Case Study > In 30s

The Problem
Feature teams across the company were working in silos. They lacked a shared understanding of the broader customer journey—what problems our customers were trying to solve and how different roles contributed to those solutions at different stages.

The Solution
To address this, our design leadership (my VP of Design and I) created a user model based on character archetypes to represent the key users and buyers of our product. We then introduced a new tool called the UX Map, which helps align product thinking around real organization goals. The map answered key questions:

• What are the organization’s strategic goals?

• Which persona is responsible for each goal?

• What are the 1–4 critical journeys that determine success for that goal?

• What are the high-level, product-agnostic steps of each journey?

• Which personas are involved at each stage of the journey?

The Impact
We trained the entire product and engineering organization on the Personas & UX Map. These tools have become foundational at Sysdig—used to onboard new hires (from executives to ICs) and guide product planning across teams.

My Role
I conducted interviews with customers and internal stakeholders to define the personas. I collaborated closely with my manager to design the UX Map, and I led the coordination, facilitation, and delivery of training sessions across the organization.

***

About the Company:

• What we do: SaaS cybersecurity for mid-size and enterprise companies

• Size: 600 employees, still startup-minded

• Design team: 10 Design Team Members, 4 Designers on my team. I am an IC and Director

• Shift in users: Market shifted so personas shifted > from DevOps engineers to security teams focused on outcomes, not fixes

• Product Background: Engineering-led roots caused UX issues as users became less technical

• Customer goals our product solves:

  • Don’t get hacked

  • Don’t break laws

  • Ship features fast