My Approach
Research first.
Always.
Before touching Figma, I spent time understanding why users were failing — not just what they were doing wrong. This meant direct research, data analysis, and building a shared vision with stakeholders before a single pixel moved.
01
User Research & Surveys
Conducted interviews and surveys with IT professionals across experience levels — beginners looking for starter courses to senior engineers hunting advanced certification tracks. Created detailed user personas to capture each group's distinct needs.
Key finding: 73% of users couldn't locate their target certification path within 2 minutes. Navigation was the #1 complaint — not content quality.
02
Analytics Deep Dive
Analyzed site data to quantify what users were telling us qualitatively. High bounce rates, low time-on-page, and drop-off at key navigation moments confirmed the design's negative impact on the business.
Decision made: Prioritize navigation clarity over visual richness. Engagement must come from utility first, aesthetics second.
03
User Journey Mapping
Built a comprehensive 5-stage journey map (Awareness → Consideration → Engagement → Retention → Advocacy) in Miro with cross-functional teams. Identified emotional highs and lows at every touchpoint.
Insight: Users felt "capable and excited" when they found relevant content — but that moment came too late in the journey. We needed to surface value faster.
04
Stakeholder Alignment
Collaborated with Cisco's learning team, product managers, and marketing to align on project goals, design constraints, and content system compatibility. Co-created the moodboard to establish shared visual direction before any design work began.
Result: Zero redesign requests from stakeholders after final presentation. Alignment upfront eliminated last-minute pivots.
Stakeholder Moodboard CLN Rebrand
User Research Synthesis Clarify Phase
