Users sign up, poke around, and leave. Feature requests pile up but adoption stays flat. The issue is rarely missing features – it is a product experience that does not match how your users actually work. Research-driven design fixes this at the root.
The Problem
Feature bloat is killing your user experience
Every quarter adds new features, but activation rates stay flat. Your product has grown into a complex tool that intimidates new users and confuses power users. The navigation is a graveyard of features that each made sense individually but collectively create an overwhelming experience. Your team keeps building because the roadmap says so, but nobody is asking whether users can actually find and use what you already built.
User research happens too late or not at all
Most SaaS teams run user research as validation after decisions are already made. The roadmap is set, the designs are done, and research becomes a checkbox exercise. When findings contradict the plan, they get filed away. The result is products designed around internal assumptions about user behavior that turn out to be wrong. You discover the gap when activation drops or churn spikes – months after the damage is done.
Design and engineering work in silos
Design hands off mockups. Engineering builds something close but not quite right. The details that make a product feel good get lost in translation. Edge cases surface during development and get patched with quick fixes instead of thoughtful solutions. The gap between what was designed and what shipped grows wider with each release, and users feel every rough edge.
You are solving for features instead of workflows
Your competitors have the same features. The difference is how those features work together to support a user's actual workflow. Most SaaS products are organized around their own data model, not around how users think about their work. This creates friction at every step – users have to learn your mental model instead of you adapting to theirs.
How We Help
We start with research that maps your users' actual workflows – not what they say they do, but what they actually do. We combine usage analytics with observational research to identify where users get stuck, where they drop off, and what workarounds they have built around your product's limitations. This gives us a clear picture of the experience gaps that drive churn and limit adoption.
From there, we build a design [strategy](/services/strategy/) grounded in those research findings. We identify the highest-impact experience improvements – the changes that will move activation, retention, and expansion metrics. This is not a visual redesign for the sake of looking modern. It is targeted design work that addresses specific friction points in your user experience.
Our design process is iterative and tightly integrated with your engineering team. We prototype, test with real users, and refine before anything goes into development. This means your engineering team builds the right thing the first time instead of reworking designs after launch. We work in your design system and your tech constraints – not in an idealized vacuum.
We also build the research infrastructure your team needs to keep learning after we leave. This includes setting up continuous user research practices, analytics dashboards that track experience quality, and feedback loops between customer-facing teams and [product](/services/product/) development. The goal is not dependency on external consultants. It is building your internal capability to make research-informed product decisions.
Every design decision connects back to business outcomes. We track how design changes affect activation rates, time-to-value, feature adoption, and retention. Your [marketing](/services/marketing/) team gets better product stories to tell because the product experience actually delivers on the promises made during acquisition.
What we deliver
- User workflow research report with friction point mapping
- Prioritized design roadmap ranked by business impact
- Interactive prototypes tested with real users before development
- Design system updates and component specifications for engineering
- Research infrastructure setup for continuous user insight
The highest-ROI design work in SaaS is not adding new features or refreshing the UI – it is removing the friction between what users are trying to accomplish and how your product lets them do it.
Our Methodology
Our 90-day design sprint runs in three phases: research and mapping (days 1-30), design and prototyping (days 31-60), and implementation support and measurement (days 61-90). The first phase is research-heavy. We run user observation sessions, analyze product analytics, interview customer success and support teams, and map the complete user journey from signup to expansion. The output is a clear picture of where design is helping and where it is hurting.
Phase two translates research into design solutions. We work in rapid prototyping cycles – designing, testing with users, and iterating weekly. Nothing goes to engineering until it has been validated with real users. Phase three embeds us with your engineering team to ensure design intent survives implementation. We run QA on the experience, not just the functionality, and set up the measurement framework to track design impact on business metrics. Your team walks away with both better product design and the research practices to sustain it.
How We Work
The first 30 days focus on understanding your users and your product's current experience quality. We conduct 15-20 user observation sessions, audit your product analytics for behavior patterns, and interview your customer-facing teams. By month-end, you have a research report that maps every major friction point in your user experience, ranked by impact on retention and adoption.
Days 31-60 are design sprints. We take the top 3-5 friction points and design solutions through rapid prototyping. Each week includes user testing sessions to validate or redirect our approach. Your product and engineering leads participate in design reviews to ensure feasibility. The output is tested, validated designs ready for development with full specifications.
Days 61-90 focus on implementation support and building your internal research capability. We work alongside your engineering team during build, conduct experience QA, and set up the analytics and feedback systems your team needs to continue research-informed design independently. We establish the measurement baseline so you can track design impact on activation, retention, and expansion.
Typical engagements run 3-4 months with a team of a lead product designer, UX researcher, and design systems specialist. Your side needs a product manager, engineering lead, and access to 15-20 users for research sessions.
- Reduced time-to-value for new user activation
- Improved feature adoption through workflow-aligned design
- Research infrastructure for ongoing user insight
- Design system aligned with engineering implementation patterns
If your saas / tech company needs product design & research leadership, we should talk.
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Frequently asked questions
How is product design research different from usability testing?
Usability testing evaluates whether users can complete specific tasks in your existing product. Product design research goes deeper – it maps how users think about their work, identifies workflow gaps your product does not address, and uncovers behavior patterns that explain churn and adoption. Usability testing tells you if a button is in the right place. Design research tells you if you are building the right thing in the first place.
How many users do you need for research sessions?
We typically conduct 15-20 user observation sessions during the research phase. These include a mix of new users, power users, churned users, and users from different segments. For usability testing during design sprints, 5-7 sessions per round is sufficient to identify major issues. We work with your customer success team to recruit participants that represent your actual user base, not just your happiest customers.
What if our product needs a full redesign, not just incremental improvements?
We rarely recommend a full redesign. Most SaaS products benefit more from targeted improvements to the highest-friction workflows. Full redesigns are risky – they disrupt existing users, take months to ship, and often introduce new problems while fixing old ones. If research shows fundamental structural issues, we develop a phased approach that improves the experience incrementally without forcing your entire user base through a jarring transition.
How do you work with our existing design team?
We embed alongside your team, not replace them. Your designers participate in research sessions and design sprints so they build the same user understanding we have. We work within your existing design system and tools. The goal is capability transfer – your team should be better at research-informed design after the engagement than before. We focus on the methodology and process gaps, not just delivering designs.
How do you measure the business impact of design improvements?
We set up measurement for each design change before it ships. Key metrics include activation rate, time-to-value, feature adoption rate, task completion rate, and retention by cohort. We establish baselines during the research phase and track changes post-implementation. Design impact shows up in these metrics within 30-60 days of shipping. We also correlate design changes with support ticket volume and NPS to capture the full picture.
What does a product design engagement cost for a SaaS company?
Most engagements range from $40K-$90K depending on product complexity, number of user segments, and scope of design work. This includes research, design, prototyping, user testing, and implementation support. Compare that to the cost of building the wrong features for a quarter – engineering time alone on misguided features easily exceeds this investment. The first step is a research sprint to quantify the design opportunity.
