Mindful Hustle Plan is my hobby project that turned into a passive income side business. During the years I actively ran this business, I reached a 6-figure annual profit within the first year and my shop was ranked in the top 0.01% among 6+ million active Etsy sellers. I developed and designed a product inventory of around 80 items - specializing in productivity tools, calendars, and planners. I applied a user-centered approach and spent a lot of time understanding the needs and motivations of my customers before creating products. Running this shop allowed me to develop a “product sense,” which aides my UX approach.
APPLYING A USER-CENTERED APPROACH TO BUSINESS
In creating my shop, I applied principles of user experience. I took steps to research and understand exactly who are my users, or in this case - my customers. I explored everything from basic demographics like their gender, age to more interesting ones like where do they hangout online and what hobbies they enjoy. After acquiring a deep empathy for my customers, I used this knowledge to create products that catered to both their functional needs and their taste in design style.
INCORPORATING USER FEEDBACK INTO PRODUCT ITERATIONS
Much like user testing, I collected positive and negative feedback from my customers and often have message exchanges with them in an effort to understand what they like or dislike about different products. I iterated my products based on these feedback. I found negative reviews especially helpful for improving products.
The 2019 Wanderlust Calendar was inspired by my passion for traveling.