A product that used to lead was quietly dying. Customers were fed up and leaving for the competition. I was brought in to turn that around.
Obi4wan’s (now Spotler) social media publishing tool had gone stale. Old interface, missing features, and a real pain to publish across channels. The market moved on, while we had a shrinking window and a development team already stretched thin.
The tool wasn’t broken in one spot. It had stopped listening to its users. So before touching the design, I went to them: more than 20 interviews with users and stakeholders. The pattern was clear. People wanted control and overview, and the tool gave them neither.
I led the product design and research, working closely with the CTO and the development team, because a fix like this only holds if design and engineering pull the same way. We rebuilt the core: a Publishing Agenda to see and plan a whole strategy at a glance, per-account text instead of one message forced across every channel, and a Post Optimizer to make each post stronger. All on a flexible design system, so it could keep growing.
We went straight at what was pushing customers out the door. Users finally got control and overview, and a tool that worked the way they did. Four features they had been asking for, shipped under real time pressure.
The job was never the interface, it was hearing what users actually needed and shipping it before the window closed. That judgment is the same today, only now I get to the answers faster with AI.
THE POST OPTIMIZER
The Post Optimizer is a feature that helps you fine-tune all your social media posts and get better results with social media. This smart technology in Post Optimizer continuously analyzes the performance of hundreds of thousands of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter posts, and provides you with hints based on real-time intelligence.
INSTAGRAM CAROUSEL
A sprint feature. Users kept asking for Instagram carousels, and competitors already had them. I designed it under a tight deadline and real technical limits, so people could finally post carousels without leaving the tool.
Publishing Agenda
A major update in the new version is the launch of the Publishing Agenda. Get a quick overview and schedule a social media strategy. A search by filters was very important to our users.
The Posting Push
Building a post for your social media strategy is something a user wants options for the best possible post. You can get help with targeting options for Facebook and LinkedIn and also the option to optimize each post with the Post optimizer.
SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS SPLITTING
Problem with the Publishing Product was the platform could only handle 1 text for all social media accounts when selected.
This iteration was designed because users wanted control over their text for each social media account.
