My Role

Cross-Functional Leader, Manager, Mentor, Researcher, System Designer, Art Director, Interaction Designer

The Opportunity

Customers were adopting our one-size-fits-all platform for “tracking and resolving supply-chain problems,” but we noticed that they were trying to do even more with it. Now that they had an easier way to track problem-resolution processes, they wanted to do the same with other processes as well. The leadership decided to seize this opportunity and completely overhaul the product to better serve this much broader set of capabilities. We aimed to enable customers (in any industry) to easily track and manage any kind of complex cross-team or cross-enterprise process. We also needed to ensure it was a no-brainer, easy upgrade for current customers.

My Approach

• Assemble product and design teams and lead session to define research plan to inform our product and design strategy
• Craft low-fi concept options, review with executive and IC teams, iterate and create click-prototypes
• Write session script with high-level questions and feedback prompts for concept review
• Lead 1:1 sessions with users, discuss results with team, and work with executives to interpret feedback and iterate on prototypes and research script
• Propose system design, product architecture, and early Interaction Design for the new multi-dimensional platform that:
• Allows for high levels of customization such that it feels like the product was built just for them
• Ensures product remains intuitive and consistent for users navigating across customer instances
• Engage and empower our Sr. Product Designer to take on the project of defining the final Interaction and Visual Design for all aspects of the new platform
• Oversee design progress, and frequently check-in with Sr. Product Designer to:
• Check on progress against target delivery dates
• Guide and mentor through balancing other projects and pushing through challenges
• Pull-in internal teams to provide more insights around usage of the current product to inform key decisions
• Provide feedback to target enhancements and ensure high quality designs
• Encourage and foster open, creative, collaborative exploration with engineers and product managers
• Ensure Designer was feeling clear and confident about the project and proud of their work

Result

• All stakeholders aligned on new direction (system, features, navigation, etc.)
• Delivered (beautiful) designs and detailed prototypes for MVP of v1
• Reinvigorated the entire company with the ambitious new direction and exciting designs
• Sneak peeks for key customers and prospects elicited “Wow, when can we have that?” (launching 2022)
• A highly engaged, motivated and proud Sr Product Designer

My Role

User Researcher, Design Strategist, Interaction Designer, Visual Designer, Prototyper

The Opportunity

Starbucks, one of our biggest customers, was interested in sending some users to participate in a Co-Design exercise. We wanted to understand what those users were experiencing as the primary benefits of the product, generate new feature ideas to inform the product roadmap, and reinvigorate the customer relationship.

My Approach

• Host a half-day session with 4 users and 2 PMs to lead:
• Collaborative Journey Mapping - 45 min
• 2 rounds of brief, independent Ideation/Sketching,
  each followed by 45 min of sharing/discussion
• Selecting best ideas and putting them into a flow
• A guided whiteboard prototype sketching exercise
• Take Prototype sketches and turn into visually designed prototype
• Synthesize results into a clear slide deck and present to executives

Result

• Customer loved the prototype, and proudly presented it to thousands of coworkers at their internal all hands
• Improved relationship and led to renewal of massive contract with customer
• Refined and enhanced Product Roadmap
• Defined top 9 benefits of current product
• Validated 10 feature ideas already in development
• Generated 35 new feature Ideas, and 6 high-level benefit types
• Aligned and excited the team

My Role

Product Design Lead, Mentor

The Opportunity

The product had an Inventory Management feature-set that provided some value, but was struggling to take off. The team responsible for the requirements and design consisted of a Product Manager and Product Designer who had been supporting it for a while. They, and some key advisors, were available to help me better understand the space and make this area successful. Because there was a long list of enhancement requests, the opportunity was to just prioritize and knock them out (or so we thought...).

My Approach

• Lead whiteboarding sessions to map-out business context and opportunity space with Product Manager (PM) and Product Designer (PD)
• Reach out to key advisors and customers to collect additional insights
• Coordinate with Product Managers and Product Designers working on other parts of the product that needed to connect well with this part
• Conduct interviews with users to learn more
• Analyze Data, Designs, and Insights and discuss with team
• Organize and synthesize POV into a slide deck, explaining:
• Our Inventory Management area was on a crash course; the current design framework (concept of screens and UI structure) could not support the upcoming features, and was ultimately untenable
• We would not be able to meet user needs and scale without a full redesign
• I had identified an alternative design framework option that could work
• Present slide deck to CTO and Director of Product and advocate for making the tough decision to start over
• They understood the issue and agreed to kick off an overhaul, but with the requirement that we start handing off final specs to engineers in 2 weeks
• Quickly sketch and whiteboard ideas with PM and PD to define how the new design could work
• Create low-fi wireframe options, review with Product Leadership, iterate and revise (multiple rounds)
• Present options, and drive alignment on a direction
• Pair with Product Designer to collaboratively execute the Interaction and Visual Design at speed
• Divide and conquer on creating design specs and work with engineers to implement

Result

• Customers quickly began to use the new Inventory Managment area over the old one
• The new feature-set became a key driver of multi-million-dollar contract renewals
• Despite the company pivoting to a very different focus years ago, this is still 50% of the most profitable product
• There are still customers who rely on it so heavily that the company has not sunset it yet, years after they expected to

My Role

Visual Designer, Prototyper

The Opportunity

The rich-text-editing parts of our product were built with a 3rd-party plugin that needed to be replaced within the next few weeks. A new plugin had been chosen, and it supported hundreds of features and had no UI restrictions. We wanted our product to provide some more options, but remain streamlined in context. I had to quickly select features, pick out icons, design a color selection panel, etc. and deliver final visual design in a prototype for engineers to quickly implement (while also overseeing other projects and managing my team).

My Approach

• Review best-in-class rich text editors and find the most common options and feature hierarchies
• Focus on the features most needed for our product, and minimize disruption to current usage
• Review with CPO, other designers and customer team to get feedback
• Finalize visual design, create prototype
• Work with engineers to implement, QA and refine

Result

• Replaced rich text plugin in time
• No complaints from any users or internal stakeholders
• Several customers reached out to compliment the
  enhancement, and thank us for the additional features