Shopify
AI-native leadership in online checkout
2025
As one of the early adopters of AI at Shopify, I made strides with how we push AI to prototype and develop ideas while launching impactful initiatives in crypto, agentic (AI) commerce and leading a major Checkout redesign.
The problem
Shopify Checkout powers 12% of ecommerce sites and almost $400 billion in Total Payment Volume (TPV) a year. Its Checkout is considered the Gold Standard. How do you improve a product that already works well? With changing headwinds in the payments space - a dated UI, competitors, AI - my challenge was to quickly learn what worked and quickly leverage research, data and instinct to identify new opportunities for Shopify to stay a leader in the payments and ecommerce space.
The problem
Shopify Checkout powers 12% of ecommerce sites and almost $400 billion in Total Payment Volume (TPV) a year. Its Checkout is considered the Gold Standard. How do you improve a product that already works well? With changing headwinds in the payments space - a dated UI, competitors, AI - my challenge was to quickly learn what worked and quickly leverage research, data and instinct to identify new opportunities for Shopify to stay a leader in the payments and ecommerce space.
The problem
Shopify Checkout powers 12% of ecommerce sites and almost $400 billion in Total Payment Volume (TPV) a year. Its Checkout is considered the Gold Standard. How do you improve a product that already works well? With changing headwinds in the payments space - a dated UI, competitors, AI - my challenge was to quickly learn what worked and quickly leverage research, data and instinct to identify new opportunities for Shopify to stay a leader in the payments and ecommerce space.
Finding opportunities for growth
I worked across disciplines to identify multiple initiatives to improve Shopify's famously performant Checkout.
Finding opportunities for growth
I worked across disciplines to identify multiple initiatives to improve Shopify's famously performant Checkout.
Finding opportunities for growth
I worked across disciplines to identify multiple initiatives to improve Shopify's famously performant Checkout.
My role as a leader
I led a small team of 6 designers and a content designer. As Shopify does not have UX researchers, we did our own research. Each designer was responsible for a pillar - ex. Payment Methods, Core Checkout, Foundations, Advanced Features (ex. split shipping), Agentic. I was hands-on in identifying roadmap opportunities, working across stakeholders inside and outside of Shopify (ex. OpenAI, Coinbase), and demonstrating new ways of leveraging AI to unblock designers, work more efficiently, and create novel, innovative experiences. I also was hands-on in sketching and prototyping to push our explorations, some of which are shown below.
My role as a leader
I led a small team of 6 designers and a content designer. As Shopify does not have UX researchers, we did our own research. Each designer was responsible for a pillar - ex. Payment Methods, Core Checkout, Foundations, Advanced Features (ex. split shipping), Agentic. I was hands-on in identifying roadmap opportunities, working across stakeholders inside and outside of Shopify (ex. OpenAI, Coinbase), and demonstrating new ways of leveraging AI to unblock designers, work more efficiently, and create novel, innovative experiences. I also was hands-on in sketching and prototyping to push our explorations, some of which are shown below.
My role as a leader
I led a small team of 6 designers and a content designer. As Shopify does not have UX researchers, we did our own research. Each designer was responsible for a pillar - ex. Payment Methods, Core Checkout, Foundations, Advanced Features (ex. split shipping), Agentic. I was hands-on in identifying roadmap opportunities, working across stakeholders inside and outside of Shopify (ex. OpenAI, Coinbase), and demonstrating new ways of leveraging AI to unblock designers, work more efficiently, and create novel, innovative experiences. I also was hands-on in sketching and prototyping to push our explorations, some of which are shown below.
Brand Expression x AI
One opportunity I identified was that Shopify’s Checkout lacked branding on merchant storefronts. I worked with my design team to ideate on ways we could keep the consistency of Shopify’s checkout while allowing limited but impactful moments for brand voice that are effortless for merchants to set up and implement.
Brand Expression x AI
One opportunity I identified was that Shopify’s Checkout lacked branding on merchant storefronts. I worked with my design team to ideate on ways we could keep the consistency of Shopify’s checkout while allowing limited but impactful moments for brand voice that are effortless for merchants to set up and implement.
Brand Expression x AI
One opportunity I identified was that Shopify’s Checkout lacked branding on merchant storefronts. I worked with my design team to ideate on ways we could keep the consistency of Shopify’s checkout while allowing limited but impactful moments for brand voice that are effortless for merchants to set up and implement.
Extracting brand attributes with AI
I sketched with the team around ideas where the brand color and logo could interplay in the header more boldly. I used Claude Code to create a proof of concept showing how we could use AI to automate color combinations for background, accent colors and transparent logos.
Extracting brand attributes with AI
I sketched with the team around ideas where the brand color and logo could interplay in the header more boldly. I used Claude Code to create a proof of concept showing how we could use AI to automate color combinations for background and accent colors against generated transparent logos.
Extracting brand attributes with AI
I sketched with the team around ideas where the brand color and logo could interplay in the header more boldly. I used Claude Code to create a proof of concept showing how we could use AI to automate color combinations for background and accent colors against generated transparent logos.
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Shopify
AI-native leadership in online checkout
2025
As one of the early adopters of AI at Shopify, I made strides with how we push AI to prototype and develop ideas while launching impactful initiatives in crypto, agentic (AI) commerce and leading a major Checkout redesign.
Agentic Commerce
As part of a small cross-functional team, I helped pitch OpenAI on a first-of-its-kind integration allowing ChatGPT users to purchase directly within chat, turning ChatGPT into a commerce surface for over a million Shopify merchants overnight.
Agentic Commerce
As part of a small cross-functional team, I helped pitch OpenAI on a first-of-its-kind integration allowing ChatGPT users to purchase directly within chat, turning ChatGPT into a commerce surface for over a million Shopify merchants overnight.
Agentic Commerce
As part of a small cross-functional team, I helped pitch OpenAI on a first-of-its-kind integration allowing ChatGPT users to purchase directly within chat, turning ChatGPT into a commerce surface for over a million Shopify merchants overnight.
Checkout in the AI era
We explored ways to make Checkout more compact, flexible and versatile so it can sit naturally within the context of agentic surfaces like ChatGPT and Claude. This work resulted in a successful partnership with Open AI.
Checkout in the AI era
We explored ways to make Checkout more compact, flexible and versatile so it can sit naturally within the context of agentic surfaces like ChatGPT and Claude. This work resulted in a successful partnership with Open AI.
Checkout in the AI era
We explored ways to make Checkout more compact, flexible and versatile so it can sit naturally within the context of agentic surfaces like ChatGPT and Claude. This work resulted in a successful partnership with Open AI.
Launching Crypto
Another cross-company collaboration was with Coinbase, in which we worked directly across two leaders in fintech and ecommerce to bring cryptocurrency into Shopify. The product launched in July 2025 with a joint announcement onstage between the two CEOs.
Launching Crypto
Another cross-company collaboration was with Coinbase, in which we worked directly across two leaders in fintech and ecommerce to bring cryptocurrency into Shopify. The product launched in July 2025 with a joint announcement onstage between the two CEOs.
Launching Crypto
Another cross-company collaboration was with Coinbase, in which we worked directly across two leaders in fintech and ecommerce to bring cryptocurrency into Shopify. The product launched in July 2025 with a joint announcement onstage between the two CEOs.
Crypto for everyone
A key design challenge was making crypto feel like another part of the overall Checkout experience. While crypto users tend to be more tech-forward, we pushed to simplify the experience on both Shopify and Coinbase surfaces so they feel streamlined in the end-to-end journey.
Crypto for everyone
A key design challenge was making crypto feel like another part of the overall Checkout experience. While crypto users tend to be more tech-forward, we pushed to simplify the experience on both Shopify and Coinbase surfaces so they feel streamlined in the end-to-end journey.
Crypto for everyone
A key design challenge was making crypto feel like another part of the overall Checkout experience. While crypto users tend to be more tech-forward, we pushed to simplify the experience on both Shopify and Coinbase surfaces so they feel streamlined in the end-to-end journey.
Using Figma Make to show how payment methods can scale with a novel carousel pattern.
The outcome
My time at Shopify landed multiple wins. A complete audit and roadmap for redesigning Checkout with live experiments proving out the uplift in conversion. Two major launches with Open AI and Coinbase, showcasing Shopify at the bleeding edge of commerce and AI and unlocking millions of new users. As a leader, I leveraged a small but mighty team, finding ways to elevate designers that could operate at a higher level, and stepping in to do hands-on design work to offer fresh perspectives, a bolder point of view, or to augment the team. My work in AI set the stage for a transformation at the company, showing designers ways to operationalize design across design and coding tools and build software and hardware prototypes to get a more visceral read on the quality of the experiences we were building.
The outcome
My time at Shopify landed multiple wins. A complete audit and roadmap for redesigning Checkout with live experiments proving out the uplift in conversion. Two major launches with Open AI and Coinbase, showcasing Shopify at the bleeding edge of commerce and AI and unlocking millions of new users. As a leader, I leveraged a small but mighty team, finding ways to elevate designers that could operate at a higher level, and stepping in to do hands-on design work to offer fresh perspectives, a bolder point of view, or to augment the team. My work in AI set the stage for a transformation at the company, showing designers ways to operationalize design across design and coding tools and build software and hardware prototypes to get a more visceral read on the quality of the experiences we were building.
The outcome
My time at Shopify landed multiple wins. A complete audit and roadmap for redesigning Checkout with live experiments proving out the uplift in conversion. Two major launches with Open AI and Coinbase, showcasing Shopify at the bleeding edge of commerce and AI and unlocking millions of new users. As a leader, I leveraged a small but mighty team, finding ways to elevate designers that could operate at a higher level, and stepping in to do hands-on design work to offer fresh perspectives, a bolder point of view, or to augment the team. My work in AI set the stage for a transformation at the company, showing designers ways to operationalize design across design and coding tools and build software and hardware prototypes to get a more visceral read on the quality of the experiences we were building.
