Option Value Mapping - Project Introduction

Welcome to the Option Value Mapping Project! This article will walk you through the project, it's purpose, the background knowledge you'll need, and how to complete the task itself. You'll want to make your way through all of this content before you take the test to gain entry to the project.

Before we begin, here are some key resources available to you:

• Project Guidelines

• Discord chat - you have been invited to join our server via email. Please join so you can keep updated with any project news, or ask any questions to our team if you're stuck!

• Reach out to support if you aren't able to join: use the in-platform chat and specify you are working on Option Value Mapping for the Merchant Category Intent Project.

Get started by watching a quick video below.

Project Context: What are we trying to do?

Hopefully from the video you have understood what we want to do: we want to assess how well Shopify's standard taxonomy suits the merchants on the platform. Does it map well to the choices they make? Are there similar options available? Your job is to rate the quality of matches between Option Keys and Attributes and identify if any new Attribute Values need to be added to the taxonomy.

 

What are all these words, and what do they represent?

A taxonomy is "a hierarchical classification system that standardizes product categories and attributes across all merchants." Think of it as the master blueprint for the Shopify's layout, ensuring that no matter who sells a product, it gets placed on the correct digital shelf.

Every merchant (store owner) describes their products in their own unique way, but an e-commerce platform needs a single, standard language to organize everything consistently for shoppers. This creates two distinct "languages": the merchant's and the platform's.

The Merchant's Language	The Platform's Language
Option Key: The merchant's custom name for a product filter, like "Color" or "Fabric Type".	Attribute Name: The official, standardized name for that filter in the platform's taxonomy, like "Color" or "Material".
Option Value: The specific value the merchant uses, like "Hazy Indigo" for Color or "7" for Size.	Attribute Value: The official, standardized value in the platform's taxonomy, like "Blue" for the Color attribute or "Cotton" for the Material attribute.

The main goal of a product taxonomy system is to accurately translate the Merchant's Language into the Platform's Language. This ensures that every product can be organized, filtered, and found by customers in a consistent way. The critical process that makes this translation possible is called "mapping."

Mapping is the process of associating a merchant's terms with the platform's standard taxonomy. For example, a system might map a merchant's Option Key of "Fabric" to the platform's standard Attribute Name of "Material."

The quality of this mapping is crucial for a good shopping experience because the system must understand the merchant's true intent, not just the literal words they use. Your job is to distinguish between these two cases:

• Good Mapping (Full Match): A merchant sells deodorant but uses the Option Key "Color" to list different scents. Here's an example. A smart mapping system understands that, even though they wrote "Color," what the merchant's intent is to describe the scent. It correctly maps this to the standard Attribute "Scent."
• Poor Mapping (Poor / No Match): A merchant sells boots with an Option Key called "Fit", which lets you choose from "Classic" and "Wide Calf" - like in this example. If the system maps this to the standard Attribute "Shoe fit," it's a poor match. Why? "Shoe fit" typically refers to the width of the foot, not the calf. This poor mapping would make it difficult for a shopper looking for wide-calf boots to find the right product using the site's filters.

Remember - we want to know if Shopify's system has understood the merchant's intentions correctly, so we're comparing the Attribute to what the seller most probably means. We are not assessing the merchant's choice of Option Key: in the first example, it doesn't matter that the merchant has used the name "Color", it only matters that the system understood that "Desert Bloom" is a scent.

 

Project Guidelines: What are you supposed to do?

The process is divided into three main steps. First, you will be shown the Merchant Information and the Taxonomy Mapping. 

• The merchant information will include the Option Key, an Option Value belonging to this key, and one or some sample products displaying this feature. These will help you to get a sense of the merchant's intent - what this Option Key is really supposed to represent. It is possible the link takes you to a product list, or throws up a 404 error (page not found). This can happen when the product is no longer listed for sale. In these cases, check the appropriate box, and move on.

• The taxonomy mapping shows you how the system has interpreted the merchant information, specifically, which Attribute it has mapped the Option Key to. You'll see the Attribute Name, Attribute ID, and Attribute URL, which takes you to that Attribute's page in the full Shopify taxonomy.

Step 1: Evaluate the Attribute Name Match

Your first task is to determine how accurately Shopify's Attribute Name reflects the merchant's intended meaning for their Option Key.

• Understand the Product Context: Begin by examining the sample product(s) provided. Remember, your goal is to understand what the merchant truly intended to describe with their options. Merchants sometimes use inaccurate or generic terms, like the Color/Scent example from earlier.

• Rate the Match Quality: Based on your understanding of the merchant's intent, rate the match between their intent and the provided Attribute Name using one of the following categories:

  • ✅ Full Match: The Attribute Name is a perfect match for the merchant's intent.

    • It is either identical ("Size" and "Size").

    • Or it is a clear synonym or semantic equivalent ("Scent" and "Smell"; "Flavor" and "Taste").

  • 🤔 Partial Match: The Attribute Name is related to the merchant's intent but isn't a perfect fit. It feels borderline or slightly inaccurate.

  • ❌ Poor / No Match: The Attribute Name does not correctly capture the merchant's intent, like in the Wide Calf/Shoe fit example.

Select your choice of Attribute Key Label Quality:

In this example, the product is a pair of leggings. In this case, the product is sold out, so we can't immediately see any Option Key called "Size" with Option Value "XL" on the page (although we can see it in the reviews). It doesn't matter, though - from looking at the product, we can immediately see that "Accessory Size" gets Poor/No Match - leggings are clothing, not accessories!

Step 2: Evaluate the Option Value

Next, you will check if the merchant's specific Option Value (e.g., "Small", "XL", "Sandalwood", "Leather") exists within the Shopify taxonomy for the given Attribute Name.

⚠️ Important!
For this step, you should refer to the Mapped Attribute Name, regardless of your rating in Step 1.

• View the Attribute in the Taxonomy: Scroll back up to the 🎯 Taxonomy Mapping bubble and click "View in Taxonomy →". This will take you to the Attribute's page in the taxonomy.

• Review the list of Values and search for a match: are any of these exact or semantic matches to the Option Value? In this case, we can see a long list of values:

  

  Although there's no "XL", we can see a semantic match - that is, a value with a different name but clearly the same meaning: "Extra large (XL)".

• Label the Taxonomy Value as FOUND, MISSING, or DON'T NEED: 

  • If the value in the taxonomy is an exact or semantic match for the merchant's Option Value, like in this example, select Found.

  • If you do not find the value in the taxonomy, decide between the following two options:

    • Missing: Choose this if the merchant's Option Value is a reasonable, common-sense value that would be a logical addition to the taxonomy. It seems like a gap in the current system - for example, “Like-New” is a logical value to add for the attribute “Cosmetic Condition”.

    • Don't Need: Choose this if the merchant's Option Value is highly niche, highly custom, nonsensical, or a typo. There is no clear benefit to adding it to the standard taxonomy. For example, "Instant Blend™ All Over Powder Brush" does not need to be added to the "Compatible Makeup" attribute. However, something like "Hand & Body Cream" would make sense to add to the "Product Form" attribute, because although it's quite specific, it's possible another merchant would use this.

Select your choice of Attribute Key Label Quality:

Then, depending on your choice, you may be asked for more details:

• Found: Copy and paste the Taxonomy Value ID (in this case, gid://shopify/TaxonomyValue/2916) and the Taxonomy Value's name into the fields that will appear. They must be exact copies of what you see on the taxonomy page.

• Missing: you won't need to input any details in this stage. You can move on to the next!

  

• Found: you won't need to input any details in this stage. You can move on to the next!

  

Step 3: Add a justification comment

Finally, write a brief comment to explain the reasoning behind your choices in the previous steps.

• Your comment should clearly reference your decision on the attribute match (Full, Partial, or Poor).

• It should also explain your finding for the option value (if you found it, or why you classified it as Missing or Don't Need).

Some examples:

• Wide calf does not map to "wide" shoe fit which typically refers to the width of the toe box. 

• Desert bloom is not present as a value on the current taxonomy nor is there a semantic match to the scent

• Accessory size is not the best fit but can map to XL value. 

Quiz and test!

That's it! You're done learning about the project. You can now return to the quiz. 

Test Structure:

1. You will first complete a quiz to help consolidate your learning. This is not scored.

2. You will be able to complete a practice task. This is not scored.

3. You will complete another task, which will be scored. 

You're encouraged to keep these guidelines open while taking the test, and while working live in the project. Good luck!