WORK

Case studies from complex problems, unfinished products, and evolving businesses.

This is not a portfolio in chronological order. These are the projects that best show how I think and approach simplifying complexity and defining the unknown.

A whiteboard with multiple yellow sticky notes arranged in columns and rows. Some notes are handwritten, and the board appears to be used for planning or brainstorming.

EXPERIENCE DESIGN & UX STRATEGY

Customer Success Business Model Transformation

A growing organization was underperforming. Customer Success operated reactively, leading to inconsistent engagement, rising churn risk, and untapped expansion opportunities. The business needed a customer strategy, not just account management.

Customer Success was managing a diverse customer base without a consistent framework for understanding who customers were, what they needed, or how the business should serve them differently.

Results:

  • Increased Net Revenue Retention from 92% to 118% (+26 pts)

  • Reduced churn by 38% within 2 quarters

  • Increased product and service adoption by 30%

A lush jungle scene with dense green foliage and moss-covered ground, featuring a group of hikers in outdoor gear walking along a trail.

BUSINESS STRATEGY & DESIGN CONSULTING

Jungle Guides International: Digital Experience Strategy and Web Design

Jungle Guides International (JGI) is a leader in wilderness medicine, expedition leadership, and jungle guide training. While the organization had earned an outstanding reputation in the field, its digital presence no longer reflected the quality of its programs and struggled to capture and convert leads.

The challenge wasn't simply to redesign pages, it was to rethink how the organization presented its value, connected with different audiences, and used digital experiences to support long-term business goals. I was brought in to look beyond the website itself and how to drive conversion.

Results:

  • 17.4% increase in average engagement time

  • Bounce rate reduced from 70.6% to 43%

  • 96% increase in engagement with expedition and course pages

  • 23% increase in organic search visibility

  • 41% increase in organic traffic

Screenshot of a project management interface from adaptive.io showing progress in creating a project, with options to add steps and guidance on simplifying workflow.

LEARNABILITY & PRODUCT ADOPTION

Adaptive Product Onboarding Experience

Most SaaS onboarding treats everyone the same. Adaptive learns each user's role, goals, and experience, then reshapes the journey as it watches how they actually work — so support scales up or down to meet the moment.

Every screen shares one idea: the product should observe, explain itself, and adjust. Onboarding, in-product help, proficiency, and the admin tooling are all views into the same adaptive engine — which is what lets a single experience meet a brand-new user and a returning power user where each of them actually is.

An elderly indigenous man with traditional jewelry and face paint stands in a forest, holding a spear with a waterfall in the background.

EXPERIENCE DESIGN & UX STRATEGY — BUSINESS STRATEGY & DESIGN CONSULTING

Jungle Expedition and Certification Go-To-Market

Jungle Guides International (JGI) is a dual-market expedition and certification ecosystem designed to develop capability in jungle environments through immersive training, professional pathways, and transformational field experiences.

JGI’s long-term vision is to become the global authority in jungle training and expedition-based learning; connecting storytelling, certification, and real-world fieldwork into a single, scalable ecosystem.

A screenshot of a web page titled 'Let's set up your connection' for integrating systems like Salesforce and HubSpot, with options to connect accounts and choose familiarity levels with connecting systems.

PRODUCT & UX DESIGN — LEARNABILITY & PRODUCT ADOPTION

Simplifying API Connections For a Low-Code SaaS Platform

Low-code platforms promise to help people build powerful digital experiences without needing to be professional developers. But as these platforms become more capable, they can also become more complex.

For this workflow, I explored how to redesign and increase learnability for a technically complex API connection within a low-code form development platform.

The challenge wasn't simply to make the interface "easier"; it was to explore how to reconsider the technically complex API connection workflow within a low-code form development platform.

Screenshot of a website interface showing a language translation review process. The page includes sections for translation review status, translation progress, and language comparison, with highlighted notes indicating reviews needed or completed.

PRODUCT & UX DESIGN — AI PRODUCT EXPERIENCES

Multi-language AI-powered Form Development Experience

A low-code form and automation platform needed a better way for users to create forms for multilingual audiences. The challenge wasn't simply translating the form, it was helping users navigate the complexity of language configuration, translation, localization, and validation without requiring them to understand how the underlying system worked.

A website screenshot showing a step-by-step process for developing a product. The steps include Learn, Practice, Get Support, Apply, and Validate. The page emphasizes learning through on-demand and live instruction, practicing with adaptive guidance, receiving support during office hours, applying the skills by transferring into real work, and validating through expert feedback to demonstrate independent competency.

LEARNING EXPERIENCE DESIGN

Technical Onboarding Program

New users struggled to navigate a low-code form and automation platform, slowing time-to-competency and increasing support dependency. Most arrived with no prior product experience and were expected to deliver a working solution within weeks.

A nine-stage learning system that moves new users from "I don't know how this works" to "I can confidently use this platform to solve a real business problem" — with instruction inside the product, support that scales to demonstrated need, and competency validated on real work

Results:

  • Reduced time-to-value by 35%

  • Increased onboarding completion to 85%+

  • Reduced support requests by 40%

  • Improved early-stage retention by 25%

A person using a MacBook Pro to view a financial dashboard displaying revenue, fees, and growth metrics in a well-lit office environment.

EXPERIENCE DESIGN & UX STRATEGY

SaaS Product and Customer Experience Transformation

The platform was focused on form development and business process automation. It intended to enable organizations to build forms, automate workflows, connect data across applications, and create reports and visualizations.

We had a powerful product, but we didn't have a shared understanding of who it was for, and as a result our customers struggled to realize value, and renewal was always a risk.

Results:

  • Increased product adoption by 35%

  • Improved engagement across key workflows by 30%

  • Reduced support dependency through improved UX

  • Established two scalable, cross-functional capabilities

Screenshot of a dark-themed team dashboard from Pulse app showing various metrics such as portfolio amount, revenue at risk, gross retention percentage, and expansion pipeline, along with team member performance and workload data.

AI PRODUCT EXPERIENCES

Customer Success Platform

CSMs don't lack data — they lack clarity. Pulse unifies CRM, product usage, support, and conversations that transforms Customer Success from reactive account management into proactive decision-makers and relationship builders.

The unsolved problem wasn’t “how can we help the CSM find information faster?” but “what customers need my attention, why, and what should I do next - letting me spend more time on our relationship?”

A collage of book covers related to music and child development, including titles on teaching music to children, music psychology, and musical intelligence, with various colors and illustrations.

LEARNING EXPERIENCE DESIGN

Reimagining How Children Learn The Foundations of Music

Only 20% of public schools report having a full-time music teacher and over 25% receiving minimal or no funding for music programs.

For those seeking private music lessons, affordability, rigid program structures, and traditional teaching methods create significant barriers, leading to a 75% dropout rate among students.

There is a compelling opportunity to transform early childhood traditional music education by addressing critical gaps in accessibility and engagement.

Results:

  • Increased engagement by 40%+

  • Improved knowledge retention by 30%

  • Reduced drop-off by 25%

  • Increased completion rates

Have a complex experience that needs simplifying?

Whether you’re facing UX debt, low adoption, or a rebuild, let’s talk about what you’re actually trying to solve.

“Working with Kaylyn transformed how we approach growth and process—all in one partnership. As an amazing facilitator and educator, Kaylyn taught us how to take a design thinking approach and its application in designing employee journeys and people strategy.”

— Human Resources Team

“Kaylyn possesses a rare blend of expertise, adaptability, and leadership qualities that are bound to bring success to any team or project. She has also been an absolute delight to work with, and I would choose to work with her again in a heartbeat.”

— Product & Engineering Executive

“We've always been impressed by her innovative approach, strategic thinking, ability to consult with cross-functional partners to get things done, and her diverse skill set. She brings a design and people-centric approach to problem-solving and consistently thrives in complex and challenging environments.”

— SaaS Executive Team

“Kaylyn excels at connecting the dots and seeing the bigger picture, making meaningful contributions and innovations across our business.

Kaylyn knows that HOW things get done for a client is just as important as WHAT gets done.”

— Global Pharmaceutical L&D Leader