Role
Lead Product Designer
Strategic context
One platform in a broken ecosystem
Geotab's support landscape was — and still is — six systems operating in parallel: Community, Support site, Academy, Dozuki, RightAnswers, and Geotab.com. Users had to guess which one to visit, and the fragmentation was costing real money. In 2023, 50% of users surveyed couldn't find what they were looking for (544 responses) — and 52% of those users then contacted human support, cascading a UX failure directly into operational cost.
The company launched a multi-year Digital Self-Service Support (DSSS) initiative to consolidate everything into a single, AI-powered Central Support Hub. Community was the hardest part: it had to be rebuilt from the ground up and eventually merged into the new hub. I was the dedicated UX resource on the community pillar.
50%
of users unable to find what they need (2023 Support Survey, 544 responses)
52%
of those then called human support — a UX failure turning into an ops cost
6
fragmented support systems the community had to eventually unify with
The problem
A legacy platform that works against its users
Geotab Community predates the interaction patterns people take for granted. The experience actively fights expectations instead of meeting them — and the problems went beyond cosmetics.
- Non-intuitive IA and navigation — complex structure that doesn't map to how people scan or contribute in a modern forum. No clear hierarchy.
- No credibility signals — in a Q&A forum where the quality of an answer determines whether a fleet manager makes the right operational decision, there was no way to tell if you were reading a response from a Geotab employee, the original poster, or a trusted community expert.
- Threading at risk — a platform constraint nearly eliminated reply connectors, the visual glue that makes threaded conversation legible.
- No coherence with the broader support ecosystem — Community felt like a legacy island, disconnected from Academy, the Support site, and Product Updates.
Research & process
Four months of discovery before a single frame
Before touching Figma, I ran a structured research phase that covered the user, the competitive landscape, and the information architecture — producing artifacts that became shared alignment tools for the cross-functional team.
- Journey mapping. Mapped the Fleet Manager's full support journey — from recognizing a problem through resolution — exposing the moments where Community was supposed to help but didn't. This became the shared reference frame for prioritization conversations with Product and Support Ops.
- UX Scorecard. Evaluated the existing Geotab Community against defined criteria (navigation, discoverability, credibility, conversation legibility, IA, mobile, integration). Gave stakeholders a baseline score to measure against — and made the "how bad is it?" conversation fact-based instead of opinion-based.
- Competitive analysis workshops. Benchmarked Reddit, Stack Overflow, YouTube, ServiceNow, and Tumblr against the specific needs of fleet professionals — identifying patterns to adopt (not copy). Ran as a facilitated FigJam workshop with cross-functional participants.
- IA workshop. Structured session to redesign the homepage information architecture from scratch, using the research as input. Surfaced the right content hierarchy for the Geotab Community user vs. what the legacy platform assumed.
Design
From lo-fi to dev-ready — desktop and mobile
Design went through multiple structured iterations: low-fidelity wireframes → high-fidelity explorations → prototype revisions with dev feedback annotations → a full Ready for Dev spec covering both desktop and mobile. Every decision traced back to the research.
Homepage redesign
The homepage became the most complex surface: it needed to serve returning users quickly (product-filtered post feed), support discovery (announcements, webinars, leaderboard), and connect Community visually and functionally to the rest of the Central Support Hub. The AI-powered search bar scoped across Community and the broader support ecosystem.
Credibility system and threaded conversation
The credibility problem required a new identifier system: inline, dot-separated badges — Geotab Verified (employee), OP (thread-scoped, never shown on the question itself), and accepted-answer highlight on replies. Three sizes (reply / profile / spec), tooltips, and careful visibility rules so the system aids trust without adding noise.
Threading was nearly cut. When dev raised the implementation cost of reply connectors, I was in the room (I'd started joining dev syncs), made the UX case immediately, and offered to build the component myself with GIA — so the cost wouldn't land on the dev team. The connectors shipped.
Post management and moderation system
The redesign went beyond the reader experience. I designed a full post management system for admin and moderator roles: role-based views (Creator / Admin / Moderator), AI-powered automatic post categorization, edit/delete/flag flows with confirmation dialogs, and a Flag Post modal with reason selection. Designed to give community managers actual tools — not just a read-only skin on a legacy platform.
Component library
Built a full component library on Zenith tokens: Post Item, Mini Post Item, Announcement Card, Webinar Card, Upvote Button, Comment Button, Sort By Dropdown, Tab Bar states (Announcements / Webinars), and the badge/identifier system — each with Default, Hover, Focus, Pressed, and Disabled states. Gave the dev team something to build from, not just reference.
Results
Dev-ready spec, shipped patterns, and a platform that can grow
Full desktop and mobile spec delivered to dev team — Ready for Dev across all core surfaces (homepage, individual post, post creation, all-posts view, my-posts view, mobile nav, moderation system). Reply connectors shipped instead of being cut — directly attributable to cross-functional presence and hands-on contribution. Reusable component library and badge system with documented visibility logic, built on Zenith tokens.
The Community redesign is one piece of a larger migration into Geotab's Central Support Hub — a single logged-in experience combining Community, Academy, AI-powered search, knowledge articles, and Product Updates. The design system and IA work done here informed how Community will integrate with the rest of the hub.
"Because I was in the room, I was able to make the case right then. I also offered to take on building the component myself — with a little help from GIA — so the effort wouldn't fall on the dev team. That outcome doesn't happen if I'm not in that meeting."
From my internal note, "Why I Started Joining Dev Team Meetings"Community engagement metrics live in Pendo / the support.com warehouse, not Superset. To prove impact: time-to-first-answer, accepted-answer rate, and return-contributor rate before/after launch; whether Geotab Verified threads earn higher accepted-answer rates; and answers that resolve a question without escalating to a ticket — the thread that ties directly back to the 52% leakage number from the 2023 Support Survey.