How I led the evolution of a legacy content and commerce portfolio into a measurable, customer-centered system for acquisition, personalization, purchase, and retention.
Selected scale & outcomes
20%increase inThe executive summary
Tarot.com had significant reach and a deep product catalog, but legacy systems fragmented the customer journey and obscured what drove conversion and retention.
As Director of Product, I set portfolio direction and led product, design, engineering, content, and marketing in connecting customer behavior, free experiences, and commerce into one measurable ecosystem.
The starting point
Before
Legacy architecture made change expensive. Content, marketing and product initiatives lived entangled with generic data points. Teams optimized by guesswork, with no way to accurately attribute what actually drove customer conversion or retention.
After
What was once entangled and untraceable became one measurable relationship. Customer identity, behavior, and purchases flow through a single system that informs content, marketing, and product decisions, giving every team the same source of truth.
Portfolio opportunities
I prioritized roadmap decisions based on where the biggest gaps between opportunity and execution were.
A $1.9 billion U.S. psychic-services market was still expanding, creating room to deepen value for an established audience.
Smartphone adoption had reached 76%, while key customer journeys remained designed for desktop.
Fragmented customer signals forced teams to rely on assumptions.
Every release depended on custom, one-off engineering, making quarterly launches the ceiling instead of a starting point.
Voice of the Customer
Customer intent alongside behavioral data uncovered opportunities that shaped what we built and how we measured success.
Frequent repeat visits
Age: 40–45
Occupation: Busy professional
Relationship status: Divorced
Primary need: Reassurance and daily perspective
Problem: Navigating a major relationship transition and looking for frequent reassurance, perspective, and emotional clarity.
How they use the site: Returns frequently for horoscopes, free Tarot readings, and personally relevant daily content.
“I visit when I want a moment of perspective before starting my day.”
High engagement and registration intent
Age: 18–23
Occupation: College student
Relationship status: Single
Primary need: Self-discovery and continued exploration
Problem: Trying to understand their identity, relationships, and future while navigating an uncertain stage of life.
How they use the site: Creates a profile, explores topics, saves content, and considers deeper personalized readings.
“I visit when something makes me curious about myself or what might happen next.”
High commercial and retention value
Age: 30–35
Occupation: Career transition
Relationship status: Married
Primary need: Deeper guidance for an important decision
Problem: Facing consequential career and financial decisions and willing to pay for deeper, personalized guidance.
How they use the site: Purchases readings or reports, returns for additional insight, and may convert to VIP membership.
“I visit when I'm facing an important decision and need more than a quick answer.”
Search-led acquisition
Age: 25–34
Occupation: Early-career professional
Relationship status: Single
Primary need: A quick, relevant answer
Problem: Has a specific question about personality, compatibility, or the future and wants an immediate, accessible answer.
How they use the site: Arrives through search or social, samples free content, and decides whether the experience is relevant enough to continue.
“I usually find the site while searching for an answer to a specific question.”
High topical intent
Age: 35–44
Occupation: Working parent
Relationship status: Married
Primary need: Clarity around a specific life issue
Problem: Working through a meaningful love, family, or wellness issue and seeking guidance focused on that specific concern.
How they use the site: Returns during meaningful life moments and follows a focused topic from free guidance into deeper personalized insight.
“I return when a relationship or family issue is weighing on me.”
Highest lifetime-value potential
Age: 45–55
Occupation: Established professional
Relationship status: Separated
Primary need: Connected guidance that builds over time
Problem: Wants ongoing guidance across multiple areas of life and values a trusted source that retains personal context over time.
How they use the site: Uses multiple product families and relies on saved history, recommendations, and membership benefits across repeat visits.
“I visit when I want to connect what's happening now with guidance I've saved before.”
Behavioral customer strategy
| Customer need | Daily Seeker | Curious Explorer | Purchaser | New Visitor | Focused Seeker | Loyal Power User |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily GuidanceDaily Horoscopes and Tarot Insight | High | Medium | Medium | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| Explore and self-discoverSelf-guided readings and calculators | Medium | High | Medium | High | Medium | Medium |
| Plan aheadMonthly and annual forecasts | Medium | Medium | Medium | Medium | High | Medium |
| Access premium insightPaid Tarot, Astrology, I Ching, and Numerology reports | Medium | Medium | High | Low | Medium | High |
| Find relationship guidanceLove-focused readings and reports | Medium | Medium | High | Medium | High | Medium |
| Revisit saved guidanceReading journal and saved readings | High | High | Medium | Low | Medium | High |
| Purchase with flexibilityKarma Coins and cash checkout | Low | Low | High | Low | Medium | High |
Customer pain points
Five recurring breakdowns prevented customers from carrying context across visits, devices, and purchases.
Related content and products appeared as separate destinations.
Desktop-first journeys hindered mobile discovery and conversions.
Guest visitors had little visibility into free membership benefits.
Recognized members received the same offers regardless of behavior or purchase history.
Product experiences did not connect discovery to deeper customer value.
Value assessment
High Medium Low
| Customer pain point | Business consequence | Customer Experience | Signup Conversion | Commerce Conversion | Organic Traffic | Advertising Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fragmented discovery | Disconnected destinations limited cross-product discovery and purchase. | High | Medium | High | High | High |
Mobile conversion barriers | Mobile friction increased abandonment before purchase. | High | High | High | Medium | Medium |
Hidden membership value | Hidden benefits gave guest visitors little reason to register. | High | High | Medium | Medium | Low |
Static member experience | Repeated offers weakened relevance, conversion, and retention. | High | Medium | High | Low | Medium |
Stalled conversion paths | Missing next steps prevented deeper engagement or revenue. | High | High | High | Medium | Medium |
Three portfolio-level decisions
Measurement foundation
Revenue and traffic were visible, but not the behaviors connecting discovery, signup, engagement, and purchase journeys.
Measure the full journey so priorities followed customer behavior rather than siloed campaign results or design preferences.
Shared conversion metrics aligned product, engineering, and marketing investments.
Customer growth
Free experiences drew strong audiences but offered few paths to deeper engagement.
Use free content and experiences to reveal intent, build return habits, and create a natural path to paid value.
Created a connected path from free-content discovery to repeat engagement and greater customer lifetime value.
Commerce modernization
Fragmented legacy systems prevented teams from developing a complete view of customer behavior and value.
Identify the customer signals that mattered, then connect them across reporting systems to guide experiences and offers.
Created a shared customer context across teams, enabling continuous conversion improvement.
Measurement at a glance
Product, marketing, and engineering used a shared view of performance from acquisition through retention and delivery.
One view. Better decisions.
| Journey | Priority metrics | Decision informed | Resulting change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acquire |
| Channel investment based on qualified reach and scalable acquisition opportunities. | Increased organic search traffic 59% across priority content categories. |
| Engage |
| Content and pathway priorities based on progression into deeper journeys. | Lifted signup-to-first-purchase conversion 34% through clearer pathways. |
| Identify |
| Signup prompts and messaging based on a clear value exchange. | Increased organic-user signup conversion approximately 30%. |
| Monetize |
| The balance between advertising, engagement, and purchase pathways. | Increased checkout conversion 27% and average transaction value 47%. |
| Retain |
| Retention investment across saved context, recommendations, and messaging. | Grew distinct purchasers 24% and transactions 27% year over year. |
| Operate |
| Reusable systems and release standards needed to scale without added risk. | Introduced QA automation to improve release speed and reliability across concurrent initiatives. |
01 · Define the scope
Each system started with small commitments that could produce measurable impact. Everything beyond that stayed deferred until the data justified it.
Modernize checkout across 50+ ecommerce products while protecting revenue.
Build templates that publish faster, convert better, and protect ad revenue.
Replace static signup and email flows with ones driven by real customer behavior.
Build a reliable foundation with reusable systems and shared behavioral data.
02 · Sequence the transformation
Teams aligned on direction, released working foundations, learned from customer behavior, optimized results, and expanded what performed.
| Focus area | Establish | Deliver | Learn | Optimize | Scale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commerce modernization | Prioritize high-value purchase journeys Define checkout, data, and product-access standards | Launch reusable checkout across priority products Connect behavior, transaction, and product-access tracking | Identify conversion drop-off Compare payment and purchase patterns | Improve checkout using conversion behavior Personalize recommendations using purchase history | Extend the proven commerce system across 50+ products |
| Content & advertising | Prioritize high-traffic content journeys Define publishing, conversion, and advertising standards | Launch reusable high-traffic templates with conversion and ad-placement tracking | Identify content that deepens engagement Compare conversion and ad performance by placement | Improve content recommendations Balance conversion paths with ad performance | Extend proven templates and publishing workflows across the portfolio |
| Lifecycle & marketing | Prioritize signup, onboarding, and return journeys Define signup, onboarding, and retention measures | Launch tracked signup, onboarding, and welcome journeys Connect customer behavior to lifecycle messaging | Identify the behaviors and messages that drive activation and return visits | Personalize journeys by customer behavior Optimize message timing and cadence | Scale proven retention journeys through automation |
| Technical & data foundation | Define reusable architecture, data, and delivery standards Map dependencies across the portfolio | Launch reusable frameworks and shared events Establish reliable reporting and release QA | Identify data gaps and system bottlenecks Surface release risks and recurring manual work | Unify customer profiles while modernizing systems through each release | Extend proven systems, tools, and automation across the portfolio |
| What this enabled | Aligned priorities | Reusable foundations | Evidence-led decisions | Connected customer experiences | Faster portfolio rollout |
Operating Realities
Risk shaped release order, rollout controls, and the evidence required to expand.
| Risk | Early warning signals | Response | Success signal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer and revenue continuity | Conversion decline, payment failures, checkout abandonment, or support spikes. | Phase releases, preserve proven purchase paths, and monitor behavior throughout rollout. | Stable transactions, conversion, and repeat engagement. |
| Platform and experience stability | Error spikes, blocked releases, regressions, or device-level conversion gaps. | Introduce reusable foundations, automated QA, and controlled product-by-product migration. | Fewer regressions, faster releases, and consistent completion. |
| Measurement integrity | Missing events, reporting discrepancies, or implausible behavioral changes. | Establish event standards, validate known outcomes, and reconcile discrepancies before decisions. | Metrics trusted across product, marketing, and leadership. |
| Organizational alignment | Scope churn, delayed approvals, or conflicting requirements. | Establish shared requirements, decision rules, checkpoints, and portfolio reporting. | Faster approvals and fewer late-stage changes. |
Likelihood and impact determined whether teams acted, prepared, monitored, or accepted the risk.
03 · Define completion
A release advanced only when it created customer value, produced trustworthy evidence, and protected the live business.
| Focus area | Acceptance criteria | Evidence | Business guardrail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commerce modernization | Customers can purchase and revisit products on any device. | Pricing, product access, and purchase history remain accurate. | Protect revenue and payment accuracy during migration. |
| Content & advertising | Teams can publish content without compromising conversion or ad performance. | Engagement, conversion, and advertising performance remain stable or improve. | Maintain traffic and advertising revenue during rollout. |
| Lifecycle & marketing | Customers complete signup and onboarding without losing data or context. | Signup completion, message delivery, and activation remain measurable and accurate. | Preserve consent, deliverability, and customer trust. |
| Technical & data foundation | Reusable systems support faster releases and consistent customer data. | Tracking accuracy, reporting consistency, and release speed meet defined standards. | Increase delivery speed without compromising reliability or data integrity. |
| Across every system | Revenue and customer context remain intact through every migration. | Each release produces reliable evidence and reduces reliance on manual testing. | Protect the live business and customer journey throughout every phase. |
How I led the portfolio
Led a 15-person team at peak—3 designers, 6 engineers, 3 writers, 2 marketers, and 1 project manager—around shared portfolio priorities.
Established shared metrics, decision forums, and clear ownership so five disciplines operated as one connected product team.
Directed planning, readiness, migrations, and phased customer rollouts while protecting revenue and customer continuity.
Led 3 engineers in building analytics systems that aligned product, marketing, and executive investment decisions.
Product experience gallery
Reflection
“I would establish the measurement foundation earlier.”
Behavioral instrumentation shortened debates, clarified the role of each product family, and helped product, engineering, and marketing prioritize the same connected customer journey.