12 years in marketing, 9 of them leading retention and lifecycle strategy for audiences from 1M to 10M+ across retail, on-demand delivery, and fintech, while still being hands-on across the platforms (Braze, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Iterable). Most recently at Indigo, SkipTheDishes, and CIBC.
When I joined, there was no onboarding program. New users got a single automated two-line welcome email, and whatever happened next was left to chance. Over three years I built the core lifecycle infrastructure from the ground up: onboarding, re-engagement, Skip+ subscriptions, courier lifecycle, and eventually the team and process that held it together.
A 4–6 step onboarding journey across email and push, shaped by data rather than guesswork. Working with Insights, Creative, BI, and Product, I dug into what separated users who stuck around from users who churned early.
One pattern stood out: users who ordered from Growth Verticals (groceries, flowers, pet food) reached their 5th order faster. Product reviews also showed people struggling to find features like Pickup. That shaped three emails: why choose Skip, how to use the app, and "we're more than food," plus a tested incentive of 5,000 bonus points on a user's first order if they hadn't ordered by Day 1.
I split users into three groups: ordered Day 1, didn't order Day 1 (got the points offer), and control, then tracked them against a self-serve Tableau dashboard I had BI build and test with dummy data before launch, so the results didn't depend on a manual pull.
A well-performing but blunt automated program: everyone inactive between 30 and 365 days got the same flat $10 or $15 offer, and it only reached users on push, so anyone subscribed to email alone was invisible to it.
I turned the automation off and, with the Insights team, spent about six months segmenting lapsed users by recency band and testing offer type and value against each: bonus points vs. vouchers, flat vs. tiered, $5 up through $15, tuned differently for 30–90 day, 90–150 day, and 180+ day users. I also added email as a channel, which grew monthly reach by roughly 600K on its own. Only once the testing held up did I bring it back to a fully automated, better-targeted program.
Organizational changes handed my team ownership of Courier and Partner communications on top of Customer, three times the surface area on the same headcount. Ownership was getting blurry and reporting was inconsistent.
I coined "3Cs": each teammate owns one Channel (email, push, in-app, top tile), one CRM Tool (SFMC, Braze, Movable Ink), and one Competitor to track (UberEats, DoorDash), a clear lane to own, while still able to divide and conquer on execution together.
What a difference you've made. Everything is trending up, and it's due in large part to your leadership, collaboration, and persistence.
Partnered with the Data Science team to personalize on-site and email recommendations, then ran the A/B testing program to prove it out.
Built 500px's lifecycle program from scratch, then noticed there was no trigger for membership page visits, so I added one: tier-specific, with a social proof email at day 3 and a tested discount at day 7.
Led a badges-and-points loyalty system end to end with Product and an external creative agency: cuisine badges, streaks, and a weekly "district chief" leaderboard.