About
Resume

Placer.ai | 2022 - 2024

Expanding Placer.ai’s Capabilities via a Unified Marketplace

SUMMARY

The Placer.ai Marketplace offers essential third-party integrations, yet its growth was hindered by poor discoverability and an outdated UI. I led the Marketplace revitalization to transform this fragmented experience into a responsive, high-conversion growth engine, focusing on bridging the gap between complex data offerings and effortless user adoption.

THE OUTCOME

The revitalization drove ~50% ARR growth year-over-year (Q4 2022–Q4 2023) while significantly improving operational efficiency. By implementing a self-serve CMS, I eliminated Marketing’s dependency on Engineering and Design for content updates, allowing for instantaneous marketplace listings and scalable platform growth.

BUSINESS MODAL

B2B SaaS / PLG

B2B SaaS / PLG

B2B SaaS / PLG

DEVICE

Desktop, Tablet, Mobile

COLLABORATORS

Senior Product Designer (me), Product Manager, Full-Stack Engineer, Brand Design, Marketing

Marketplace growth was held
back by several systemic issues

  1. Low Discovery: The Marketplace lived on a separate domain, creating a disjointed experience and preventing contextual upselling.

  2. Manual Bottlenecks: The Marketing team was unable to publish or edit listings without design and engineering intervention.

  3. Friction-Heavy Leads: Unclear forms forced users to contact Support just to express interest in a product.

Image of Marketplace catalog before re-design
Image of Marketplace catalog before re-design
Image of Marketplace catalog before re-design
Image of Marketplace listing page before re-design
Image of Marketplace listing page before re-design
Image of Marketplace listing page before re-design

The Previous Marketplace experience

The Strategy:
Designing for Agility & Constraints

With an accelerated three-month roadmap until our deadline for an MVP, we had to balance high-impact design with technical limitations. Because the team used a restrictive Tailwind component library for the build, I focused on creating a specialized design system that was both on-brand and technically feasible within those constraints.

Image of the new Marketplace catalog design and UI components
Image of the new Marketplace catalog design and UI components
Image of the new Marketplace catalog design and UI components

Refining the Aesthetic:
The Listing & Card Strategy

During the redesign, we made several strategic aesthetic choices:

  • Logo-Centric Cards: We pivoted from the previous card design to a clean, logo-centric approach. This ensured visual consistency across diverse third-party brands and allowed the catalog to look professional and cohesive.


  • Optimized Listing Layout: I designed the product listing page to be "image-forward" - with the marketing images taking the majority of space on the page above the fold, and ensuring that more detailed content was slightly visible just above the fold. This signaled to the user that more information was available below without sacrificing the premium, visual feel of the brand.

Contextual Discovery:
The Marketplace Drawer

Instead of forcing users to leave their workflow to explore add-ons, we introduced an embedded Marketplace Drawer directly within the Placer.ai dashboard. This allowed us to contextually promote relevant products (like Retail Sales in the example below) at the exact moment a user was viewing foot traffic insights, significantly increasing conversion efficiency.

Note: Data in the UI is hidden for confidentiality purposes

Note: Data in the UI is hidden for confidentiality purposes

High-Conversion UX:
The One-Click Approach

To reduce friction, I implemented a "One-Click" request flow for logged-in users. For prospective customers, I designed a minimal lead-capture form. By removing unnecessary fields, we lowered the barrier to entry and increased the volume of qualified leads for the sales team.

Image of the new Marketplace listings page design
Image of the new Marketplace listings page design
Image of the new Marketplace listings page design
Image of a one-click success banner
Image of a one-click success banner
Image of a one-click success banner

Operational Autonomy via CMS

To solve the Marketing team's dependency, we integrated Contentful CMS. I collaborated with the brand design team to design flexible templates and guidelines that empowered Marketing to produce on-brand listings independently. This shift dramatically accelerated our go-to-market speed for new data partnerships.

To solve the Marketing team's dependency, we integrated Contentful CMS. I collaborated with the brand design team to design flexible templates and guidelines that empowered Marketing to produce on-brand listings independently. This shift dramatically accelerated our go-to-market speed for new data partnerships.

An example of the previous visual language for promotional materials
An example of the previous visual language for promotional materials
An example of the previous visual language for promotional materials
An example of the previous visual language for promotional materials
An example of the previous visual language for promotional materials
An example of the previous visual language for promotional materials
An example of the new visual language for promotional materials
An example of the new visual language for promotional materials
An example of the new visual language for promotional materials

Different template design for single datasets vs. dataset packs

An example of the new visual language for dataset packs promotional materials
An example of the new visual language for dataset packs promotional materials
An example of the new visual language for dataset packs promotional materials
An example of the new visual language for dataset packs promotional materials
An example of the new visual language for dataset packs promotional materials
An example of the new visual language for dataset packs promotional materials

Some of the design documentation and system I created for Marketing to create consistent visuals without designers

Documentation for the Marketing team to use to ensure consistency in the promotional materials
Documentation for the Marketing team to use to ensure consistency in the promotional materials
Documentation for the Marketing team to use to ensure consistency in the promotional materials
Documentation for the Marketing team to use to ensure consistency in the promotional materials
Documentation for the Marketing team to use to ensure consistency in the promotional materials
Documentation for the Marketing team to use to ensure consistency in the promotional materials

The Results

The revitalization of the Marketplace successfully shifted it from a "hidden" tool to a core revenue driver. While we shipped an initial MVP in just three months, that was only the foundation. Following the launch, I led a deep-dive collaboration with the Content and Branding teams to define a more sophisticated visual language and align with complex content requirements. This iterative process culminated in a comprehensive redesign that fully realized the Marketplace's potential.

ARR Growth:

Contributed to a 50% YoY increase in Marketplace ARR.

Marketing Agility:

Empowered Marketing to publish updates instantly via an integrated CMS, removing the need for design or engineering support.

Seamless Experience:

Transitioning to a fully responsive, embedded drawer improved user retention and discovery across the platform.