My Role: Co-Founder, Lead Product & Designer
Collaborators: CTO 🧑🏽💻, CEO 🕺🏻, 1 Front-End Engineer 🧑🏾💻 , 2 Back-End Engineers 🧑🏼💻👨🏻💻
Timeline: October 2016 - March 2016 (v1)
In 2016 I started a B2B software company called Growlabs with two other co-founders. We identified a need in the market for a B2B sales tool that took the busy-work out of identifying and connecting with prospective customers, and we built a successful solution.
As the design founder, it was my responsibility to perform user research, identify problems, define product goals and key workflows, and design the software from the ground up. Within 5 months, the beta version of the software was being used by our first customers, and after 8 months we grew to $2.2M in ARR. In 2018, Growlabs was acquired by AdRoll (now known as NextRoll) where I took on a Director of Product Design role and helped build the design org from 2 to 13 people.
Identified Target Market: Sales teams at small-to-medium sized B2B companies looking to grow fast and close as many deals as possible.
Identified Business Problem: Sales reps and sales managers were struggling with daily tedious tasks that significantly impacted their speed, efficiency, and ability to enjoy their jobs. This ultimately negatively impacted their overall business growth. There was a clear gap in the market for us to fulfill.
User Discovery & Research: I spent two weeks interviewing various sales teams at small-to-medium sized B2B companies in the Bay Area to learn more about their specific needs, motivations, pain points, and existing contexts.
Examples of questions I asked:
“What are your goals and responsibilities in your role?”
“What does a typical work-day look like for you?”
“What tools do you currently use to achieve your goals?”
“Describe the biggest challenges you face in your role”
“What do you like most about your job?”
“What do you dislike most about your job?”
Research Synthesis: Two primary user personas emerged