03

2024-2025

HOME

HOME

Driving Outset to
Series A

I joined Outset, a platform providing researchers the tools to conduct AI-led user interviews and usability testing sessions, at the seed stage. Outset had product-market fit and a strong foundational product but the experience of the product lagged behind.


As the sole product designer, I defined a new product architecture, defined and designed over 20 new features, and up-leveled the craft and experience throughout the product. As a small part of the great work the entire team completed, this culminated in a Series A raise and a product ready to scale.

company

Outset

Date

2024-2025

Role

freelance lead designer

a new product exprience

Before I joined, the team shipped features fast but the experience and visual system lagged behind.

In my work, I focused on:

  1. Re-architecting the product experience - creating a conceptual model of "Projects" that is intuitive, easily navigable, and focused on value creation.

  2. Up-leveling and designing a set of features to convert Outset from a basic utility tool into a full-fledged research platform.

  3. Evolving Outset’s fragmented UI into a cohesive design system, creating a less cluttered human‑centered experience that elevates clarity, reinforces brand identity, and makes every screen feel part of the same polished product.

a new product exprience

Before I joined, the team shipped features fast but the experience and visual system lagged behind.

In my work, I focused on:

  1. Re-architecting the product experience - creating a conceptual model of "Projects" that is intuitive, easily navigable, and focused on value creation.

  2. Up-leveling and designing a set of features to convert Outset from a basic utility tool into a full-fledged research platform.

  3. Evolving Outset’s fragmented UI into a cohesive design system, creating a less cluttered human‑centered experience that elevates clarity, reinforces brand identity, and makes every screen feel part of the same polished product.

a new product exprience

Before I joined, the team shipped features fast but the experience and visual system lagged behind.

In my work, I focused on:

  1. Re-architecting the product experience - creating a conceptual model of "Projects" that is intuitive, easily navigable, and focused on value creation.

  2. Up-leveling and designing a set of features to convert Outset from a basic utility tool into a full-fledged research platform.

  3. Evolving Outset’s fragmented UI into a cohesive design system, creating a less cluttered human‑centered experience that elevates clarity, reinforces brand identity, and makes every screen feel part of the same polished product.

Home

The existing home page was primarily just a means of accessing studies and reports - I redefined it to surface what matters most.

Previously anything that felt human (videos/thumbnails/etc.) was buried deeper into the product - I prioritized bringing this forward.

Additionally, I sought to prompt users into the new "Insights" tab I added in.

Asset A
Home

The existing home page was primarily just a means of accessing studies and reports - I redefined it to surface what matters most.

Previously anything that felt human (videos/thumbnails/etc.) was buried deeper into the product - I prioritized bringing this forward.

Additionally, I sought to prompt users into the new "Insights" tab I added in.

Asset A
Home

The existing home page was primarily just a means of accessing studies and reports - I redefined it to surface what matters most.

Previously anything that felt human (videos/thumbnails/etc.) was buried deeper into the product - I prioritized bringing this forward.

Additionally, I sought to prompt users into the new "Insights" tab I added in.

Asset A
Asset A
Asset A
Asset A
GUide generation

The existing guide generation experience faced a major issue - a typical guide is 25-50 questions long but the UI was one extremely long list of questions without way-finding. Alongside a visual refresh, I added a left sidebar for simplified navigation and drag and drop functionality.

Additionally, I found an opportunity to preview of how the question appears to participants.

Asset A
GUide generation

The existing guide generation experience faced a major issue - a typical guide is 25-50 questions long but the UI was one extremely long list of questions without way-finding. Alongside a visual refresh, I added a left sidebar for simplified navigation and drag and drop functionality.

Additionally, I found an opportunity to preview of how the question appears to participants.

Asset A
GUide generation

The existing guide generation experience faced a major issue - a typical guide is 25-50 questions long but the UI was one extremely long list of questions without way-finding. Alongside a visual refresh, I added a left sidebar for simplified navigation and drag and drop functionality.

Additionally, I found an opportunity to preview of how the question appears to participants.

Asset A
Asset A
Asset A
Asset A
recruiting

Previously researchers could only share a link - with a new built in integration with Prolific and User Interview, I defined and designed a set of features to find, filter, and recruit participants.

Asset A
recruiting

Previously researchers could only share a link - with a new built in integration with Prolific and User Interview, I defined and designed a set of features to find, filter, and recruit participants.

Asset A
recruiting

Previously researchers could only share a link - with a new built in integration with Prolific and User Interview, I defined and designed a set of features to find, filter, and recruit participants.

Asset A
conversations

The creation of a cross-study Conversations page was one of the major features that I pushed for heavily. Previously, conversations were only visible under the "Results" tab within each study. Teams typically had 5+ studies, meaning that to

Asset A
conversations

The creation of a cross-study Conversations page was one of the major features that I pushed for heavily. Previously, conversations were only visible under the "Results" tab within each study. Teams typically had 5+ studies, meaning that to

Asset A
conversations

The creation of a cross-study Conversations page was one of the major features that I pushed for heavily. Previously, conversations were only visible under the "Results" tab within each study. Teams typically had 5+ studies, meaning that to

Asset A
insights and reports

Outset's existing reports were extremely lengthy and cluttered, leading to difficulty parsing through and finding important information.

I focused on progressive disclosure for the new experience with expandable questions and a layered quotes experience.


Additionally, I proposed and pushed through an "Insights" tab that automatically created a set of important learnings from the interviews (in comparison to reports, which require manual set-up).

Asset A
insights and reports

Outset's existing reports were extremely lengthy and cluttered, leading to difficulty parsing through and finding important information.

I focused on progressive disclosure for the new experience with expandable questions and a layered quotes experience.


Additionally, I proposed and pushed through an "Insights" tab that automatically created a set of important learnings from the interviews (in comparison to reports, which require manual set-up).

Asset A
insights and reports

Outset's existing reports were extremely lengthy and cluttered, leading to difficulty parsing through and finding important information.

I focused on progressive disclosure for the new experience with expandable questions and a layered quotes experience.


Additionally, I proposed and pushed through an "Insights" tab that automatically created a set of important learnings from the interviews (in comparison to reports, which require manual set-up).

Asset A
Asset A
Asset A
Asset A
participant experience

I designed a multi-platform participant experience for Outset's research interviews. I sought to create a comfortable/minimal experience where the users could focus on the interview topics and any other stimuli or tasks.

Designing the mobile web user testing experience required an extreme focus on clarity. I initially designed a more minimal contractable interviewer card that allowed participants to view the question and website simultaneously. However, in testing this, there were a variety of issues, such as users often not understanding the contracting behavior and just left the card expanded the entire time, blocking much of the screen.


I iterated to land on a more straightforward version where users view the prompt within a bottom sheet, explicitly begin their response and view the website with a botton toolbar. I also ensured that users could clearly see when they are recording vs. not recording (as in some tests, users would contract the bottom sheet without realizing they didn't start recording).

highlight reels

One of the features I designed was the ability to add bookmarks to different clips - however, we saw that researchers were often needing to splice together bookmarks outside of Outset to share with the team. We decided to create a new feature that enabled users to assemble and share out highlight reels within Outset.

An experience built for growth

During my ~14 months at Outset, my design work contributed to an ~$800k to ~$2M ARR growth, with many prospects mentioning the experience as a primary selling point. Ultimately, this led into a Series A raise and a product ready for its next chapter.

Within the team, I was able to establish strong bonds and set a standard for design that could be built upon. I also established practices, such as a biweekly design sync where anyone relevant to current work could review and provide feedback.


"It was amazing how detailed you are. I don't think I've ever worked with a designer so detailed and invested in the product."

-Mark Huber, Engineer @ Outset


"I really enjoyed working with you - you're easily the best designer I've ever worked with"

-Daniel, Engineer @ Outset


"Overall the interface is super easy to use and the transcript, AI summary, and report experience are impressive."

-Outset customer prospect

During my ~14 months at Outset, my design work contributed to an ~$800k to ~$2M ARR growth, with many prospects mentioning the experience as a primary selling point. Ultimately, this led into a Series A raise and a product ready for its next chapter.

Within the team, I was able to establish strong bonds and set a standard for design that could be built upon. I also established practices, such as a biweekly design sync where anyone relevant to current work could review and provide feedback.


"It was amazing how detailed you are. I don't think I've ever worked with a designer so detailed and invested in the product."

-Mark Huber, Engineer @ Outset


"I really enjoyed working with you - you're easily the best designer I've ever worked with"

-Daniel, Engineer @ Outset


"Overall the interface is super easy to use and the transcript, AI summary, and report experience are impressive."

-Outset customer prospect

Founding and scaling sutro

sutro

managing ello's product & brand creation

ello

jeremyerikk@gmail.com

jeremyerikk@gmail.com

jeremyerikk@gmail.com