Photo^ by^ Hannah^
W
eiVOICES
Interview
Verne Ho loves making things that
enables others to make things. It’s
the common thread running through all
the projects he’s involved in. “Education
and empowerment are a deeply rooted
passion of mine,” he explains. “I find
myself constantly chasing opportunities
where I can accelerate more creative
ambitions. If the impact of my work stops
simply at me, I tend to lose motivation.”
Most recently this purpose has been
focused on Kit, Shopify’s virtual assistant
(www.shopify.co.uk/kit). It helps merchants,
especially smaller ones, free up time by
taking care of complex tasks on their
behalf. Merchants effectively hire
Kit to join their team to manage parts
of their business they either don’t have
the expertise, staff or interest to take
on themselves.
“One of the areas that Kit specialises
in is marketing,” Ho points out by way of
an example. “This is one of the biggest
hurdles for our merchants to overcome,
so Kit helps by distilling down the tasks
of creating Facebook ads, social posts and
email campaigns to a few simple questions
like what products they’d like to promote
and how much they would like to spend.
Everything else, it intelligently optimises
for the merchant. Kit can also proactively
recommend tasks for the merchant, such
as fixing a broken link or promoting a new
review, which typically only require a ‘yes’
to execute. This also includes tasks the
merchant may not even have thought of,
like running an ad when a product category
is trending or sending a personalised
‘thank you’ email to a repeat customer.”
Ho previously co-founded and served
as creative director at Toronto-based user
experience studio Jet Cooper, which
helped startups and brands create
products and accelerate their growth.
After four and a half years, Shopify came
knocking. “The move to be acquired by
Shopify was one of the most difficult
decisions we ever had to make,” Ho
remembers. “Jet Cooper presented a
commitment to our team and a shared
alignment on our collective life’s work.
We wanted to do right by each of our 23
team members and our vision to apply
design as a lever to create meaningful and
lasting products. Fortunately, Shopify and“I fell in love with [Kit],
its potential to change
merchants’ lives and the
new UX challenges it
came with”