Hi, I’m Alicia
Helping B2B SaaS teams cut through complexity, in their products and in how they work together.
- 11 years
- in product design
- +105%
- self-serve MRR at Parabol
- +18.4%
- sign up conversion at Practice Better
What I do
I've seen people struggle with software that wasn't designed with them in mind, and I've seen teams get stuck in decision loops that nobody meant to create. Most of my work happens where those two problems overlap.
Product craft
I design onboarding, growth, and AI-assisted experiences. I like to start with the question, try a small version first, and see what happens before committing to the big one. It's how one of my smallest projects, Kudos, turned into steady week-over-week growth, and how a handful of upgrade experiments at Parabol more than doubled self-serve revenue.
Systems and AI
I also build the structure around the product. At Practice Better, that's Beacon, a shared source of truth where teams agree on what we're working on and why. Once everything lived in one place, AI became a lot more useful. When we were short on resources, I used it to generate a QA test plan from Beacon, which helped us ship our new annual plans on time.
People
I spend a good part of my time mentoring a senior designer, helping PMs find their footing, and getting teams to agree on how they work with each other, and now with AI.
My favourite project so far was also one of the smallest
Don't let the size fool you. The amount of ambiguity was high, and the team had competing visions. I decided the best way to bring clarity was to test a small solution: a heart reaction in the places people were already working, instead of a separate dashboard most people would skip. Within the first three months we saw 7% growth week over week.
The most impactful project I worked on was also the most exciting
Imagine getting Slack notifications each time a self-serve upgrade was made and seeing the frequency increase in real time, going from once or twice a month to multiple times per day.
Over 10 months, self-serve MRR grew 105%. What I'm proudest of is a decision: we tested three upgrade limits, and we passed on the one with the most conversion power, because it was slowing down sign-ups. We shipped the one that converted well without the side effects.
More projects, more learnings
Product Onboarding
I interviewed ten people and dug into Amplitude data to find where new users were dropping off. Connecting an integration and inviting teammates turned out to matter most, so we started by recommending the right meeting for each team type.
Team Insights
Team leads told us they track morale by gut feeling because they don't have the data. I worked with an engineer and a PM to turn meeting data into insights they could act on, starting with three simple cards. It went into global rollout after positive early testing.
PenguinRandomHouse.ca
I built the design system for PenguinRandomHouse.ca from zero, as both the designer and the front-end engineer. It's accessible by design, and it helps readers discover books, authors, and events.
Values
Transparency
I share my thinking early and often, including where I don't have enough context yet and how I plan to find out. When people can see how a decision is being made, they trust it more and can make it better. Ego-free design is my favourite way to work.
Growing people
I want the people around me to grow, and teams learn fastest when it's safe to try a small version first. I mentor, give honest feedback, and share what I've learned, including what didn't work.
Empathy
Empathy goes hand in hand with humility. It's how I understand what users need, and how I understand what a teammate is stuck on, which is often where the real problem is.
Shared direction
Most of what I do depends on people agreeing on what we're making and why. I build relationships early and create the structure that makes that agreement easier: clear priorities, clear decision points, and one place to find the answer.