Mana

Built a time-tracking app from the ground up: 107 user stories, 60+ screens, and a design process that cut weekly engineering meetings by 75%.

Problem

Generic time-tracking tools capture hours but not meaning. Users can't connect daily actions to goals, set time budgets, or reflect on patterns. No product completed the track-to-goal-to-reflect loop.

Solution

I designed customizable activity hierarchies, OKR-style goal-setting, and a reflection system that turns raw data into narrative insight. 80% of interviewees confirmed they wanted milestone-tied goal tracking.

My Role

Sole Designer at an early-stage productivity startup (July 2019–November 2021). Full design ownership: research, IA, UI design, and engineering handoff.

The Challenge

Time-tracking users like Adam, a consultant juggling complex multi-project work, were hitting three blockers existing products didn’t solve:

Generic trackers showed time spent but not whether it was time spent well
Goals lived in separate apps from time data, making OKRs feel like pass/fail
No accountability or motivation layer existed in the tools they tried

Research-backed user persona guided design and product roadmap decisions

What I Built

Activity hierarchy: Customizable categorization mapping to complex, multi-project roles.
Goal-setting flows: OKR-style time budgets with milestone tracking.
Reflection system: Narrative summaries turning raw time data into insight.
Accountability features: Motivation layer validated by 50% of interviewees.
Subscription bundling: Pricing tiers that bundled coaching with the app subscription rather than selling them separately. Users reported feeling rewarded for commitment, not sold a product.

Goals before & after — redesigned goal-tracking with milestone visibility

Reflection before & after — redesigned for lift in user engagement by understanding what matters and how people digest data

Home before & after — gamified and surfaced most important actionable flows, decreasing time to value

Impact

107 user stories across 8 epics delivered for roadmap prioritization
60+ screens; dev-design meeting time cut by 75% (2hrs → 30min/week)
Single persona focus prevented scope creep and kept roadmap aligned with business goals

Beyond Launch

Mana entered hibernation when the team pivoted to Weavechain, where I continued as founding designer on a new product line in web3 data infrastructure. Mana is now working on an AI Assistant that provides personalized insights based on user data, built on the same content framing principles documented above.

year

2024–2025

timeline

10 months

type

B2B SaaS, Developer Tools, Onboarding, Retention

tools

Figma, GPT-4, Perplexity, Confluence, Jira, PowerBI, G-Analytics, Maze

team

3 Designers, PM, Engineering Lead, Dev Relations, Docs, VP Marketing, SVP CX

Key Takeaways

Adoption drives growthEvery flow I design is a lever for ARR and retention. Treating adoption as a strategic product layer lets companies capture the full return on their technical investments.

Content is productDocs, onboarding, and learning surfaces directly shape whether users unlock value — and whether decision-makers renew or churn.

AI optimizes returnsI use AI to unblock bottlenecks, accelerate discovery, and get more out of the team's effort so we solve problems sooner and with greater impact.

Alignment drives impactAdoption design only moves the needle with executive sponsorship. Translating design outcomes into business outcomes makes leadership treat the experience as a growth driver, not support overhead.