Designing for adoption through immersion when information fails to convert
An agentic AI B2B platform for sales teams that captures, analyzes, and acts on every call SalesAI
Product Designer
Embeded into EPD team
0 to 1 Product design from concept to launch
Freelance
UX
UI
The most effective onboarding is not a tour, it's a demo
For a product that uses AI to capture and analyze sales calls, explaining features is not enough. SMB users need to feel the value before they will commit to changing how they work.
Standard onboarding — product tours and empty states — passively presents information. This first-time user experience (FTUX) actively puts users inside the product with real sample data, walking them through every major workflow before their first real call comes in.
Product in final production. Designed towards
Activation & Adoption
TTV & Dropoff
AI adoption fails when it feels like a new behavior
SMBs driven by calls and follow-ups already have a workflow. The barrier to adopting AI isn't understanding what it can do — it's not wanting to change how they work to use it.
With 20+ years of sales experience behind the product direction, the insight was clear: AI has to integrate into familiar patterns, not replace them. Receiving a call, reviewing a summary, acting on a suggested follow-up — the same steps SMBs already take, with AI handling what used to fall through the cracks.
The standard approach wasn't enough
A product tour and empty states were always part of the plan. The tour walks users through the main components. The empty states educate users on the value proposition before first use. Both are necessary. Neither is sufficient.
The signal came while designing the in-use screens. The client kept losing context without realistic data to look at. If the person who built the product needed real examples to understand it, a first-time SMB user had no chance with empty states and tooltips alone.
Passive information doesn't create activation. Users needed to be inside the product before their first real call came in.
Earning the aha moment before the first real call
The solution was to replace the empty state first experience with three interactive cards — sample data that puts users inside the product's core workflows before anything real comes in.
Each card maps to a major capability. A voicemail with an AI-generated summary shows users what the product captures and surfaces. A tasks card prompts Gmail and Slack integration so the team is set up for one-click actions and real-time notifications. An email draft addressed to the user lets them test the click-to-send capability firsthand.
Complete all three and the product opens into its real empty state, but now the user knows exactly what to do when the first call comes in.
Product tour first. Interactive demo second. Real product third. Each stage earns the next.
What launch will tell us
The product is in final production. Once it ships, the primary signal is whether users who engage meaningfully with the interactive demo activate at a higher rate than those who don't. This FTUX tests attention and understanding.
Secondary signals: time to first real action after onboarding, Gmail and Slack integration rates, and whether users return after their first AI-assisted call.
The roadmap is ready. The data will tell us what to build next.