Reinventing Commission Models for Tour & Experience Operators

Summary

Project at a Glance

Viator sought to move from a flat commission model to a dynamic, performance-based system to align with its growth strategy and boost supplier visibility.

Client

Viator - a Tripadvisor company

Timeline

12 months (MVP in 6 months, global rollout afterward)

My role

Lead UX Designer & Researcher

  • Shaped product vision pre-PM; onboarded successor

  • Represented UX in cross-functional leadership forums

  • Led end-to-end: research, design, and rollout strategy

Key Objectives

  • Replace static commission with scalable, incentive-aligned model

  • Enable suppliers to bid for visibility

  • Ensure product-market fit and global readiness

Early UI experiments for showing visibility scores

Outcomes

3%

Take Rate Lift

Surpassed the global average within 12 months

14%

Annual Revenue

Uplift attributed to new commission model

1%

Over MVP Goal

Outperformed initial KPIs in U.S. test market

Approach

Discovery & Vision

Conducted foundational research to understand supplier hesitation, workflow barriers, and motivations. Key findings:

  • Suppliers wanted clarity on who’s paying more and why

  • More openness to change when transparency and control were evident

Mapping Supplier Journeys

Visualized friction points and dependencies in onboarding and commission-setting—guided early design principles.

Designing the Gamified Commission Model

Introduced a transparent, value-based system, anchored in a “visibility score” showing how commissions affect exposure.

Design Principles

  • Transparency: Clarity between commission & listing position

  • Control: Suppliers choose bid levels

  • Fairness: Avoid disadvantaging smaller suppliers

Prototyped and tested:

  • Competitive comparison tools

  • Visual guidance on optimal levels

  • Smart defaults to prevent user overload

MVP Launch & Iteration

To test product-market fit, we launched the MVP in the U.S. with a limited group of suppliers. I partnered closely with Product, Engineering, and Marketing to ensure the design vision carried through to execution.

My design leadership focused on:

  • Readiness across touchpoints: Collaborated with marketing and CX to craft onboarding and education flows

  • Iterative loops: Used early adoption data and feedback to refine information hierarchy and decision-making moments

  • Scalable architecture: Designed UI patterns and logic that could adapt across multiple markets and supplier types

This phase validated that our core visibility model worked—and gave us a clear path to refine transparency and usability before global expansion.

UX artifacts from post-launch improvements, updated flows based on real-world supplier behavior, and international localization adjustments.

Reflection & Impact

This project sharpened my belief that great design isn’t just about usability—it’s about alignment. Building this commission model meant aligning suppliers’ incentives, internal teams’ goals, and Viator’s business strategy into a system that worked for all three.

It reinforced the value of:

  • Design-led discovery to uncover real user motivations

  • Cross-functional influence to align vision across silos

  • Systems thinking to scale design across complex marketplaces

More than shipping a feature, this work shifted how Viator thinks about supplier growth—grounded in transparency, trust, and long-term value.

© 2025 David Gusatfson