Shopify Partner Program: 2016

Role

The Shopify Partners team fosters a community of designers and developers that build Shopify stores for their clients. It was responsible for 30% of Shopify’s revenue in 2016. That was after a year of me being their first Operations Manager. My responsibilities included conducting research, developing strategy, implementing process, as well as sequencing and guiding tactical execution.

Problem

Before I joined, Shopify’s Partners team had grown to over 50 people and it was getting hard to keep them aligned. They were comprised of a number of smaller teams that didn’t regularly speak, duplicated each others efforts, and worked towards different objectives. I was hired as the team’s first Operations Manager to bring them together and help them achieve their maximum potential. 

Approach  

I was drawn to this role because there was a product management aspect to it. My first instinct as a designer was to start with research. I spent my first two weeks talking to customers and people on the team. I combed through our data and reviewed our competitors’ offerings. A picture emerged and I acted.

I started by facilitating sessions with the team. We created a shared vision for what we wanted the Shopify Partner program to be. I used that to help the team develop goals and key metrics. Those broke down into projects on our roadmap. The team executed on those projects with Shopify’s newly developed Get Shit Done process for product development which I implemented across the team. That involved training, templates, workshops led by me, and alignment with all the other teams across Shopify. We measured our efforts with dashboards that I created and delivered regular reports up the chain.

Outcome

During my time as Shopify’s Partners Operations Manager, the team began to work closer and deliver more consistently. We implemented a number of projects that lead us through four successful quarters with double digit growth . 

One of my proudest achievements was bringing the Shopify Partners Academy into this world. The Academy was an online training program. It gave anyone with an internet connection a place where they could go learn how to build ecommerce businesses with Shopify. We also developed tools and materials they could use to promote themselves as Shopify Partners. We developed it together with our community and made a big impact in many people’s lives.