01 · Before the brief
Moodboards feel personal. Online stores feel like billboards.
In August 2025, a product manager and I kept asking one question: why does a moodboard feel so personal? It says: this is made for you. A store’s homepage says the opposite, with the same banners for everyone.
We turned the question into a blue-sky concept: a homepage made of cards, each run by an AI agent that learns one shopper. We prototyped it with an internal AI team.
Two ideas from it carried into this pitch: agents the shopper can see, and the shopper staying in charge of them. You chose which cards to keep, and a card you removed could come back for 30 days.
02 · Research
Gen Z wants a store that knows them, and trusts people over brands.
Then a heritage fashion retailer asked for a pitch: it was losing Gen Z to stores that feel made for them, and we had two weeks. A team of five spent the first days on the retailer’s brand and five competitors. Customer-feedback data from HundredX showed where shoppers struggled.
Taylor’s group chat
Persona · nine friends, 16 to 20, US
They dress for each other and ask each other first, but every store shows them the same thing. They’re overwhelmed by generic curation.
- Ask the group chat first
- Swipe without thinking
- “Why is this store for everyone?”
What the data said
- 84%expect a store customized to them
- 76%trust peers and creators over brand ads
- 92%are fluent in swipe interfaces
Sources: HundredX customer feedback and secondary research, Oct 2025
Where shoppers struggled, and where it led
- Sizes are inconsistentso people order two and send one backFit Twin
- Recommendations are generic“You may also like”, for everyoneSwipe to teach
- Shoppers trust shoppersmore than the brand’s own photosReal people wearing it
- Stock is hard to trackyour size sells out before you decideDrop Watch
Key insightPersonalizing the whole experience, not just the product recommendations, was the opportunity nobody had taken.
Three rules we designed by
- Personal, never creepy.It learns only from what you do in the store, shows you what it learned, and forgets on request.
- Teach it by doing.Swipes, keeps and returns teach it. No profile forms.
- Suggest freely, act only with permission.The more it does for you, the more it asks first.
How we researched: brand, competitors, market
- Brand auditStory, values, visual assets
- Competitor auditFive brands, side by side
- SWOTThe retailer’s position
- PESTELForces shaping retail
- Porter’s five forcesCompetitive pressure
- Customer dataHundredX feedback
| Force | Pressure |
|---|---|
| Rivalry between brands | High |
| Substitutes | High |
| Buyer power | High |
| New entrants | Medium |
| Supplier power | Lower* |
*Not rated in the original analysis; described as reduced by a large supplier base.
03 · Where it lives
Decision 1 of 3
A feature first, not a new homepage.
Our blue-sky concept replaced the whole homepage. For a retailer with years of loyal shoppers, that was too big a first step: we hadn’t yet seen a single shopper use it. So we put it inside the store they already know, as one feature, and left the homepage to follow if shoppers kept coming back.
New
seasonShop the drop →
Hi Taylor. Everything here is picked for you, and says why.
Style Buddy3 looks for Friday’s gig. Your size, rain-ready.
SeePicked for you
Your agents
| Capability | General chatbot | Tidewell agents |
|---|---|---|
| Your fit, from what you kept and returned | ✕ No | ✓ Yes |
| What’s already in your wardrobe | ✕ Only what you type | ✓ From your orders |
| Live stock in your size | ✕ No | ✓ Yes |
| Acting for you: hold an item, add to bag | ✕ No | ✓ With your OK |
04 · How it learns
Decision 2 of 3
Teach it by doing, and always show what it learned.
No profile forms. Shoppers teach Style Buddy the way they already shop: swiping, keeping, sending back. In return it keeps nothing hidden. Every preference it holds is on one screen, and each one can be forgotten.
Boxy hoodie, sage$58
Retro runner$72
Coach jacket, cream$74
Swipe to teach
Borrows: swipe culture
Before browsing, shoppers swipe on up to 12 products. Each swipe trains the agents, using a gesture Gen Z already has muscle memory for.
You · teal
Your photo never leaves this phone.
See yourself
Borrows: the mirror check
Product photos show a model. See yourself shows the shopper: every colour of the piece on her own photo, so Noor sees how it looks on her, not on someone else. Her photo never leaves her phone, and she can delete it any time.
Still not sure? Ask friends
- Noor taps Ask friends under the colours she’s tried.
- Tidewell makes a private link she drops into her group chat. No friend needs the app or an account.
- Friends vote in their browser. They see the fit only: renders are cropped at the shoulders, so her face and photo are never shared.
- Votes land live on her screen. The link and the renders expire after 24 hours.
Only from what you did in this store.
- Prefers light layersFrom 9 swipes this week
- Takes S in boxy cutsKept the S hoodie, returned the M
- Pastels, not neonFrom 14 swipes
- Usually spends under $60From 6 orders
- Dresses up for Friday gigsFrom 3 chats
What it knows
Borrows: checking your own settings
Added after the pitch
Everything Style Buddy has learned sits on one screen, in plain words, with where it came from. Taylor can forget any of it, or pause learning altogether. A buddy you can’t see into is the one that starts to feel like it’s watching.
05 · How much it may do
Decision 3 of 3
The more it does for you, the more it asks.
We sorted every feature by how much the agent does on its own. At the bottom it only answers. At the top it holds an item for you, inside rules you set, and still never buys. Each step up adds one permission and one more way to say no.
- May
- Understand a full sentence and show what matches.
- Never
- Change anything you own or saved.
- You stay in control
- You read the results and choose. It shows how it read you.
Understood as
Search like you talk
Borrows: texting
Search understands full sentences and feelings, not just keywords. Maya searches the way she thinks, and the store works out what she means.
- May
- Show the piece on creators and real buyers.
- Never
- Use your photos or your posts.
- You stay in control
- You decide whose word counts.
How I style the butter blazer, 3 ways
Worn by 1.2k buyersReal people wearing it
Borrows: trusting peers
Every product page carries posts from creators and real buyers wearing the piece. Trust built the way Gen Z builds it: through people, not brands.
- May
- Suggest a size, and say why.
- Never
- Choose for you.
- You stay in control
- Any size is one tap. The reason is always on screen.
92% of shoppers with your fit kept the S.
Fit Twin
Replaces: ordering two sizes
Added after the pitch
Learns Lena’s fit from what she kept and returned, each garment’s real measurements, and shoppers built like her. It recommends a size and says why. She still chooses.
- May
- Put outfits together from what you own and what’s new.
- Never
- Add anything to your bag on its own.
- You stay in control
- Every outfit is a suggestion you can take apart.
Everyone in the group builds their own agents. These are Taylor’s: pick one to see it work on her phone.
Combinator3 new outfitsJackets for Taylor5 picksCare Library2 reminders
✦ Fit Twin: S fits you best in this cut
- Style Buddy sits at the centre
- Agents Taylor made herself
- Agents sharing what they learn
Style Buddy and your agents
Borrows: asking a friend
Style Buddy is the one agent Taylor talks to. Ask for a gig outfit and it pulls in the right helpers: Combinator puts together what she owns with what’s new. She can add agents of her own, each with one job. Every outfit is a suggestion she can take apart.
- May
- Watch restocks inside rules you set, and hold an item for 20 minutes.
- Never
- Buy. Holding is as far as it goes.
- You stay in control
- You set the rules, see every hold, and let it go in one tap.
Court runner, redSold out in 7 · watching
Puffer, blackWaiting for a price drop- Core teesNew drop Fri, 10am
Nothing is ever bought without your tap.
Drop Watch
Borrows: drop culture
Added after the pitch
Watches restocks, drops and price cuts in Kai’s size, inside rules he sets. When something lands, it holds it for 20 minutes and asks. It never buys without his tap.
When it gets it wrong Added after the pitch
- The size was offThe S Fit Twin suggested came back too tight. One tap on “Not quite” tells it why, and its next suggestion says what changed.
- It sold out during a holdDrop Watch says so straight away and keeps watching inside the same rules. It never swaps in something “similar” without asking.
- It misread the request“Comfy” came back as gym wear. The “Understood as” chips show its reading, so Maya removes one chip instead of typing it all again.
See the whole system: one buddy, small agents, and clear limits on what each can touch
Style Buddy is the only agent shoppers talk to. It hands each job to a smaller agent, and every agent can read only what its job needs.
- Search
- Reads
- The catalogue
- May
- Show what matches
- See yourself
- Reads
- Your photo, on this phone only
- May
- Show you in each colour
- Fit Twin
- Reads
- What you kept and sent back; each garment’s measurements
- May
- Suggest a size, with a reason
- Combinator
- Reads
- Your orders, new arrivals, the forecast
- May
- Put outfits together
- Drop Watch
- Reads
- Stock in your size
- May
- Hold an item for 20 minutes
- Agents you make
- Reads
- Only what you point it at
- May
- One job, like “Jackets for Taylor”
No agent canpay, buy, share your photo, or post for you.
06 · Outcome
The retailer became a Deloitte client.
The research, three decisions and working prototypes came together in a 2-week pitch, and the retailer signed.
What I took awayThis project wasn’t born for the client. It started as a design question, became a blue-sky concept, and won because we’d done the thinking before the brief arrived. That’s curiosity compounding.
Open certificate ↗
Recognition · 1 of 2
Outstanding Performance Award
From the product manager I started this thought experiment with
For building version after version of the concept, then taking it back to the drawing board and designing it from scratch, while mentoring a new designer.
“A creative sounding board and an inspiring designer.”
Open certificate ↗
Recognition · 2 of 2
Applause award: Collaborate for measurable impact
From the pitch team
For leading the design effort and presenting the reimagined experience that helped the team win the client’s business.
“Your vision, creativity, and design leadership helped bring a compelling experience to life.”
