Brandless.com

A full UX redesign for the no-brand store

Kill the "brand tax." Everyday essentials at a flat $3, no logos to pay for. It was a clean idea with a hidden flaw: shipping a $3 jar of peanut butter costs more than $3.

Brandless brought me in as senior product designer to lead its web and mobile redesign. Research, IA, a design system that made "brandless" read as deliberate, not cheap. The work was good. But from the inside, the warning signs were everywhere: siloed, highly paid teams sprinting in different directions, marketing flooring it before the product was ready.

It was growth-led, not product-led — you can't market your way to a fit you haven't found yet. SoftBank had dropped in $240 million; Brandless folded in 2020. No redesign fixes that. Find the product first, then pour on the fuel.