Kantata Pulse
Case Study Overview
Kantata Pulse was a feature intended to help project managers improve project health. I led the design of the project from discovery through launch.
Background & Challenge
Initiated during a time of considerable economic headwinds, this was the first feature Kantata built that had its own revenue targets, along with an aggressive timeline that required us to start selling the product pre-launch.
See the full case study
Discovery & Validation
Early customer interviews revealed a need for real-time project health visibility, not just post-mortem analysis. Our system's deep project data positioned us well to meet this need, if we could deliver at the right scale.
I developed a detailed prototype that generated immediate enthusiasm from customers, sales teams, and executive leadership, securing project approval and early customer commitments before a single line of code was written.
Design Evolution
The design evolved considerably over the course of the project, based on our continuously increasing understanding of our customers' needs, as well as challenges the engineering team faced. Some components were greatly expanded, others were scaled back in an effort to deliver the best possible product in the time we had.
Post-Launch Insights & Next Steps
Pulse launched in October 2024, achieving 133% of our customer adoption target and 172% of our active campaign goals. Smaller firms loved the elegant simplicity of the product, but we still had a lot to do to make Pulse as much of a game-changer for enterprise customers.
The project reinforced valuable lessons about continuous customer discovery, creating psychological safety for team input, and the critical importance of collaboration in all phases of a project.
Customer Adoption
133%
of target
Active Campaigns
172%
of target
Response Rates
97.5%
of target
Revenue
90.2%
of target
If I Were Designing Pulse in 2026
Pulse was the last large-scale design project of my career in the pre-AI era. The product development lifecycle is in a rapid state of change. This diagram shows the Pulse project timeline compared to what it might look like if we were starting it this year.
While it looks like we're skipping development, actually we're just starting it much earlier in the prototype phase, using tools like Cursor and Figma Make. A small team of engineers is on hand to ensure architectural and security standards are upheld, so we can launch our MVP much earlier.
With an MVP in customer's hands, our continuous discovery process is more meaningful, enabling us to make improvements to the product steadily over time and reducing pressure to on the team to deliver a perfect product right out of the gate.
