This project marked my first experience designing a live app from the ground up, and doing it entirely remotely pushed me to adapt quickly. Without the ability to sketch ideas on a whiteboard or have quick in-person check-ins, I learned to be more intentional with communication—UX sync calls became essential for building alignment and ensuring design decisions translated properly to development. Being removed from direct user feedback was challenging since the engineering team managed those responses, but it taught me to ask better questions during handoffs and advocate for stronger feedback loops.

Looking ahead, the next major initiative is introducing customizable storefronts that let sellers build their own brand presence within the app. The design challenge is empowering sellers to express themselves while maintaining cinched's overall aesthetic integrity—likely through flexible templates that align with our core principles of muted palettes and clean typography. The foundation is solid, but there's real opportunity to evolve cinched. into something more than a marketplace—a destination where users can make the platform their own.