SaaS PlatformUnify CX2024Lead Product Designer & Developer (Contract)
Omnichannel Customer Experience Platform
Every channel in one inbox, with a 360° customer profile sitting behind each conversation.
The brief
Customers contact companies via email, chat, social media, phone, and SMS, but support teams work in fragmented tools. Context is lost when conversations switch channels. Traditional helpdesks are ticket-centric rather than customer-centric. Support teams lack visibility into customer journey and product usage data. Response times suffer due to manual routing and repetitive inquiries.
The approach
Created a unified dashboard where support teams manage all customer communications regardless of channel. Each customer has a 360° profile showing conversation history, product usage, purchase data, and sentiment analysis. Designed a conversation-centric UI like messaging apps with keyboard shortcuts for every action. Implemented contextual sidebars that surface relevant customer data and AI-drafted responses with inline editing. Visual priority indicators using color and position enable agents to handle high conversation volume while maintaining personal, empathetic interactions.
The analysis moment
“The ticket was the wrong unit of work — the customer is.”
Why
Support tools model queues, but agents think in people. Re-centring the data model and the interface on the customer meant history followed the person across email, chat, social and SMS instead of fragmenting into unrelated tickets.
Impact
Context stopped being lost at channel switches, which is what makes sub-2-minute first responses and 70% first-contact resolution possible at 50+ conversations per agent per day.
The interface
Screen by screen
The journey
Stage by stage
Discovery & Strategy
2 weeks
- Competitive analysis of Zendesk, Intercom, Freshdesk
- User research with support managers and agents
- Defined product positioning and differentiation
- Created product roadmap and feature prioritization
- Established success metrics and KPIs
Design & Prototyping
4 weeks
- Information architecture for omnichannel inbox
- Wireframing critical agent workflows
- Design system with conversation-centric components
- High-fidelity UI design for key screens
- Interactive prototype with keyboard shortcuts
- Usability testing with support agents
MVP Development
Ongoing
- Frontend development with React and TypeScript
- Real-time WebSocket connections
- AI integration for routing and automation
- Omnichannel inbox implementation
- Customer intelligence profiles
- Performance analytics dashboard
Along the way
Hard parts, handled
Channel Context Switching
Each channel has different UX patterns (email vs chat). Created a unified interface that respects channel conventions while maintaining consistency.
Information Overload
Customer profiles contain massive data. Implemented progressive disclosure based on conversation context to surface relevant information.
Speed vs Quality Tension
Agents need to handle high volume while maintaining empathy. Designed AI-drafted responses that agents can personalize before sending.
Build-ready outcome
Delivered a modern helpdesk platform that enables support teams to handle 50+ conversations per agent per day with exceptional quality. The MVP successfully demonstrates omnichannel inbox capabilities, AI-powered routing based on intent and expertise, response automation with human oversight, and real-time performance analytics. The platform achieves sub-2 minute first response times and 70% first-contact resolution rates.
What was delivered
- ↳Product Strategy & Market Research
- ↳Information Architecture & User Flows
- ↳Complete Design System
- ↳High-Fidelity UI/UX Designs
- ↳Interactive Prototypes
- ↳MVP Development
- ↳AI Routing & Automation
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