Live Shopping HELLO App · Rafael Carvalho

Overview

HELLO was built to help a TV-first retailer become creator-led and mobile-first. I led Design from concept to scale across three teams and three product surfaces.

Live Shopping HELLO App — A social commerce loop built across consumer, creator, and partner surfaces.

My direct contribution: hands-on Designer

Discovery + Conception + V1

Sole designer from day 0: owned the full concept
Ran discovery: user interviews, competitive analysis, behavioral hypothesis
Designed the full IA, navigation, and core UI for V1
Built and tested prototypes with real users to validate the creator discovery loop
Created scenario-based concepts and trade-off presentations for board approval
Made the build vs buy recommendation for the livestream player, with UX and technical rationale

Team & collaboration

Scale + Post-launch

Led design strategy across 3 product teams and 3 surfaces
Set direction and owned cross-team trade-offs and high-risk decisions
Ran weekly critique cadence and quality gates across teams
Maintained cross-surface consistency: consumer, creator, partner apps
Defined instrumentation: adoption, engagement, and retention signals

Duration: 2020–2024. Surfaces: consumer app, creator streaming and academy app, service partner management app.

Impact

2.3× higher return likelihood for users who followed at least one creator
5,000+ live streams shipped on the platform
300+ creators activated and scaled
250+ hours of live content per month at peak
100M+ cumulative viewers reached

The Problem

HSE relied heavily on teleshopping, serving a loyal but aging audience. TV viewing was declining, younger audiences discovered products via creators, and HSE’s web and app were conversion-focused, not engagement-focused.

The question was simple: could we translate live selling into a digital-native product that drives repeat usage without damaging the core business?

TV viewership is declining — TV viewing time has been declining for years, making a digital-first growth model critical. Source: Statista

The Hypothesis

If we combined creator-led entertainment with clear commerce intent, users would build habits around creators and return for live streams.

How I Led

This project had two distinct modes. Pre-launch, I worked as the sole designer: individual contributor, hands-on, accountable for every pixel and decision. Post-launch, I shifted to design lead across three product teams.

Pre-launch: Designed by me, personally

Full IA and information architecture for the consumer app
Core UI for V1: onboarding, home feed, creator profile, livestream player, checkout integration
User research and prototype testing to validate navigation and creator discovery
Scenario-based concepts and trade-off decks for board approval
Build vs buy evaluation and recommendation for the livestream player
Design system foundations for HELLO: tokens, components, spacing

Post-launch: Led the team

Set design direction and strategy across 3 product teams
Aligned Product, Engineering, and senior stakeholders on priorities
Ran weekly critique cadence and quality gates across surfaces
Stayed hands-on in high-risk flows: player evolution, follow redesign, creator onboarding
Defined and tracked instrumentation: adoption, engagement, retention signals

Key Decisions

1. Recorded replays to prevent empty sessions

Early livestream supply was limited. Empty sessions kill first-time experience. We introduced recorded replays to stabilize the loop while supply ramped up.

2. Follow as the retention driver

We discovered that following a creator was the strongest predictor of return behavior. We redesigned creator profiles, added follow entry points, and surfaced follow consistently across the journey.

Follow feature — Follow became the main adoption signal and retention loop.

3. Livestream player evolution, build vs buy

We launched with a third-party player to learn fast. After validating demand, we built a custom player to enable better performance, multiple products, vouchers, and integrated follow.

Build vs buy trade-offs and player evolution — Build vs buy sequencing reduced risk and unlocked long-term capabilities.

How I Measured Success

Adoption: Follow at least one creator
Engagement: time spent, streams watched, interactions
Retention: return rate
Supply: active creators, livestream hours

Outcome

The product validated the behavioral loop. Scaling exposed constraints: marketing investment and assortment adaptation did not fully materialize, and brand perception limited how far expectations could reset.

Leadership discontinued the HELLO brand and integrated the strongest concepts into HSE’s core web and app platforms, while social commerce capabilities continued.

Takeaway

Leading a C-level-approved 0→1 social commerce product taught me how to align teams around one behavioral metric and scale a capability through strategic pivots.