Overview

Elsie is an AI-powered ecommerce business partner designed to learn the patterns of a business and turn industry, competitor, and customer data into intuitive, actionable guidance. Built for e-commerce SMB owners, it helps users plan, prioritize, and achieve weekly, monthly, and quarterly goals while supporting smarter decision-making at every stage. By handling day-to-day operational support and expanding its capabilities over time, Elsie enables business owners to stay focused on growth, clarity, and long-term vision.

Role

My role was to design Elsie from end-to-end, taking it from 0 to 1, shaping it into a unified ecosystem of business support and guidance. At its core, Elsie was created to help SMB owners navigate operational questions, marketing decisions, and next-step execution through a conversational, context-aware experience. Elsie’s key differentiator lies in its ability to guide users smoothly from question to recommendation to action, reducing the friction, confusion, and overwhelm often created by the solo entrepreneur's dilemma of having to juggle countless fragmented tools.

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OVERVIEW SURFACE

Problem

SMBs and solo entrepreneurs are often overwhelmed by the number of software platforms they have to learn and the many tasks they must manage each day. This operational burden takes time away from the core work that truly fuels business growth. An AI business partner can help reduce that day-to-day friction, giving owners the support they need to work more efficiently, simplify operations, and focus on growing their business.

NEEDS:

• 0-1 AI for SMBs - Design an intuitive, user-friendly web app that helps small and medium-sized business owners manage daily, weekly, and monthly business tasks with greater ease and confidence.

• Brand Design - Create a credible, trustworthy brand identity that positions the product as a true partner in helping business owners run and grow their businesses.

Solution

AS PRODUCT DESIGN LEAD, I DELIVERED:

• AI Web App Design featuring three core MVP experiences tailored to the needs of SMB owners

• AI Conversational Chatbot with integrated conversational AI to support guidance, interaction, and task completion

• Visual Brand Identity supported by comprehensive brand guidelines for consistent application across product and marketing touchpoints

Process

Designing Elsie was an extensive, insight-led process grounded in discovery, systems thinking, and market understanding. After multiple strategy sessions, I conducted research with SMEs to better understand the SMB landscape, the operational pain points business owners face, and the fragmented tools they often rely on to keep their businesses running. I also looked closely at where users experienced blockers in self-serve problem solving, decision-making, and next-step execution.

To identify opportunities for differentiation, I mapped and recreated core workflows from adjacent platforms as interactive prototypes, using them to evaluate how users moved through support, guidance, and action across connected experiences. These insights helped shape Elsie into more than an AI product concept. They informed a conversational, context-aware ecosystem designed to help users move seamlessly from question to recommendation to execution, while building greater clarity, trust, and momentum along the way.

MAIN SURFACE - BEFORE & AFTER

STRUCTURE

WIRES

LEARNING

AI-DRIVEN MARKETING

PUBLIC LANDING PAGE

THEMES/MODES