Aligning siloed product teams around a single, cross-platform activation strategy to drive user retention.

Overview

Defining a unified onboarding strategy for Outside's fragmented product portfolio, reframing onboarding from a set of simple introductory screens into a measurable, cross-product value-delivery system.

Context

As the Project and Design Lead working alongside the CDO, I was initially asked simply to "look into onboarding" across our portfolio (which included Gaia GPS, Trailforks, and MapMy). While there was plenty of anecdotal evidence that the first-time user experience was struggling, there was no tangible data to prove it. Furthermore, while our marketing promised a cohesive "Ecosystem," the products themselves operated as entirely disconnected silos.

Opportunity

Design a strategic framework that could:

• Move the organization away from treating onboarding as just "intro screens" and toward a system that actively guides users to product value.
• Establish shared definitions, ownership, and success metrics across a diverse portfolio of apps.
• Align isolated product teams around a single, cohesive north star for the first 30 days of the user journey.

Challenge

I quickly discovered that the real problem wasn't the UI; it was organizational and structural:

• No Ownership: No single team was actually responsible for the user's critical first 30 days.
• Invisible Failure: "Activation" was measured differently by every product lead, meaning systemic failures were easily hidden.
• Brand Resistance: Each product had a strong, fiercely protected individual identity, making the adoption of a universal UI a very tough sell.

Approach

I needed to move the executive conversation from a vague "onboarding needs improving" to something concrete, quantified, and undeniable:

• Constructed "Value Reach Rate" metrics in Amplitude to definitively prove that our current onboarding was failing to direct users to value moments.
• Uncovered stark, alignment-forcing realities: ~50% of new users experienced zero product value, 20% did absolutely nothing during their free trial, and less than 1% adopted more than one Outside product.
• Developed a standardized framework to remove the ambiguity around what onboarding is, allowing teams to improve their individual flows while building cross-product consistency.

Execution

Led the transition from high-level strategy to actionable product architecture:

• Translated the framework into a "Canonical Flow"—a single architectural diagram defining the required onboarding steps for every product in the portfolio.
• Designed and proposed a universal UI to challenge the inertia of siloed brand identities.
• Authored the "North Star" strategic white paper, which became the definitive reference point for VP-level Product and Engineering leadership.

Outcome

While resource constraints limited an immediate, full-stack UI implementation, the strategic impact on the business was massive:

• Unified Metrics: Successfully shifted the organization away from tracking vanity metrics (Account Creates) to tracking true value metrics (Reach Rate) on a shared, cross-product dashboard.
• Unblocked Brand Strategy: Highlighted how the "House of Brands" confusion was actively hurting retention, which directly influenced the executive decision to consolidate subscription tiers.
• Exposed Systemic Flaws: Uncovered and addressed much deeper organizational issues around product ownership and multi-product packaging, providing a clear foundation for future product growth.