PATHWAYos is a SaaS platform designed to help school districts expand their Work-Based Learning (WBL) programs. By facilitating connections with local businesses for student internships, the platform aids in providing early career experiences for students.

The Fallout of Feature Frenzy: Customer churn and products that were hard to use with lengthy implementation and onboarding training timelines.

From 30,000 ft to Ground Zero: I'm not sure how I didn't get vertigo from all the zooming in and out, but it was exhilarating #startup

Pumping the Brakes on the Feature Race: Steering the Team from 'More is More' to 'Understand Before We Build'

This here is the High Cost of Saying 'Yes' to anything to close a sale. Not only was this bad for the product itself, but it also took a toll on the development team. #burnout The old adage rings true here: Solving for everyone is solving for no one.

It can seem overwhelming, untangling years of development, but steering through the uncertainty helps by blending data and human insights to chart our design course.

Zooming in on What Matters: Leveraging Data to Optimize Navigation and Object-Model for High-Impact User Experiences.

Clarifying the User Path: Layering Visual Design Indicators to Highlight 'Parent Objects' and Streamline User Navigation.

From Understanding to Validation: Leveraging Prototypes to Test the Usability of Our Refined Object Model and Task-Based Navigation.

Meeting Admins Halfway: Balancing a Streamlined Object Model with Quick Access to Actionable Tasks—Direct Feedback from User Testing.

The Student Lens: Gaining Crucial User Insights through Concept Testing—Their Feedback Helped Us 'Spell Out' Actions for a More Intuitive Experience.

Architecting Change: Blueprinting the UX Overhaul Across Student and Admin Touchpoints—A Beacon for Sales and Customer Success in Navigating Upcoming Transformations.

Student Dashboard

Admin Task-based Navigation 'Create'

The object-model revamp centered around creating the parent object of 'Opportunites' and its different derivatives 'Types.'

End-to-end Design for Achieving PMF

Background:

As the Director of Product Design at PATHWAYos, I reported directly to the CPO to get the company closer to achieving Product-Market Fit (PMF). The startup was already pulling in an ARR of $2 million but had a fragmented product portfolio. We aimed to reach a 40% threshold in PMF through a monthly survey method.

Scope & Challenges

I was responsible for two of the five products closest to meeting the PMF threshold. My team consisted of 2 PMs, Me as the sole designer, 1 Subject Matter Expert (SME), and UX Researcher.

Time-sensitive objectives to achieve PMF
Inherited a team with a limited product background
Sales-led approach to product development

Results & Impact

Our efforts resulted in:

$62K in new revenue in August alone - following the launch
Reduced onboarding time for clients and internal training time for Customer Success from 5 hours to 2 hours
Increased usage from core customer segmentation to 300%; tripling goal of 100%
90% increase in on-time sprint deployments
Near 100% decrease in customer-reported bugs for net new features

We innovated by:

Introducing Object-Oriented UX
Implementing Task-Based Navigation
Creating internal alignment across Sales and Customer Success teams

Team Dynamics & Leadership

I employed a highly cross-functional and transparent leadership style. I worked closely with the CTO, the Director of Engineering, and VPs of Sales and Customer Success. My focus was on coaching and upskilling team members and shifting the company towards a more lean product development practice.