Showcase
From siloed insights to a unified vision: mapping the customer experience for impact
This is a high-level showcase of my case study. These projects took place over multiple quarters and were not a linear process. Want to dive deeper into the process? Click here
Context
The product
CoPilot AI is a SaaS platform for lead generation and engagement, using AI-driven solutions to power LinkedIn outreach campaigns.
When I joined, CoPilot AI was preparing for growth and looking for opportunities to enhance the product. However, usability issues were creating friction, particularly for first-time users, impacting their experience despite the platform’s ability to deliver results. While the product was effective, both the brand and user experience lacked the polish and intuitiveness expected from top-tier SaaS platforms.
The Problem
CoPilot AI lacked a structured understanding of the customer experience, making it difficult to prioritize improvements and build a data-driven roadmap. The product, while functional, had significant usability debt, requiring frequent human assistance and increasing operational overhead. Additionally, customer experience data was fragmented—support tickets lacked meaningful categorization, and analytics were limited in providing behavioral insights. To address this, I developed a service blueprint that mapped customer interactions across all departments, revealing key pain points and opportunities. This approach not only helped identify quick wins but also laid the foundation for a more cohesive, user-centered product strategy, including a brand refresh to improve perceived quality and attract more qualified leads.
My Role
Hired to lead design at an early-stage startup, I focused on raising the quality of our product experience end-to-end. This project contributed not only to immediate improvements, but also served as a strategic foundation for our design vision moving forward.
Led a service blueprinting initiative to map the customer journey, identifying opportunities and friction points.
Strategically allocated design efforts, determining where each designer should focus to maximize impact.
Managed and mentored a team of four designers, providing guidance and aligning their work with a strategy developed in collaboration with Growth, Product Marketing, and the PM Lead.
Developed a customer experience improvement roadmap, prioritizing initiatives from quick wins to more complex, long-term projects.
Impact under my leadership
Website Redesign → Increased qualified leads & revenue growth
The revamped website improved branding and messaging, attracting more qualified leads. This led to more users per account and increased interest from SMBs (small and mid-sized businesses), boosting revenue from team subscriptions.Stronger brand consistency → Improved customer trust
With a more cohesive and consistent brand message, Sales and Customer Success teams felt more confident in their materials, leading to stronger customer trust and a more compelling product narrative.Self-Onboarding Implementation → Faster time to value (TTV)
A new Userpilot onboarding tour reduced the time it takes new users to get up and running—from one month to just 4–7 days, allowing them to see value from the product much faster.Onboarding Redesign → More independent users
Early user testing shows that most new users can now complete the new in app onboarding process without assistance, a key step toward a fully self-serve experience that will enhance scalability and user adoption.
Solution
To address this, I created a service blueprint and presented it to leadership, highlighting key friction points and opportunities for improvement.
The lack of scalable onboarding forced the Customer Success team to spend time personally guiding users through platform navigation, rather than focusing on outreach strategy. This slowed revenue growth and increased early churn risk. Onboarding took 4–6 weeks and required 6–9 live, manual touchpoints—each involving direct support from Customer Success—creating a bottleneck for both sales and customers due to the absence of self-serve access.
Using the service blueprint, I structured the design team to target key journey stages, enabling faster improvements in onboarding. Collaborating with Product Marketing and Growth Marketing, we enhanced help center guides, onboarding decks, and communication materials, streamlining the process and reducing reliance on Customer Success.
Designing Holistically: Connecting the Dots Across Workstreams
After identifying and presenting key friction points to my team, we used our weekly design meetings to discuss how to prioritize them based on impact. I encouraged the team to think holistically—considering how one designer’s work could influence another's and how interconnected their projects were.
I also guided the team in identifying where further research was needed, helping them define the types of studies—both qualitative and quantitative—that would bring clarity.
For example, we were onboarding two customer segments with distinct needs. I had assigned a product designer to focus on each segment. As I uncovered friction points through stakeholder interviews and customer call reviews, I asked each designer to investigate further. Their task was to identify common customer questions during the first few days and find patterns unique to each segment, as well as shared ones. This approach allowed us to address specific needs while uncovering opportunities to create a more scalable, streamlined onboarding experience.
These are just a few examples of how we identified and addressed key friction points to create a more seamless customer experience:
Clarifying Our SaaS Identity
Before the Redesign
The previous design lacked clarity, causing customers to mistake us for an agency rather than a SaaS platform. The visuals, layout, and messaging failed to effectively communicate our product offering, leading to confusion and misaligned expectations.
After the Redesign
We refined the branding and messaging to clearly highlight key features and reinforce that we are selling software, not services. While keeping the same color palette, we polished the design to enhance credibility and align with a SaaS identity, ensuring a more professional and trustworthy user experience.
Sales Deck Upgrade
Before the Redesign
Manually created sales decks led to inconsistencies and extra effort.
After the Redesign
Branded templates improved consistency, boosted confidence in demos, and strengthened customer trust.
Welcome Email Redesign
Before the Redesign
The email was hard to read, lacked key information, and was so off-brand it could be mistaken for spam.
After the Redesign
The redesigned email is clear, on-brand, and informative, guiding customers toward a smoother onboarding experience.
Campaign Setup Improvements
We took a two-step approach to improve how customers create a campaign. Given the large scope of changes required, we implemented a short-term solution using a third-party tool (Userpilot) to deliver immediate impact while the permanent in-app solution was being developed.
I paired one of our product designers with the product marketing team to collaborate on the short-term experience. As a result, we reduced time to value from one month to just 4–7 days—helping customers realize the product's value much faster.
The in-app solution is still a work in progress, but early user testing has shown a high task success rate. The step-by-step flow clearly communicates how LinkedIn campaigns work, making the experience significantly more intuitive.
Before the Redesign
Customers landed on an empty summary tab with no data or clear guidance on where to start, making the setup process unintuitive.
New Design (WIP)
The flow was redesigned into a clear step-by-step sequence, with AI-powered messaging suggestions to help customers get started seamlessly.
