Zera Hemp Labs
Clients: L3A UX Studio, MCR Labs
In 2018, the US removed restrictions on hemp by no longer classifying it as cannabis, making it easier to send hemp products and samples across state lines. MCR Labs decided to jump into the $4.75B blue ocean.
The Challenge: L3a Studio and I had never worked in hemp before. There was no existing model for what MCR Labs needed us to build—a laboratory network and a never-before-seen ecommerce and intake platform, launched nationwide.
What I Did
Our strategy met the needs of a diverse range of stakeholders, including hemp cultivators, product producers, buyers, sellers, our client’s employees, future lab partners, and regulatory bodies across federal and state levels. So we created a never-before-seen ecommerce and intake platform.
Success Stats
- Became the team MCR Labs trusted on legal, cultivation, and testing questions
- Built a real UX process from scratch—personas, user flows, interviews, and testing—for an industry with no existing model to follow
- Launched a marketing site, accounts portal, and shipping kit that took customers from first search to package at their door
- Zera Hemp Labs was ready to hit the market within 12 months
Expertise
- Product & Experience Strategy
- UX Research & Design
- Content Strategy & UX Writing
- Usability Testing
- Wireframing & Prototyping
- Competitive Analysis
Concept → Launch
To become the domain experts, we kept a running internal wiki of every legal cultivation, and testing question we ran into. We also audited over 30 competitors across the testing space to understand the market, which helped us build the accounts portal.
The marketing site was the first touchpoint for cultivators, producers, and buyers discovering Zera Hemp Labs for the first time. We built it to explain the testing process simply and move visitors toward the accounts portal, not just describe the company.
User interviews and early testing with real cultivators and product makers shaped the account portal—a single place where users could order, pay, track, and manage every test for their hemp products.
User research encouraged MCR Labs to ask us to ideate a shipping kit to help customers with a quick turnaround send in their products. Using a service blueprint, we designed the experience end to end—from email confirmations to the proper mailing print-outs.
“Sarah is simply awesome to work with. I can’t wait to work with her again.”
Lisa Lokshina · Co-Founder · L3A UX STUDIO