At Babylist, I led the development of an Order Return NPS Survey system to gather customer feedback on their return experience. This project required coordination across multiple teams including fulfillment, mobile, and product teams, while ensuring accurate customer targeting and seamless integration across various platforms.
The complexity arose from distinguishing between different user types in the system—gift givers, gift recipients, and customers who initiate returns. The project showcased my ability to navigate complex organizational dynamics, build flexible technical solutions, and resolve critical issues under pressure while maintaining stakeholder trust.
Babylist needed a way to systematically collect feedback from customers who initiated returns to improve the return process and customer satisfaction. The technical challenge was significant due to the platform's unique gift-giving model where multiple parties are involved in a single transaction.
• Multiple user roles: Gift givers, gift recipients, and return initiators could all be different people
• Complex targeting logic: Surveys needed to reach the correct person based on who actually initiated the return
• Cross-platform integration: System needed to work with mobile apps, email systems, and web platforms
• Real-time triggering: Surveys had to be sent at the optimal time in the return process
• Multiple stakeholders: Fulfillment team handling returns, mobile team building integrations, product team defining requirements
• Competing priorities: Each team had their own roadmap and timeline constraints
• Integration dependencies: Mobile app features depended on backend API completion
• Customer experience impact: Any mistakes would directly affect customer satisfaction
• Built flexible backend APIs that could handle multiple integration scenarios
• Implemented sophisticated user targeting logic to distinguish between order roles
• Created integration points with mobile applications and email systems
• Developed real-time survey triggering based on return events
• Designed scalable API architecture supporting multiple consumer applications
• Established regular cross-team check-ins with fulfillment, mobile, and product teams
• Created shared documentation to track dependencies and decisions
• Built in extra buffer time for integration challenges
• Implemented early testing protocols for mobile app interactions
• Maintained transparent communication about progress and blockers
Recognizing the complexity of coordinating across multiple teams, I proactively implemented several risk mitigation strategies. This included building flexible APIs without waiting for complete specifications, establishing regular communication channels, and creating comprehensive testing protocols to catch integration issues early.
During implementation, I discovered a critical targeting bug: gift recipients were incorrectly receiving return surveys instead of the customers who actually initiated the returns. This was affecting customer experience daily and needed immediate resolution.
• Systematic investigation of the user targeting logic to identify root cause
• Data flow tracing through the complex gift-giving relationship system
• Root cause identification: System was defaulting to order recipients rather than return initiators
• Impact assessment: Determined how many customers had been affected by the incorrect targeting
• 24-hour fix implementation to prevent further incorrect targeting
• Immediate stakeholder notification about the issue and resolution timeline
• Customer service coordination to identify and address affected users
• Transparent communication about the problem and steps taken to prevent recurrence
Following the incident, I led efforts to improve our testing and validation processes to prevent similar issues. This included enhanced edge case testing for complex user relationships and improved monitoring for survey targeting accuracy.
• 100% accuracy in survey targeting after bug fix
• Eliminated customer confusion from misdirected surveys
• Improved data quality for return process optimization
• Enhanced customer satisfaction through relevant feedback collection
• Automated survey distribution process eliminated manual overhead
• Provided customer service team with actionable feedback data
• Reduced manual follow-up required for return issues
• Created scalable framework for future survey implementations
• Built scalable API architecture supporting multiple consumer applications
• Implemented robust error handling and monitoring for system reliability
• Created reusable survey targeting patterns for future projects
• Established flexible integration patterns adaptable to different team needs
Lesson: Anticipating coordination challenges across multiple teams prevents project delays.
Application: Set up regular cross-team check-ins and shared documentation early in the project lifecycle. This helped us catch integration issues before they became blockers and maintained alignment across all stakeholders.
Lesson: Complex user scenarios (like gift-giving) require careful consideration in targeting logic.
Application: Always map out all possible user relationships and data flows, especially in e-commerce contexts where multiple parties may be involved in a single transaction. This prevents critical bugs from reaching production.
Lesson: When critical bugs are discovered, immediate and honest communication prevents larger issues.
Application: I immediately informed stakeholders about the targeting error and took responsibility, which helped us resolve it quickly and improved our testing processes going forward.
Lesson: Building flexible APIs without complete specifications can accelerate delivery.
Application: Rather than waiting for all teams to finalize their requirements, I built adaptable backend systems that could accommodate various integration needs as they were clarified.
Lesson: Successful project delivery often requires leading across team boundaries without formal authority.
Application: By establishing regular communication, creating shared documentation, and taking personal responsibility for integration success, I was able to coordinate effectively across multiple teams with different priorities.
This project established a foundation for customer feedback collection that could be extended to other areas of the business. The targeting logic patterns and API architecture became reusable components for subsequent survey implementations, including the Showroom Surveys project.
• Flexible survey targeting system adaptable to different user relationship models
• Cross-platform integration patterns working with mobile, web, and email systems
• Real-time event triggering framework for timely customer outreach
• Scalable API design supporting multiple consumer applications simultaneously
The successful resolution of the critical bug also strengthened relationships with the customer service team and demonstrated the importance of thorough testing in customer-facing features. My transparent communication and rapid response built trust that extended beyond this project to future collaborations.
The lessons learned from this project improved our development and testing processes company-wide. Enhanced edge case testing, better cross-team coordination practices, and improved monitoring for customer-facing features became standard practices that prevented similar issues in future projects.
This project demonstrated that successful technical leadership involves not just building great systems, but also navigating organizational complexity, managing risk proactively, and maintaining stakeholder trust even when things go wrong. The combination of technical excellence and effective communication created lasting value that extended far beyond the initial project scope.