StyleSeat
New Client Delivery Experience
Allow beauty pros to choose which new clients from StyleSeat to take on, with clear visibility into fees throughout the experience.
My contribution
UX/UI Design User Research Design Strategy Product Copywriting
The team
1 x Principal Product Designer (Me) 1 x Lead Product Manager 1 x Senior Product Manager 1 x Senior Product Marketing Manager 6 x Engineers
Year
2022
Introduction
New client appointments were one of StyleSeat’s biggest growth drivers. Yet many pros felt blindsided: they couldn’t choose which clients they wanted, and the associated fees weren’t clear.
To build trust and reduce churn, I designed a new experience that showed the fee upfront and gave pros control over accepting or declining appointments, while keeping monetization strong.
Background
StyleSeat is a beauty marketplace that connects two primary user groups:
User group | How they use StyleSeat |
|---|---|
Clients | Discover, book, pay for, and manage appointments |
Beauty Pros | Manage, promote, and grow their business |
Beauty Pros Segmentation
Through ongoing research, I defined three core pro segments, each with distinct needs and challenges.
Segment | Income | Situation | Top Challenges |
|---|---|---|---|
Early Pros | Under $1K/month | Fresh out of beauty school, working from home while balancing a full-time job | Raising start-up capital and building clientele without reviews |
Growing Pros | $1K–4K/month | Gaining paying clients but not yet financially stable | Growing their client base |
Established Pros | Over $4K/month | Full-time professionals in suites or shops; some rent out chairs to other beauty pros | Managing client communication, finding booth renters, planning financially for retirement or home-buying |
Marketplace dynamic: Established Pros brought the client supply that drove New Client Delivery to Early & Growing Pros.
Process
Understand User Pain Points
I conducted surveys and interviews with beauty pros and uncovered two key frustrations:
Lack of transparency (40% described fees as “surprise fees”)
Lack of control (some clients didn’t align with pro specialties).
Testing Solutions
I partnered with PMs to A/B test two approaches:
A request screen showing the fee upfront
Requiring pros to pay the fee when accepting a new client.
Getting Leadership Buy-In
Leadership worried about rejection rates and revenue impact, so we beta tested with small groups, tracked churn, cancellations, and CSAT, and gradually expanded the rollout.
Design for Every Scenario
I mapped the end-to-end journey, including edge cases like failed payments. This flow diagram became the blueprint for discussions with leadership and engineering.
Error state for declined cards.
Explainer modal for the New Client Fee. Framed to emphasize potential earnings over the fee. I owned both design and copy.
Appointment screen. I redesigned the UI to give pros an entry point to view the new client fee even after accepting a new client request.
Fees modal. I designed this to show pros the appointment net earnings after all fees and added a ‘Was this helpful?’ section to collect quant data on this new feature.
Client source modal. I designed this to show pros how new clients found them (e.g., StyleSeat search) to improve transparency. The ‘Request Correction’ button let pros flag misclassified clients. As a squad, we also defined client attribution rules.
Goals
Give Pros a Choice
Let beauty pros accept or decline new client appointments.
Increase Transparency
Show the new client fee upfront to build trust and avoid surprises.
Reinforce StyleSeat’s Value
Emphasize how new clients drive long-term income for pros, even with the fee.
Boost Revenue
Collecting the fee upfront ensured StyleSeat captured revenue from new client appointments while giving pros and clients flexibility to use a payment method that worked best for them.
Impact
+28% Revenue Growth: Collecting the fee upfront drove significant revenue from new client appointments.
Improved Trust: Transparent fees empowered pros to make informed choices. “Knowing the fee beforehand allows me to feel more confident about using StyleSeat.” – Beauty Pro
By introducing transparency and choice, we created a more positive experience for pros while driving significant business impact.
Our team continued to refine the experience over the next few quarters. In the second quarter, with no PM on the squad, I led the team by setting priorities, writing tickets, and planning phased rollouts while continuing to own the design work.