancing clarity, professionalism,
and a modern feel.
Accessibility:
Making the product accessible to all users.
The Blitz marathon was very successful and fun and allowed UXers to be creative and create themed days such as the Harry Potter Blitz, Mexican Blitz, etc.
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If you are interested to read more about Wix Quality Blitz methodology you are welcome to read this great medium article written by my wonderful college Anne Lillmannstons.
A glimpse of our OS UX Quality task list of tasks
Despite the well-intentioned design of this initiative, it ultimately failed to deliver the desired results for my group at Wix OS. Let me explain why.
Orchestrating the First Quality Blitz: My Role in Planning and Execution.
I was eager to bring the new UX Quality Blitz approach to life within my group. We meticulously prepared for our first blitz, with a UX teammate responsible for the product domain compiling a list of ~30 small tasks that were expected to significantly improve our product's quality.
Blitz OS sweets are ready for the big day
When the big three-day blitz finally arrived, the excitement and motivation were palpable. We even brought homemade treats to boost team morale. However, our optimism quickly faded as we realized that many of the "small" tasks were far more complex than they appeared. Developers became skeptical and frustrated as they struggled to complete tasks, which often required dependencies on other teams at Wix that were not involved in the blitz.
Before: The Business manager editor modal. No modal controls are available for our users while loading⤴
Learning from Challenges: My Analysis of the First Blitz's Shortcomings.
One task that highlighted the challenges we faced involved the Wix Business Manager platform, the back-office environment that helps users manage their businesses. One entry point to this platform is through the Editor while users are building their sites. To keep users in the context of the building phase, we decided to open the Business Manager platform in a modal.
While we had recently made significant improvements to the platform's performance, we discovered through research that the modal was taking too long to load. Additionally, in 12% of cases, users opened the modal by mistake with no real intention of taking action. We wanted to implement a simple fix: adding controls to the modal that would allow users to close it or ask for help immediately, rather than waiting for the platform to load.
This seemed like a trivial task, but it turned out to be far more complicated. The modal was hosted by two different groups at Wix — OS and the Editor platform. Implementing the fix required moving a chunk of our backend operations to another team, making the task impossible to complete within the three-day blitz. In fact, it took two months to finish.
In retrospect, the main issue was that UX didn't consult enough with other stakeholders, such as product managers and developers, to assess whether the tasks were truly small and feasible within the blitz timeframe.
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After: The Business manager editor modal with controls⤴
Here are a few examples of high-quality tasks that were successfully resolved using the new methodology:
Addressing Dependencies: My Approach to Collaborative Problem-Solving
The failure of the Quality Blitz approach led me to realize that we needed a custom methodology that better suited our group's needs, especially given our reliance on other platforms and our central role in Wix's broader efforts. Here's how we turned things around:
New OS Quality metodology:
Step 01 🧹
Create a Quality Backlog
We encouraged contributions from all team members, including UX designers, product managers, writers, developers, and QA analysts. This collaborative approach helped ensure that quality improvements were a shared responsibility.
Step 02🧏🏻♀️
Prioritize Issues
In each product squad, we assembled a multidisciplinary team capable of addressing the identified issues. This team included roles such as UX designers, developers, product managers, business analysts, and QA specialists. They meet once a quarter to go over all the Jira tasks and make sure they are well organized by the correct and relevant prioritization.
Step 03👩🏻💻
Prepare Necessary Resources
We ensured all necessary materials, such as Figma files, BI events, and content updates, were prepared in advance. This preparation minimized delays and improved efficiency during implementation.
Step 04🗂️
Organize a Dedicated Quality Epic in Jira
In each product squad, we assembled a multidisciplinary team capable of addressing the identified issues. This team included roles such as UX designers, developers, product managers, business analysts, and QA specialists. They meet once a quarter to go over all the Jira tasks and make sure they are well organized by the correct and relevant prioritization.
Step 05👩🏼🔧
Engage Developers in a New Way
Blitzes were no longer viable, so we found creative ways to integrate quality tasks into our regular workflow. We assigned these tasks as bonuses, encouraged developers to tackle them during their "free time" (such as during their on-call weeks), and included them as onboarding tasks for new developers. These strategies helped ensure that quality tasks were completed without disrupting our primary milestones.
Step 06🍻
Celebrate Small but Impactful Wins
To keep the team engaged, I started hosting a quality impact slide during our weekly 'All Hands' group meeting. This slide showcased the impact of small fixes, allowing developers to take pride in their work and stay motivated.
Before: Users could navigate between recently opened sites.
After: Users can now search for the site they want to navigate to.
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Step 1
Create a Quality Backlog
Step 2
Prioritize Issues
Step 3
Prepare Necessary Resources
Step 4
Organize a Dedicated Quality Epic in Jira
Step 5
Engage Developers in a New Way
Step 6
Celebrate Small Wins
Before: Users could perform site actions only by hovering over a site thumbnail.
After: Site actions are now available and visible at all times.
This fix helped reduce support calls by 2% from users who found it difficult to locate the Site Action functions. 💃🏼
Reflecting on Outcomes: My Insights for Future Quality Initiatives
Over the past three months, this new methodology has worked fluently for our group within Wix. We've successfully resolved 32 tasks, significantly improving our product quality. The key takeaway from this experience is that different product groups have different needs, and it's crucial for managers to recognize when a method isn't working and pivot accordingly. By fostering honest conversations with all stakeholders and remaining flexible in our approach, we were able to develop a process that not only improved our products but also maintained high team morale. I consider this process a success and a valuable learning experience in the importance of adaptability and collaboration in product development.