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Product Strategy UX Strategy Member Experience

Five months. Zero rollbacks. A platform worth the brand.

URBN SURF's wave pool had earned real loyalty — premium pricing, repeat visits, a genuine community. The booking platform hadn't. Sessions took over 30 minutes to book, cart abandonment was high, and the call centre was fielding 750 calls a day with 20-minute hold times. The brief: rebuild the digital experience end-to-end in five months, without breaking the trust of members who'd already tolerated too much.

URBN SURF wave pool — aerial view of surfers in the pool alongside the URBN SURF logo

Approach

A deliberately lean three-person team plus an advisory governance layer. Discovery first — every pain point mapped against backend platform work and front-end UX impact, building a prioritised brief. A "Pioneer Member" model brought 3–4 trusted, heavily-invested members into ongoing design conversations, rather than running a broad beta.

Role

End-to-end UX lead across discovery, systems mapping, and delivery — working directly with an external development partner through build and QA, holding the line on design quality under time pressure.

UrbnSurf mobile app — session booking flow with date/time selection and session filters
UrbnSurf mobile app — member home screen with active memberships and upcoming surfs
UrbnSurf member dashboard — desktop view showing upcoming surfs, active benefits, and account menu
UrbnSurf mobile app — membership status, active benefits, and upcoming sessions
UrbnSurf platform screens — booking, cart, membership, and dashboard views across devices
Product Strategy UX Strategy Systems & Journey Mapping Discovery Co-Design Stakeholder Governance
+20% Conversion uplift
31% Faster checkout
13% Reduction in cart abandonment
6 New features shipped at launch
0 Rollbacks · critical issues
"Tolerance isn't loyalty. The members who love this park most are the ones who'll hold it to the highest bar."

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