Businesses have used Ansarada to run over 25,000 deals. But while Ansarada provided useful tools during a deal—secure document sharing, Q&A, reporting—it didn't help businesses with the problems they faced before a deal even began. It became clear that a lack of preparation was the largest factor in deal failure.
I joined Ansarada as the lead designer in a 10-person team tasked with turning this insight into a product. We built and launched an MVP in four months. Then the real work started: learning and iterating on the product to grow our user base.
We quickly discovered that our product had broader use cases than deal preparation. We were actually building a platform: one place for companies to manage critical information about their business, and connect with advisors, auditors, lawyers, and other experts.
I had to stay light on my feet to:
- Design software (from sketch to Sketch) and work with developers to build it.
- Work with Ansarada’s design system team to update Ansarada’s visual style and overhaul key components to improve usability.
- On-board early users alongside Ansarada’s customer success team to tighten the feedback loop.
- Train internal teams to sell the platform and support users.
- Run workshops and planning sessions with the senior leadership team to refine our direction and set priorities.
The new platform transformed Ansarada from a transactional business into one that delivers ongoing value to companies and generates recurring revenue. Following our launch, Ansarada raised $24 million (with help from our own platform!) to continue this transformation.