Design
I write on this blog weekly. Nobody edits me. Nobody tells me to “soften the tone” or “add more tactical takeaways.” I also pitch articles to other publications. They have editors. Standards. Opinions about what their audience wants. Sometimes they publish them. Sometimes they send polite rejection emails that say “not quite right for us”…
Got on a call last month with a potential client. Series A SaaS company, 18 people, looking for design help. “Before we start, can you walk us through your design process?” I should’ve known. They screen-shared a 40-slide deck. Their “UX design process.” Eight phases. Twelve deliverables. Three validation gates. Stakeholder touchpoints color-coded by department.…
I had a call last Tuesday with a founder who wanted help “improving activation.” Their SaaS launched eight months ago. Activation: 23%. Support tickets: 180/week. Team of six. I asked to see the roadmap. Roadmap Items Count New features 12 “UX improvements” (no details, pushed to Q3) 2 Total 14 “Which feature causes the most…
Last year I watched someone finish setting up a Salesforce integration. OAuth: worked perfectly. Field mapping: one click. Big green success message: “Connected successfully!” They closed the window looking satisfied. I was helping them debug something else, so I had their screen still open. Three days later, same person: “Is Salesforce broken? Nothing’s syncing.” I…
Last month a design lead showed me their adoption metrics dashboard. Figma library: 97% connected. Component usage tracked across 47 teams. Monthly reports with color-coded progress bars trending green like a very healthy plant. “Fantastic adoption,” they said, clicking through to a slide about governance wins. “Can I see your team’s Slack?” I asked. They…
Last year, a SaaS company paid me to fix their onboarding. Churn was 23% monthly. Brutal. First call, the CS lead opened their dashboard. Gorgeous interface. Real-time health scores. Customer journey maps. Risk alerts. Engagement tracking across seven touchpoints. “We have complete visibility.” I asked if they knew why customers were leaving. She pulled up…
For three years, my LinkedIn headline said “UX Consultant.” It sounded professional. Legitimate. Like I knew what I was doing. It also meant absolutely nothing. “UX Consultant” is the professional equivalent of “I do stuff.” It’s a job title that could mean everything, so it means nothing. Like saying you work in “business” or specialize…
Five years ago, I hired a UX designer with exceptional soft skills. Articulate in meetings. Diplomatic with stakeholders. Created beautiful presentation decks. Responded to Slack within minutes with encouragement and emoji. Three months later, the project failed because they’d agreed to every terrible idea anyone suggested. Seventeen stakeholder requests. Fourteen contradictory features. Zero pushback. The…
Last month, a SaaS founder asked me to review their onboarding. “We implemented every best practice,” they said. “But activation is terrible.” I opened their app. Welcome screen with value props. Account setup wizard with progress bar. Interactive product tour with twelve hotspots. Empty state illustrations with cheerful CTAs. Contextual tooltips on every button. Profile…
Your perfect onboarding just got killed by someone who never saw it. I watched a $50K ARR deal die in a conference room last year because of a question our SaaS onboarding never answered. The product worked. The user loved it. She’d completed our beautifully designed onboarding in 8 minutes, explored features, and was ready…
