Starting with a Hypothesis
Author
David Kim
Scope
Product Design
UI/UX
Web Design
Design System
AI Feature Conceptualization
I partnered with Innovation Within as their VP of Product to revolutionize their Discovery Platform—a SaaS tool that empowers users to create business model canvases, catalog interviews, and extract actionable insights. This platform uniquely bridges the gap between customer discovery and user research, serving as an indispensable tool for new or existing products seeking market fit.
My challenge was to seamlessly integrate AI into the platform’s core features—the canvas, interviews, insights, and the newly designed homepage/dashboard—while having a deep understanding of the wide breadth of users and the gradient of accessibility needs.
In close collaboration with the CEO/Founder and the engineering team, we brainstormed AI implementations and translated them into wireframes and pixel-perfect designs using Figma. My role extended beyond design; I also guided the website’s direction, contributed to the thought leadership blog, and shaped the marketing vision.
Creating a Dynamic Homepage Dashboard
Recognizing the need for a centralized hub in the current release, I designed a new homepage/dashboard that seamlessly integrates AI-powered features, offering users an intuitive and efficient entry point to the platform. This dashboard provides real-time updates, personalized recommendations, and quick access to essential functions, significantly improving user engagement and overall experience.
This project also provided the opportunity to develop a design system that finally aligns with the stakeholders’ vision, ensuring consistency and scalability across the product.
Users can interact with a demo of the AI-generated canvas on the website.
AI Generated Canvases and interview questions
Traditionally, creating a comprehensive business model canvas take weeks and often-overlooked critical nuances. By integrating AI, we’ve reduced this process to mere seconds, while simultaneously improving the quality and depth of insights.
Currently, we are developing a more dynamic and adaptable abstraction of the canvas, making it applicable not only for customer discovery but also for user research and various problem-solving scenarios. Imagine a fusion of FigJam, Generative UI, and the business model canvas, offering a highly flexible and interactive tool for diverse use cases.
Human-in-the-Loop where it matters most
While the platform automates many aspects of the discovery and research process, we emphasize the irreplaceable value of human connection. Instead of wrestling with business model canvases, crafting the right questions, or spending hours sifting through data, users experience a sense of ease, with their focus redirected toward meaningful interviews.
By managing the most time-consuming tasks, our AI integrations allow users to focus on what truly matters—engaging meaningfully with others.
This emphasis on listening, empathy, and problem-solving through design forms the cornerstone of the platform’s philosophy.
WIP: A forward-thinking concept for the Reach blog.
An Exercise in Thinking Different
There's a certain zeitgeist with modern day SaaS marketing, which could be encapsulated in an absurdly simple sentence: "Our software is cool." Software companies so often drive a linear form of marketing, parading bells and whistles in an effort to generate some sort of desire through features and selling a promise of better.
I wanted to drive the marketing to inspire the usage of the Discovery Platform not as a tool to be desired, but as a tool to help inventors, researchers, or entrepreneurs become that which they desire. This subtle shift in thinking allows Innovation Within to become an essential part of the hero's journey, being more true to the founder's own spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Reach, the new blog by Innovation Within, is the empyrean of that ideology. Dedicated to "exploring how innovation serves as the central force driving advancements in AI, human-centric technology, and society," this thought leadership initiative also serves as a market funnel for the public to engage with the platform.