Case study — MX2
Why 25 analytics dashboards are useless without guided decisions.
The client
An internal agency venture productized to give SMBs automated marketing.
Originally seeded as an internal tool, MX2 was spun out into a standalone platform for small business owners. As Design Lead and Acting PM, I was brought in to shape this complex engine into software that non-marketers could run without agency handholding.
The problem
“Build an AI tool so clients can spin up their own marketing campaigns.”
The original brief assumed users just wanted an AI prompt box. But marketing requires attribution, budget pacing, and media strategy. Handing owners blank forms paralyzed them. Instead of piling on generative features, I embedded senior media planning expertise straight into the UI.
- Signal Internal testers spent 30 minutes struggling to launch a first campaign.
- Constraint Integrating live multi-source marketing APIs without crushing engineering.
- Unknown How deep non-marketers actually want to dig into their data without getting lost.
How it got solved
Hover a step
-
01
I mapped marketing's hidden logic
I ran workshops with senior media strategists to unpack campaign logic, realizing our UI had to do the heavy lifting for users.
THE FOUR DEPENDENCIES THE WORKSHOPS UNCOVERED -
02
I turned blank forms into guided review
I pre-filled business profiles by scraping company URLs, turning an intimidating setup into a 2-minute review.
ONBOARDING BEFORE AND AFTER: BLANK FIELDS TO GUIDED REVIEW -
03
I architected 25 dashboards in 5 tiers
I structured metrics from high-level ROI down to ad creative so non-marketers monitor health while specialists drill deep.
TOP TIER OF FIVE: HEALTH METRICS, CAMPAIGN TABLE, CREATIVE ROW -
04
I prototyped in code to unblock dev
When dev resisted multi-source API widgets, I coded a working interactive prototype to prove technical feasibility.
WORKING WIDGET: ONE FIGURE, ITS CHANGE, AND ITS SERIES -
05
I built the design system & AI assistant
I paired live widgets with an AI advisor and built a 40-component design system that sped up our second designer's onboarding.
AI COMPANION IN BOTH MODES: STANDING SUGGESTIONS AND CHAT
The impact
I cut first-time campaign launch time by 83% across 25 production dashboards.
- −25m
- Time to first campaign
- 25
- Dashboards delivered
- 40+
- Reusable components
Prototyping the widgets in code unblocked development and won engineering buy-in immediately. By embedding media expertise directly into the interface instead of demanding it from users, I turned a 30-minute chore into a 5-minute review.