Creator CMS Redux

Creators found the CMS hard enough to use that they built workarounds to avoid it. Years of band-aid fixes had left an expensive tool few used: heavy visual noise, little usable data, and no clear path through the work.

The most important surface in a Creator’s business had become the most avoided. Most managed content in their own systems and published straight to their storefronts. That was the problem to correct.

We met with Creators throughout, first asking what worked and what didn’t, then returning to test whether our ideas held up in their real work. The check-ins validated or killed directions early and kept bias honest on both sides.

When it came time to argue the solution with leadership, I wasn’t carrying opinion. I was carrying data.

The full redesign, including the direction leadership asked for, the direction the data backed and the working prototypes that settled it, sits below. It’s password-protected out of respect for Amazon’s pre-launch work; the password is in my applications, or reach out and I’ll send it over.

Two decisions defined this project, and neither was a screen. Building both directions as working prototypes turned a leadership debate into a shared experience, and the better idea won without a single contested meeting. And demoting my own dashboard when the data pushed back taught the sharpest lesson: the best evidence a designer carries is the willingness to revise their own bet.