My eBay 2.0 - A behind-the-scenes look at one of the most ambitious eBay Projects ever
by Randall
eBay Staff Member

Many people have heard President Abraham Lincoln's famous statement about being able to fool some people some of the time. A similar statement can also be made when it comes to pleasing all members of eBay's global Community with a single tool.

Enhancing My eBay to serve the needs of all eBay buyers and sellers -- or coming as close as possible -- is exactly what the My eBay product team set out to do two years ago when they first began planning My eBay 2.0. This is always a challenge because eBay's membership is so diverse and uses the site in so many different ways.

"One person wants this, and one person wants that," said My eBay 2.0 Product Manager Lisa Vittek, who has overseen the development of this tool since 2000. "And each change affects everyone differently."

Vittek worked with a group of designers, programmers, analysts and others that ultimately grew into a team of more than 100 eBay employees. In preparation for the 2.0 version, they spent two years gathering an enormous amount of community feedback about the feature.

"We worked very closely with the Community," added Vittek, "collecting feedback from members through eBay's Voices program, the discussion boards, usability testing, as well as surveys."

One thing was a constant theme that ran through all the feedback they received from all the various sources: My eBay is a critical area of the site for a vast number of members, and they are very passionate about any changes it may undergo.

Another facet of the project that Vittek and team had to contend with is the complexity of the tool: "My eBay touches so many areas of the site and has so many pieces," added Vittek, "that it was clear from the start it would be a complex project."

The project was so complex, in fact, that it became clear during the discovery phase the team need to develop a whole new product with new underlying technology that could scale to meet the growing demands of the marketplace. In the interim, they would have to simultaneously work on incremental changes to the existing product, as well.

"The existing product still needed to go through improvements," stated Vittek, "and we knew members couldn't wait until we were able to complete an entire redesign."

As one of the largest projects undertaken at eBay, the team needed to "think outside the box" and develop methods that would facilitate working as a large team on such a big project. The My eBay team utilized an innovative software development technique which puts all members of the team, regardless of specialty, in the same physical area. This process was still very new within eBay when it was chosen for use with My eBay 2.0, and had never been used on a project of that size.

Creating workspace for all the product managers, software engineers, and other key people in the same small area significantly improved the team's ability to communicate and work together efficiently. "By using this new process we were able to make quick changes as we encountered product or usability issues along the way," said Vittek.

Among all the differing member opinions about what was most important in My eBay, one thing that all users agreed on was that, when logged in, they wanted to see what mattered most to them. The challenge, of course, was that not everything matters the same to everyone.

To solve this fundamental issue, the My eBay team designed a product that offers many options for customization. Each member is given the choice to set up My eBay according to their own needs, so that they define what will be displayed to them.

"We obviously don't want people to be forced to view things repeatedly that are not relevant to them," commented Vittek. "With My eBay 2.0 people can remove columns and sections they never use. We're really enabling the user to drive experience -- letting them mix columns, move containers up and down, and remove sections that don't pertain to them."

After three years of research and development, My eBay 2.0 was first released as a beta in late April of 2004. Although not all eBay features can be released in the same way, the My eBay Beta was another innovation developed to ensure the product was fully tested with working data by as many members as possible the switch was made. In the first couple weeks, more than 35,000 emails were submitted by members at an average of over 2,000 emails each day.

During the beta, it became clear that the price of a tool that is so customizable is a learning curve that takes some getting used to for members. The team has addressed the educational needs with more training materials and targeted workshops. The My eBay team, who had worked so hard on the project, was cautiously pleased by early feedback received during the beta. Even more encouraging than the feedback itself was the number of early converts: Within the first couple of weeks of the beta, a large percentage of My eBay users had already switched over to the new version voluntarily.

Only time will tell if the ambitious goal of satisfying all members with My eBay 2.0 will be achieved. However, Vittek and her team's efforts to work closely with the Community to develop a tool that could be "everything to everyone" seem to have hit the mark for members like bjonpan, who had this to say: "eBay has outdone itself again with the new My eBay…tons of cool new features and great outlining of all the info I need to have a successful auction."