IN-PRODUCT UPSELLS
The company’s objective was to increase revenue by encouraging customers to purchase and subscribe to premium services within the product. However, uncoordinated efforts from multiple product teams led to inconsistent upsells across the app without any unified vision. My goal was to establish a unified design language and strategy for in-product upsells.
MY ROLE
Product strategy
Visual design
Design systems
OUTCOME
~5% boost in conversion rates for Premium service
PLATFORMS
iOS
Mobile
Web
TYPES OF UPSELLS
There were five 23andMe services available for upsell within the product. The goal was to upsell as many customers into the Premium service as possible as this was a subscription tier that would lead to recurring revenue.
TOTAL HEALTH
-Exome sequencing
-Clinical labs and consultations
PREMIUM
-Premium health and ancestry reports
HEALTH UPGRADE
-Health Reports
V5 CHIP UPGRADE
-Upgrade to the newest chip
-FDA Approved
ANCESTRY BOOK
-Printed ancestry reports
DESIGN AUDIT
I began with a design audit to uncover how upsells were used in our product, cataloging every instance across web and mobile. By organizing them by component type and upsell level, I gained clarity on their usage, paving the way for a fresh, strategic framework for in-product upsells.
KEY DISCOVERIES
NO CLEAR VALUE PROPOSITIONS
Upsells did not adequately highlight the value and benefit of purchasing premium service tiers. Upsells tried to sell customers into higher tiers by simply offering users “more reports”.
INCONSISTENT DESIGN STYLES
Over the years, upsells were added without a cohesive design system, resulting in a patchwork of inconsistent styles across the product. There were even multiple versions of the same component being used across the site.
OUTDATED LANDING PAGES
Some upsells directed users to outdated pages—for instance, a banner about an old chip version linked to a static PDF instead of guiding them to upgrade their chip.
UNCLEAR UPSELLS
The upsell for premium features was unclear and misleading. For example, this upsell simply read that I had zero historical matches.
CREATING TEMPLATES
After collecting all of the different upsell components that were used across the website, I identified all of the elements that were used in them. I started creating templates for all the main components that we used and adding them to our design system. This approach enabled us to streamline the upsell process by establishing clear, standardized guidelines for CTAs and landing pages. By ensuring a cohesive and user-friendly flow, we created a more engaging and seamless experience that increased the likelihood of conversions.
ALIGNING THE TEAM
While I was standardizing upsell designs, new variations kept popping up as product managers and designers created similar but inconsistent components to upsell products across our website. To tackle this, I called a meeting with designers across teams to align on a unified approach. I developed streamlined templates, added it to our design system, and ensured all future upsells followed a cohesive and polished standard.

PRODUCT STRATEGY AND VISION

Reviewing the content for the different upsells, I noticed that most upsells vaguely promised 'more reports.' To address this, I led a painkiller exercise from Tony Fadell's book to Build pinpoint the specific customer problems each service level aimed to solve. This helped the team clarify the unique value propositions at every tier, enabling us to effectively communicate the tangible benefits we were offering.

PAINKILLERS

KEY TAKEAWAYS
These are the key takeaways on how 23andMe could better differentiate between their service levels and the value they provided to the customer.
TOTAL HEALTH
Total Health provided customers clinical tests and services. This included full exome sequencing, bloodlabs, clinician consults, and pharmaceuticals.
PREMIUM
23andMe Premium helped users understand and lower their risk for common conditions through personalized lifestyle recommendations.
HEALTH UPGRADE
There was an opportunity to overcome people's hesitation about learning potentially frightening genetic conditions by connecting them to their family health history. These were difficult but necessary conversations to have.
CHIP UPGRADE
Upgrading to the lates chip would give customers access to trusted FDA approved genetic health reports in addition to the most ancestry regions of any genetic service.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
NEW VALUE PROPOSITIONS
I used the new templates and value propositions and worked with our content writer to design tailored upsells for each service level. For some services, I created multiple versions to better target users based on their interests, transforming how we showcased our offerings.
IMPROVED UPSELL LOGIC
Developing multiple variations for each upsell enabled us to adopt a more targeted and effective upsell strategy. For instance, encouraging users who had not yet upgraded to our latest chip was one of our top-priority upsell initiatives.

Previously, our system would indiscriminately target these users with offers for a printed ancestry book, regardless of whether they had already made a purchase. This approach lacked precision and failed to fully capitalize on user segmentation, highlighting the need for a more tailored strategy.
PERSONALIZED RECOMMENDATIONS
By tailoring Premium upsells to popular conditions like diabetes and heart disease, we created a more personalized customer experience. Targeting related conditions and features allowed us to highlight relevant reports, making the value of our Premium services clear—rather than simply advertising 'more reports.'
TARGETING TOTAL HEALTH
I also identified opportunities to better target Total Health. For example, customers seeking to learn more about their cancer risk should purchase Total Health as it included full exome sequencing which is essential for identifying whether they carry genetic variants linked to cancer.

Our Premium service only includes a limited number of variants which could result in a false negative. This makes Total Health the clear choice for those seeking the most complete and actionable understanding of their cancer risk.

Therefore, I advocated for a strategy in which we would highlight our Total Health service in areas of our app that focused on cancer.

CONCLUSION

Through a comprehensive approach to design, strategy, and optimization, I transformed how upsells were integrated into the product. By conducting a design audit, establishing clear value propositions, and creating tailored, context-driven templates, I addressed longstanding inconsistencies and enhanced the relevance of upsells for users.
This strategic overhaul not only improved the customer experience by offering meaningful, value-added services at key touchpoints but also streamlined the design system to ensure consistency across teams. The result was a more cohesive, effective upsell framework that aligned customer needs with business goals, ultimately driving engagement and unlocking new opportunities for growth.
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