About Michelle
A place to keep the lessons.
I’m Michelle, a Malaysia-based digital creator documenting what I learn across Ecommerce, Digital Marketing, and AI & Tools.
michelletan.digital is my online journal for documenting my professional journey and sharing lessons, questions, and experiments others may find useful.
About the journal
Why I keep this journal
There’s often little time between finishing one task and starting the next. A useful observation, an unexpected problem, or a lesson learned can easily get lost along the way.
I started michelletan.digital to give those lessons somewhere to live.
Writing gives me space to revisit an experience, question what I understand, and consider whether an idea remains useful beyond one situation. It also gives me a reason to keep exploring—through new tools, personal projects, and experiments.
Some articles draw on experience. Others document something I’m learning, trying, or researching. I aim to make that distinction clear and leave room for my thinking to change.
The path so far
From doing the work to documenting it
Four turning points show how ecommerce grew into broader digital work, continued learning, and this journal.
2015
Ecommerce beginnings
I started in ecommerce across Lazada, 11street, and Lelong, learning how product listings, merchandising, and customer questions connect.
Marketplaces · Product listings
2016
A broader view of digital work
My experience expanded into ecommerce websites and more marketplace work, giving me a broader view of how product information, discovery, and customer communication fit together.
Ecommerce websites · Marketplace work
2018
Building a digital foundation
I completed a digital marketing certification covering WordPress, Facebook Ads, basic SEO, social media, and email marketing.
Digital marketing · WordPress · SEO
Now
Building, learning, and sharing
I’m developing michelletan.digital while exploring AI, automation, and digital tools. This journal brings together my existing experience and the areas I want to understand better.
michelletan.digital · AI & digital tools
Working perspective
How I approach digital work
Start with the customer’s question
I try to understand what remains unclear, unconvincing, or difficult to compare.
Test usefulness before adopting a tool
I look at where it helps, where judgment is still needed, and what limitations remain.
Make the basis clear
I distinguish between experience, experiments, continuous learning, and research-based analysis.
Creative workflow
Tools behind the journal
These are some of the tools I use to write, develop ideas, design, organise, and understand how the website is doing.
Writing
Claude
For writing support as I develop content for the journal.
Ideas and assistance
ChatGPT & Codex
For general assistance, brainstorming, idea generation, and exploring ideas—with ChatGPT also supporting image generation.
Design
Canva
For creating designs and visuals.
Productivity
Notion
For productivity and keeping my work organised.
Analytics
Google Analytics 4
For analysing website activity and understanding how visitors engage with the site.
Search visibility
Google Search Console
For monitoring the site’s presence in Google Search and investigating search-related issues.
Published articles
Three places to start
A Product Listing Is More Than a Listing: What I Check Before Optimising One
The four-part check I use to find what customers cannot find, understand, trust, or expect a business to fulfil.
What Customer Questions Can Teach You About Your Product Pages
What repeated customer questions can reveal about missing information, purchase friction, and product-page improvements.
How I Decide Whether a Repetitive Task Needs AI, Automation—or Neither
A practical way to consider frequency, judgment, exceptions, and effort before choosing a tool.