Solace Shen is GlossGenius’s Head of UX Research. Discover what she loves about working at GlossGenius, the kinds of problems she’s solving, and where she thinks the company is headed toward in the future. 

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What attracted you to GlossGenius?

There are many things that attracted me to GlossGenius – the diversity in leadership, a talented team of professionals passionate about customer needs, and the attention to aesthetics that underlines everything we do, to name just a few.

But at the heart of it all, it is the communities of largely underrepresented small business owners that we serve. By empowering these entrepreneurs who, at their core, are artists and creatives, we are contributing to the realization of their dreams and ideals. In turn, this sustains the innovation, vibrancy, and prosperity of small business ecosystems that ultimately benefit the economy and society at large.

What’s your favorite thing about GlossGenius so far?

My favorite thing about GlossGenius is unequivocally our ethical business model that aligns incentives between our customers and the company. As a psychologist, I was trained in theories of how incentives shape human behaviors, and there are certainly examples of how these theories have played out in the tech industry where the profit models of tech companies have led to negative consequences. But at GlossGenius, the equation is simple: We profit if our customers profit.

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What's unique about your role at GlossGenius?

One of the things that attracted me to GlossGenius is the company’s commitment to understanding customer needs. Without having a formal UX research team, there has already been a wealth of impactful user research activities from our talented cross-functional teams.

To continue to nurture this incredible energy and customer empathy across the organization, one of my top priorities as the first professional UX researcher at GlossGenius is to build and develop a UX research infrastructure – systems, protocols, and processes – that most effectively democratizes UX research across the company. The goal is to make it possible for anyone, in any role, to do user research, and to provide the resources they need to leverage to optimize their user research efforts.

How do you see the company growing?

GlossGenius has achieved incredible success from having unlocked product-market fit early on. In the near term, I see us continuing to make improvements in how we serve our customers’ core needs in running a successful business, and tackling increasingly complicated use cases.

In the long-term, as we gain deeper understanding of our customers' needs across their business journey, I am excited to see us empowering beauty and wellness entrepreneurs at every stage of their career, and supporting them through transitional moments as they grow.

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GlossGenius is actively hiring across many departments – check out our open roles here.  

Additionally, below is some recent press you may be interested in:

• TechCrunch: GlossGenius Triples Valuation, Raises $25M to Give Beauty Industry's Tech Stack a Makeover
• Tearsheet: 2022 Winners of Tearsheet's Power of Payments Awards: GlossGenius Wins Best Payments App
• Entrepreneur: 100 Women of Influence in 2022 (including GlossGenius CEO, Danielle Cohen-Shohet)
• BeautyMatter: GlossGenius and the Power of Customizable Beauty SaaS
• Fast Company: The 10 Most Innovative Retail Companies of 2022