Etsy: Interest Expansion
Product Designer • 2025–2026
Etsy wanted to evolve from a marketplace people visited with a mission into one they returned to for inspiration. My work focused on the first pillar of that vision: helping Etsy understand each buyer's unique tastes so we could create more personal, meaningful discovery.
The visionA marketplace that gets you
THE CHALLENGEMore than the sum of your clicks
Etsy's recommendation engine relied heavily on behavioral signals like clicks, favorites, searches, carts, and purchases. While those interactions revealed patterns, they couldn't fully explain who a buyer was, what they loved, or why they were shopping today.
THE ApproachWe started small.
Before asking buyers to maintain a dedicated interest profile, we explored dozens of lightweight ways to capture explicit preferences in the moments they naturally shopped. Each experiment taught us something different about willingness, timing, interaction cost, and what kinds of feedback buyers were happy to provide.
THE MVPLearning before scaling
We didn't need a perfect experience—we needed evidence. The MVP focused on the core behavior: could buyers understand the value of an interest profile, and would they contribute information that Etsy couldn't already infer?
THE LEARNINGBuyers taught Etsy things it couldn't learn on its own
Nearly half of all added interests weren't selected from our suggestions—they were completely new interests.
The MVP proved buyers were willing to share interests Etsy couldn't infer on its own—but typing every interest into a text field wasn't scalable. We wanted to make discovering new interests feel just as effortless as discovering new products.
THE EVOLUTIONExpanding interests, not just collecting them.
The MVP proved buyers were willing to teach Etsy things it couldn't infer. The next challenge was making that process feel less like filling out a profile and more like discovering new passions.
Instead of asking buyers to invent their profile from scratch, we used GENIE's understanding of each buyer to generate meaningful interest affinities. Starting with one known interest, we could introduce closely related hobbies, fandoms, aesthetics, and creative pursuits that naturally expanded their profile.
If you like Anime, you might also like Studio Ghibli, Hello Kitty, or Sailor Moon. If you tell us you love Crochet... guess what else you can do with a needle and thread? Embroidery, Cross Stitch, and Knitting.
The second iteration added visual context and richer recommendations so buyers could evaluate suggestions at a glance. Instead of staring at a blank text field, they could effortlessly expand their interests through guided discovery.
LOOKING AHEADThe profile was never the product.
The interest profile wasn't the end goal—it was the foundation. My long-term vision was to turn explicit buyer feedback into a continuous feedback loop that improved discovery across Etsy.
LOOKING AHEADEvery interaction makes recommendations smarter.
The profile wasn't meant to live in isolation. It became a shared source of truth that could power personalized recommendations throughout Etsy—from the home feed to search, seasonal collections, and future shopping experiences.
