At the height of the COVID pandemic, my team enabled Expedia's customers to access safety information, cancel their trips, and get coupons and credits. Changed an NPS score from negative to 90+, and maintained 4.8 star rating across our native apps. Retained 96% of my design team in 2020.

At the height of the COVID pandemic, my team enabled Expedia's customers to access safety information, cancel their trips, and get coupons and credits. Changed an NPS score from negative to 90+, and maintained 4.8 star rating across our native apps. Retained 96% of my design team in 2020.

COVID strikes

In March 2020, COVID became a global pandemic and severely impacted the travel industry. And I was the UX design leader of native mobile apps for the majority of brands at Expedia Group - the #2 online travel agent in the world, with 35% share of the market.

I was constantly watching out for my team's personal health, safety, and well-being. Some of my team had problems accessing basic needs: food, medicine, and a safe environment. I ensured that they took care of themselves and their loved ones first.

A responsibility to customers

Meanwhile, the rest of the team addressed the COVID-related needs of Expedia's customers while also getting used to our new normal of working from home under stay-at-home orders. We worked 7 days per week for weeks at a time on this most important company priority.

COVID review

My peers and I knew that the normal pace of shipping products, such as on two week sprints, would not enable Expedia to have a fast enough response to the COVID situation that was changing by the hour. So we created an approval process that would enable us to ship COVID features quicker than ever, while also maintaining our high quality bar. As part of the approval process, we created Acceptance Criteria that every COVID feature we shipped had to meet. I added Accessibility to the criteria, because I firmly believed our COVID response had to work for all of our customers.

In March 2020, COVID became a global pandemic and severely impacted the travel industry. And I was the UX design leader of native mobile apps for the majority of brands at Expedia Group - the #2 online travel agent in the world, with 35% share of the market.

I was constantly watching out for my team's personal health, safety, and well-being. Some of my team had problems accessing basic needs: food, medicine, and a safe environment. I ensured that they took care of themselves and their loved ones first.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team addressed the COVID-related needs of Expedia's customers while also getting used to our new normal of working from home under stay-at-home orders. We worked 7 days per week for weeks at a time on this most important company priority.

COVID review

My peers and I knew that the normal pace of shipping products, such as on two week sprints, would not enable Expedia to have a fast enough response to the COVID situation that was changing by the hour. So we created an approval process that would enable us to ship COVID features quicker than ever, while also maintaining our high quality bar. As part of the approval process, we created Acceptance Criteria that every COVID feature we shipped had to meet. I added Accessibility to the criteria, because I firmly believed our COVID response had to work for all of our customers.

Grooming COVID features

Expedia's COVID response required an all hands on deck approach, so I rolled up my sleeves more than normal. For many weeks, I stepped in to help groom many of the COVID features that my team designed across our native apps, something that is typically done between product management, engineering, and UX leads within a project. This enabled my teams across 5 global offices to execute on the work without delay.

Enabling self-service through our chatbot

Many Expedia customers called our call centers in order to cancel their trips, but we did not have enough customer service reps to handle the call center volume. Yet Expedia wanted to service as many of these requests as possible, even if it meant losing money in the short term. It was the right thing to do, and would enable us to retain our long term brand value. Therefore one of the most important aspects of Expedia's COVID response was investing in our Chatbot, in order to provide a more automated self-service tool that customers could use.

Several of my team designed the entrypoints to the Chatbot experience, across our native mobile apps, and homepages. This enabled us to drive more customers to use the Chatbot instead of calling our call centers.

Grooming COVID features

Expedia's COVID response required an all hands on deck approach, so I rolled up my sleeves more than normal. For many weeks, I stepped in to help groom many of the COVID features that my team designed across our native apps, something that is typically done between product management, engineering, and UX leads within a project. This enabled my teams across 5 global offices to execute on the work without delay.

Chatbot

Many Expedia customers called our call centers in order to cancel their trips, but we did not have enough customer service reps to handle the call center volume. Yet Expedia wanted to service as many of these requests as possible, even if it meant losing money in the short term. It was the right thing to do, and would enable us to retain our long term brand value. Therefore one of the most important aspects of Expedia's COVID response was investing in our Chatbot, in order to provide a more automated self-service tool that customers could use.

Several of my team designed the entrypoints to the Chatbot experience, across our native mobile apps, and homepages. This enabled us to drive more customers to use the Chatbot instead of calling our call centers.

Health guidelines, travel advisories, and government restrictions

We came up with the idea of serving up a web view within the native app in order to deliver urgent COVID messaging in real-time. This also enabled our customers to be in the know about COVID guidelines if they wanted to book new travel.

Health guidelines, travel advisories, and government restrictions

We came up with the idea of serving up a web view within the native app in order to deliver urgent COVID messaging in real-time. This also enabled our customers to be in the know about COVID guidelines if they wanted to book new travel.

Coupons and credits

When Expedia customers cancelled their travel, many were able to get coupons and credits for future travel. My team designed the experience that enabled this in our native apps, in collaboration with a web team.

Coupons and credits

When Expedia customers cancelled their travel, many were able to get coupons and credits for future travel. My team designed the experience that enabled this in our native apps, in collaboration with a web team.

Hotels and Flights

Two of the most common cancellations made by our customers were hotels and flights. On behalf of the native app design team, I worked with web design leads to ensure we had a cohesive experience across app and web, and helped disseminate the information to the relevant app designers.

Due to our rapid efforts, we helped reach recovery to pre-COVID levels in our Lodging line of business in 10 weeks (YOY), and accelerated the recovery across our other lines of business.

Hotels and Flights

Two of the most common cancellations made by our customers were hotels and flights. On behalf of the native app design team, I worked with web design leads to ensure we had a cohesive experience across app and web, and helped disseminate the information to the relevant app designers.

Due to our rapid efforts, we helped reach recovery to pre-COVID levels in our Lodging line of business in 10 weeks (YOY), and accelerated the recovery across our other lines of business.

Designers worked faster while maintaining quality

Despite an 8:1 ratio of web designers to app designers, my app team was able to keep up with the web designers in order to deliver full-service COVID support across many of Expedia's native apps. We maintained a 4.8/5.0 star rating across our iOS and Android apps despite many customers cancelling their trips.

Career growth

Since the travel business was impacted by COVID in 2020, I took extra measures to provide direct career growth and support for my team. I suggested mentors for each of them within our org and across the company, sometimes facilitating the relationship directly. I reviewed our career framework with some of the team, suggesting ways they could develop skills they could improve on in a way that was beneficial for the business and in line with their individual visions for their design careers.

It was also hard to promote designers on my team like in normal times. I was able to get one of my team members promoted - and they were one of only two designers promoted amongst an org of around 90 designers.

Impact

In a year marked by COVID and my team's associated challenges at work and at home, I was able to retain 96% of my team. Only one designer left my team voluntarily, which enabled my team to continue creating great customer experiences without skipping much of a beat.

Working faster while maintaining quality

Despite an 8:1 ratio of web designers to app designers, my app team was able to keep up with the web designers in order to deliver full-service COVID support across many of Expedia's native apps. We maintained a 4.8/5.0 star rating across our iOS and Android apps despite many customers cancelling their trips.

Career growth

Since the travel business was impacted by COVID in 2020, I took extra measures to provide direct career growth and support for my team. I suggested mentors for each of them within our org and across the company, sometimes facilitating the relationship directly. I reviewed our career framework with some of the team, suggesting ways they could develop skills they could improve on in a way that was beneficial for the business and in line with their individual visions for their design careers.

It was also hard to promote designers on my team like in normal times. I was able to get one of my team members promoted - and they were one of only two designers promoted amongst an org of around 90 designers.

Impact

In a year marked by COVID and my team's associated challenges at work and at home, I was able to retain 96% of my team. Only one designer left my team voluntarily, which enabled my team to continue creating great customer experiences without skipping much of a beat.

Designers retained

Designers retained

Chatbot NPS

Chatbot NPS

Weeks to recovery

Weeks to recovery

App rating

App rating