OVERVIEW
COMPANY
CORE TEAM
TIMELINE
Mar 2019 - Feb 2020
TOOLS
ROLE
Founding Designer
RESPONSIBILITIES
Product design
Mobile design
Visual design
Interaction design
User research
Design system
Product strategy
ABOUT SESSION AI
Session AI’s Intelligent Customer Engagement (ICE) platform helps enterprises deliver personalized, real-time experiences by analyzing customer behavior, live signals, and environmental context. Designed for industries like retail, hospitality, and banking, the platform enables timely, omnichannel engagement—predicting intent with up to 92% accuracy by the 5th click or tap.
PROBLEM
Session AI’s ICE platform was built with the solutions developer in mind—a technical user fluent in JavaScript and comfortable navigating complex components like events, enrichment logic, segments, and interactions. This created a steep learning curve for business and marketing users, who struggled to design and deploy personalized experiences without technical support—limiting broader adoption and operational agility.
APPROACH
As the founding designer, my approach was to abstract the platform’s technical complexity—such as event enrichment code and post-action scripting—behind an intuitive, business-friendly interface. The goal was to empower non-technical sales and business users to focus on customizing high-impact customer interactions at the right moments—without ever needing to write a single line of code.
CHALLENGE
Balancing the platform’s technical power with ease of use was a core challenge. We needed to design an interface that served both highly technical users and non-technical business stakeholders without overwhelming either group. At the same time, the interface had to enable users to create precise and customized experiences, despite simplified workflows.
From an early-stage startup perspective, this challenge was amplified by limited resources and tight timelines. We had to prioritize features that delivered immediate value while laying the foundation for future scalability. Additionally, with evolving product requirements and a small, cross-functional team, rapid iteration and close collaboration were critical to address user feedback and refine the experience continuously.
PROCESS
Building a product from the ground up demands navigating ambiguity, rapidly aligning diverse stakeholders, and prioritizing what truly matters. In this early stage, the focus is on defining a clear vision, validating assumptions quickly, and creating flexible foundations that can evolve with user needs and business goals.
My role as the founding designer centered on driving this process through collaborative discovery, rapid iteration, and agile decision-making.
Aligning Vision Amid Ambiguity
At this early stage, ambiguity was high, and requirements were evolving rapidly. We dedicated full days to whiteboarding sessions with the VP of Product, CPO, and CTO to align on the product vision, define key challenges, and set a clear direction. This collaborative effort was critical to ensure the team shared a unified understanding before investing in design and development.
Deep Stakeholder Engagement
In an early startup environment, every stakeholder’s insight counts. We prioritized asking detailed questions upfront to uncover both broad business goals and nuanced user needs. As the founding designer and facilitator, I managed the transition from exploratory discussions into actionable design and wireframing phases—balancing stakeholder input with design focus.
Embracing Agility and Speed
With limited time and resources, agility was essential. The whiteboarding process accelerated decision-making and helped break down complex problems into manageable parts. This mindset kept us from getting stuck in analysis paralysis, enabling rapid progression from ideas to prototypes.
Transparent Collaboration
Thinking out loud during sessions created transparency, inviting stakeholders into the heart of problem-solving. This fostered shared empathy, clarified assumptions, and built trust, which is vital when priorities can shift quickly.
Rapid Prototyping and Iteration
Moving from discovery to prototype within hours was both energizing and necessary. Early assumptions and knowledge gaps surfaced quickly, allowing us to adapt designs in real-time and stay aligned with emerging insights.
Resource-efficient Teamwork
Whiteboarding was a cost-effective, resource-light tool perfectly suited to our startup context. It enabled fast iteration and collaboration without additional overhead—reducing ambiguity and keeping the entire team aligned on the product’s evolving direction.
II. KEY FOCUS AREAS
Designing an effective and scalable solution required a deep understanding of the environment, users, and constraints influencing the product. The following focus areas guided our design decisions and helped ensure alignment across teams.
Context of Use
Understanding where and how users interact with the platform was critical. This included considering in-store environments, mobile apps, kiosks, ATMs, and other omnichannel touchpoints where customer behaviors occur.
User Information
We examined what data and signals users have at their disposal during interactions—ranging from historical behavior to real-time environmental context—to inform timely and relevant engagement.
Device and Artifact Constraints
The design needed to account for varying device capabilities, screen sizes, and interaction models, ensuring a consistent and accessible experience across all platforms.
Technical Constraints
We considered implementation challenges, including platform integrations, real-time data processing limitations, and maintaining performance across diverse environments to ensure feasibility and reliability.
Business Objectives
Aligning with business goals such as increasing customer engagement, driving conversions, and enabling scalable personalization shaped key design decisions.
III. ICE PLATFORM DESIGN
The ICE (Intelligent Customer Engagement) Platform served as the core interface for business users to design, manage, and monitor personalized customer interactions across multiple channels. My design focused on simplifying the complexity of the platform’s powerful capabilities, creating an intuitive experience that balanced flexibility with ease of use.
Modular Workflow Screens
Clear, step-by-step workflows guided users through building campaigns, managing segments, and configuring triggers—reducing cognitive load while preserving advanced customization options.
Unified Navigation System
A consistent, scalable navigation structure enabled quick access to core areas such as campaign management, analytics, and user segments, supporting diverse user roles.
Visual Interaction Builders
Visual tools and drag-and-drop interfaces allowed non-technical users to assemble customer journeys and define interactions without needing code.
Real-Time Data Insights
Dashboards and alert systems provided immediate feedback on campaign performance and customer engagement, helping users make informed decisions.
Design System Refresh
A cohesive visual language with updated iconography, typography, and color palette enhanced usability and brand consistency across the platform.
IV. REAL-TIME OFFER (RTO) DASHBOARDS
The RTO dashboards were designed to provide business stakeholders with a real-time, visual snapshot of marketing performance. By surfacing key metrics, KPIs, and behavioral insights through clear, actionable visualizations, the dashboards empowered teams to monitor and optimize campaign effectiveness on the fly.
Each dashboard was tailored to reflect the unique marketing goals of different businesses and was built to accommodate frequent updates and evolving data streams.
V. CAMPAIGN MANAGER MOBILE APP
The Campaign Manager mobile app was designed specifically for Session AI’s retail customers, such as Kohl’s, to manage RTO campaigns on the go. The app enabled users to set up and edit campaign configurations, review active and scheduled campaigns, and monitor performance through intuitive funnel charts and infographic-style summaries. Built for convenience and clarity, the mobile experience ensured that marketing teams could stay informed and agile—whether in-store, at HQ, or in the field.
IMPACT
LEARNING
Designing for Clarity at Scale
Simplifying a technically complex platform taught me how to distill dense systems into intuitive workflows—balancing power with accessibility for a broader range of users.
Facilitating Strategic Alignment
Early whiteboarding and discovery sessions reinforced the importance of creating shared understanding across functions. As a designer, I learned how to guide conversations that not only clarify the problem, but also unlock new opportunities.
Owning End-to-End Execution
From vision to prototypes to sales support assets, I got to drive design holistically—building confidence in my ability to influence product direction, user experience, and business impact.
Working Within Constraints
Operating in a fast-moving startup environment sharpened my ability to prioritize, adapt quickly, and ship meaningful outcomes even with limited time and resources.
Bridging Business and Engineering
Sitting between technical and non-technical stakeholders taught me how to translate complexity into clarity—bridging gaps between business goals, user needs, and engineering feasibility.
