The Business Context

As the company scaled, a surge of new users revealed a critical failure point in our digital purchase experience. The checkout flow—previously functional at smaller volumes—was now leading to crashes, drop-offs, and mounting customer complaints. Stakeholders were misaligned on whether the core issue was infrastructure, interface usability, or miscommunication of value. There was no clear direction—but we knew loyalty was dropping and revenue risk was rising.

Role & Responsibilities

As Lead UX Designer, I owned the end-to-end user experience strategy for this revamp. I designed and led the UX research approach, built stakeholder alignment around the real problems (not just assumed ones), and drove the redesign effort from insight through to implementation.

I wasn’t handed a brief—I helped define the problem, prioritize efforts, and establish what success looked like.

Key Contributions (Strategic Framing)

• Diagnosed pain points through qualitative + quantitative research, including interviews, usability tests, and surveys.
• Audited the full end-to-end journey, identifying bottlenecks and UX debt.
• Led collaborative ideation with PMs, engineers, and support to frame the real customer problem.
• Created and tested prototypes, refining based on real-world feedback.
• Advocated for transparency and trust features that weren’t in the original scope (e.g. better plan comparison, real-time feedback in flow).
• Aligned executive stakeholders around a staged MVP launch plan based on feasibility and impact.

The Challenge

The existing purchase experience was breaking under growth. Users faced unclear steps, confusing plan language, and unexpected errors. Heuristic audits surfaced 20+ violations. Worse, users often abandoned mid-flow due to mistrust and lack of clarity.

Our biggest obstacle?

No one agreed on the problem. Engineering blamed traffic spikes. Marketing thought the plans were too complicated. My role was to clarify, unify, and lead.

The Solution

We didn’t just “make it prettier”—we reimagined the purchase journey with clarity, trust, and control as our guiding pillars.

Key enhancements included:

• Early device validation to reduce surprises at checkout.
• Real-time plan comparison UI to support confident decisions.
• Streamlined flow logic that adapted to different customer types.
• Micro-interactions and UI feedback to build user trust.

We built and tested prototypes across three customer segments, iterating weekly based on feedback.

Reflection

This project reinforced the importance of leading with clarity in ambiguity. I learned that success as a senior designer isn’t just shipping features—it’s about influencing product direction, aligning teams under pressure, and advocating for the user when it’s not convenient. Since then, I’ve brought this systems-level thinking into every initiative I lead.