Connect with shoppers, anywhere.
The Ask.
Google housed its merchant advertising solutions on a platform called Google for Retail and needed to expand the site to support new features and capabilities.
As the product evolved, so did the messaging challenge.
The Challenge.
After multiple rounds of updates, the site had become dense and jargon-heavy, weighed down by technical language that obscured value.
The audience ranged from small businesses to enterprise retailers.
The copy spoke fluently about the product. It did not speak fluently about the user.
Worse, the workflow was brief-led and module-driven. Language was being inherited, not interrogated.
Clarity suffered.
The Insight.
When a page feels confusing, the issue usually isn’t volume of information.
It’s lack of narrative hierarchy.
If we rebuilt the story from the user’s point of view—before design constraints hardened—we could turn the page from something complex into something coherent.
My Solution.
As lead copywriter, I reshaped the narrative strategy for the platform as it grew, writing banners, modules, and full product pages while redefining how these solutions were positioned.
During one pivotal sprint, it became clear a key page wasn’t working. Rather than iterating around unclear messaging, I proposed we rebuild it from the ground up, story first.
I led a cross-functional storytelling workshop that included creatives and client stakeholders. Together, we:
Stepped into the mindset of a first-time user
Identified the core questions they would naturally ask
Articulated clear, human answers to those questions
I translated that exercise into a new page architecture, using those answers as positioning statements for each module.
Only after the narrative spine was solid did we refine language, visuals, and supporting details.
The result was a fundamentally clearer, more persuasive page—dramatically different from the original design-driven draft.
My Impact.
Transformed a jargon-heavy product page into a user-centered narrative
Shifted team workflow from module-first to story-first
Established storytelling workshops as a repeatable kickoff model for future design exercises
Improved clarity and cohesion across the platform as it expanded
What began as a page rewrite became a process reset.
From that point forward, new design work started not with preferred language from a brief, but with product narrative and user journey alignment.
