Product Design · Team of 4 · Client Project · 2025

Small businesses
had the data.
They couldn't use it.

An AI-powered ops dashboard that turns fragmented SMB data into one clear view and one next move.

🔒 Company name & details changed for NDA
My Role
Product Designer · Design System · UX Writing · Business Strategy
Team
4 Designers + CEO of the Company
Platform
Web SaaS · SMB Operations Dashboard
Tools
Figma · Miro · FigJam
Hired as Product Designer. Wore these hats.
UX Researcher

Semi-structured SMB interviews, affinity + empathy mapping

Product Designer

Dashboard UX, metric cards, edit mode, AI Insight layer

Design Systems

Built the full component library: cards, states, navigation

UX Writer

Dashboard copy, alerts, onboarding, pricing tier names

Business Strategy

3 paid tiers, technical feasibility, pitch deck narrative

01 The Problem

7 tabs. No clarity.

SMB founders weren't failing to collect data. They were drowning in it. HubSpot, ClickUp, Slack, spreadsheets: each told a different story. None told the whole one. The problem wasn't access to data. It was the inability to act on it.

Fragmented tool landscape, multiple tabs open
A typical SMB tool stack: seven apps, seven logins, no single source of truth
66%
of SMB founders feel overwhelmed by disconnected tools
34%
of managers lack time to analyze the data they already have
👤
SMB Founder
Interview Participant · U.S.-based · $250K to $1M revenue

"Without someone looking at this for me, these tools are just a waste of money."

02 Research & Discovery

I talked to real founders first.

Before opening Figma, we conducted qualitative discovery research: a semi-structured interview with a U.S.-based SMB founder generating $250K to $1M annually. We followed with secondary research: business blogs, industry publications, and internal documents from the client. Findings were synthesized through affinity mapping and empathy mapping to surface the clearest pain points.

Primary Research

1 semi-structured interview · U.S. SMB founder · $250K to $1M revenue · Affinity + empathy mapping

Secondary Research

Industry publications · Business blogs · Internal documents · Goal: validate assumptions and build a complete picture of SMB operational pain

What we heard: direct quotes
Visibility

"I know the numbers, but I can't track everything at once."

SMB Founder · Interview
Proactivity

"I forgot we usually run an October campaign... it was too late."

SMB Founder · Interview
Direction

"Without someone looking at this, these tools are a waste of money."

SMB Founder · Interview
The person we designed for
Sarah
Sarah
SMB Founder, Age 34
4-person media company
"Without someone looking at this for me, these tools are just a waste of money."
Goals
  • See complete business health at a glance
  • Catch issues before they become a crisis
  • Scale without operational chaos
Pain Points
  • 😰"I know the numbers, but I can't track everything at once"
  • 💸Missed opportunities from lack of visibility
  • 🔥Constantly reactive instead of proactive
User testing session
Usability testing validating the dashboard's core navigation flow
03 The Solution

One dashboard. One next move.

Three needs from research became the product's core promise: see your data, understand what changed, know what to do next.

📊
Visualize

Connect any tool in 2 clicks. All business metrics in one real-time view: revenue, tasks, pipeline.

🔔
Analyze

AI Insight mode surfaces what changed and why. Proactive alerts mean catching issues before they become crises.

Act

AI recommends a specific next move. Not just data: direction. The dashboard tells you what to do next.

04 My Role

The screens. The system. The words.

As product designer on a team of four working directly with the company's CEO, I owned the dashboard screens, built the design system, wrote all UX copy, and co-led the pitch narrative.

Dashboard UX

Metric card system, edit mode, alert notifications, and the AI Insight layer. Designed for a founder with 10 minutes, not an hour.

Design System

Full component library: cards, states, badges, navigation, two-step tool onboarding. Visual consistency across all views.

UX Writing

All dashboard labels, alert copy, onboarding microcopy, and pricing tier names. "See Everything / Understand Everything / Predict Everything". Each name is a value proposition.

Pitch Storytelling

Co-led the narrative arc: opened with the founder's story, grounded it in data, presented the product as a direct answer to each pain point.

06 What I Learned

Same thing. Different thing.

🎯
Lead with pain, not personas. Anchoring every decision to something a real founder said made trade-offs much easier. "Would this solve the October campaign problem?" is a better design filter than "is this on-brand?"
✍️
UX writing is product strategy. Naming the pricing tiers "See Everything / Understand Everything / Predict Everything" reframed the table as a capability ladder. Each name is a value proposition in itself.
🔄
What I'd do differently. I'd validate the AI Insight layer with more SMB users earlier. We made reasonable assumptions about what "recommended actions" should look like, but phrasing and priority should come from founders who've lived with HubSpot for years.
🤝
Designing for scrutiny makes work better. Every decision had to survive a CEO and three other designers. That friction forced me to articulate what I built and why. A habit I'll carry everywhere.
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