Strategic Design + Product Vision

Blue-Sky Redesign: Reimagining SaaS for the Future

Through future-focused visioning, I helped reimagine the next 3–5 years of product experience. By combining research insights, stakeholder alignment, and scalable design thinking, the initiative reshaped navigation, streamlined workflows, and delivered a strategy that unites user needs with business goals.

tl;dr

Role + Timeline

UX Designer

August 2024 - December 2024

Situation

Our current product vision lacks alignment with future growth and market trends, causing challenges in adoption, competitive positioning, clear understanding of where the product could or should go in the next 3–5 years. Leadership recognized the need for a high-level, aspirational concept that could inspire, align, and guide cross-functional teams toward a shared future.

Task

Create a conceptual north star unconstrained by current technological or resource limitations that would define the product’s ideal future state, improve strategic clarity, and provide design direction for scaling experiences to realign the overall product vision with future business goals.

Action

  • Conducted stakeholder interviews and workshops to surface business goals and product ambitions
  • Compiled existing research and journey maps to identify key themes and opportunities for innovation
  • Mapped current pain points and problem areas across workflows and personas, reframing these into actionable problem statements and drafted future-state user journeys to explore ideal workflows
  • Designed and delivered a product vision readout

Result

  • A new product vision statement encapsulating the desired 3–5 year outcome that captured both user and business needs
  • Proposed future-state navigation and information architecture to reflect a scalable and intuitive experience that would streamline existing workflows to reduce complexity and support potential feature growth
  • Stronger alignment across product, design, and engineering leadership on long-term goals

Discovery + Team Alignment

We need to define what we’re building and why..

To begin, we needed to align the team around a future-focused, user-centered vision for the x360 platform and secure stakeholder buy-in. We aimed to bridge knowledge gaps, analyze workflows, and envision a cohesive, aspirational experience. We focused on defining the platform’s ultimate potential and exploring future possibilities without being limited by current constraints such as technology, resources, or market conditions.

Efficiency

User Empowerment

Scalability

Goal

Goal Setting Workshop

Defined clear goals for the session, such as identifying pain points, aligning on product value, and setting the stage for a cohesive redesign that serves user needs and business objectives.

Jobs to Be Done Framework

Conducted a thorough review of existing user research, surfacing past insights and identifying areas where previous research could guide our new approach, such as "Jobs to Be Done".

Interview Team

Held in-depth discussions with the Sales team, Product team, and senior leadership to identify pain points, capture feedback on current workflows, and gather insights on frequently requested features.

Mapping the Problem

..and we need holistic navigation in order to scale.

To ground our vision in real user needs, we began by consulting our user focus group to surface common pain points, uncover gaps in current workflows, and collect feedback on frequently requested features. Using those insights, we mapped existing user journeys to identify friction points and opportunities to better surface value throughout the experience. This synthesis directly informed the creation of a new, holistic navigation system—designed to unify the product ecosystem and simplify access for a more intuitive, scalable experience.

New navigation + architecture proposal

Rooted in our users’ Jobs to be Done, this new format would surface all major tasks into a single platform where they can:

  • Monitor: a single dashboard that would display statuses from all products​
  • Protect: be guided through backing up data and setting up for success quickly​
  • Recover: launch the wizard or run a DR test​
  • Manage: access all clients, users, orgs, and reports more holistically​

Vision Exploration + Design

Let’s prioritize scalability and cross-platform cohesion, while maintaining our values.

We presented a future-focused product vision centered on three simplified strategy themes: Protect Everything, Recovery First, and User Experience. This unified direction guided our proposed navigation and architecture redesign, streamlining workflows that would result in a more intuitive, scalable experience with the potential to deliver faster outcomes and a true single pane of glass.

Our values

Protect Everything

With Chain-Free backups at the core, we ensure MSPs can safeguard clients' data seamlessly and provide lasting peace of mind that their critical systems are always protected.​

Recovery First

Through rapid recovery technology, we enable MSPs to deliver the fastest RTOs in the industry, helping their clients thrive without the fear of data loss in even the most critical situations.

User Experience

Empowering our partners with scalable, secure BCDR solutions and AI-driven automation, we streamline operations to help MSPs manage their businesses more efficiently and grow confidently.​

Our vision is to equip MSPs with scalable, secure business continuity and disaster recovery solutions that protect client data and deliver lasting peace of mind.

Outcomes + Impact

The result? Faster, more intuitive workflows within a single pane of glass.

Our work aligned cross-functional stakeholders around a unified product vision, establishing a clear foundation for the long-term roadmap. The proposed streamlined workflows and information architecture improved clarity and usability, while also laying the groundwork for a scalable design system. Leadership responded with enthusiasm, validating the vision and opening the door for future implementation.

Stakeholder Feedback

“This is a great start for unifying our products and definitely the direction we want to be going in!”

Product Manager

“Finally, a single pane of glasss!”

VP of Product

“This gives us a clearer path forward and solves a lot of user pain points.”

UX Manager

Reflection

This project reinforced the value of forward-thinking design as a strategic tool—not just a reactive one. I learned how to balance blue-sky thinking with grounded user insights, and how to bring multiple stakeholders into alignment around a shared vision. In the future, I’d advocate for even earlier integration of engineering and marketing teams to ensure holistic buy-in from day one.

BRITTANY NICHOLS

UX Designer based in Denver, CO

© 2025 All rights reserved.

Strategic Design + Product Vision

Blue-Sky Redesign: Reimagining SaaS for the Future

Through future-focused visioning, I helped reimagine the next 3–5 years of product experience. By combining research insights, stakeholder alignment, and scalable design thinking, the initiative reshaped navigation, streamlined workflows, and delivered a strategy that unites user needs with business goals.

tl;dr

Role + Timeline

UX Designer

August 2024 - December 2024

Situation

Our current product vision lacks alignment with future growth and market trends, causing challenges in adoption, competitive positioning, clear understanding of where the product could or should go in the next 3–5 years. Leadership recognized the need for a high-level, aspirational concept that could inspire, align, and guide cross-functional teams toward a shared future.

Task

Create a conceptual north star unconstrained by current technological or resource limitations that would define the product’s ideal future state, improve strategic clarity, and provide design direction for scaling experiences to realign the overall product vision with future business goals.

Action

  • Conducted stakeholder interviews and workshops to surface business goals and product ambitions
  • Compiled existing research and journey maps to identify key themes and opportunities for innovation
  • Mapped current pain points and problem areas across workflows and personas, reframing these into actionable problem statements and drafted future-state user journeys to explore ideal workflows
  • Designed and delivered a product vision readout

Result

  • A new product vision statement encapsulating the desired 3–5 year outcome that captured both user and business needs
  • Proposed future-state navigation and information architecture to reflect a scalable and intuitive experience that would streamline existing workflows to reduce complexity and support potential feature growth
  • Stronger alignment across product, design, and engineering leadership on long-term goals

Discovery + Team Alignment

We need to define what we’re building and why..

To begin, we needed to align the team around a future-focused, user-centered vision for the x360 platform and secure stakeholder buy-in. We aimed to bridge knowledge gaps, analyze workflows, and envision a cohesive, aspirational experience. We focused on defining the platform’s ultimate potential and exploring future possibilities without being limited by current constraints such as technology, resources, or market conditions.

Efficiency

User Empowerment

Scalability

Goal

Goal Setting Workshop

Defined clear goals for the session, such as identifying pain points, aligning on product value, and setting the stage for a cohesive redesign that serves user needs and business objectives.

Jobs to Be Done Framework

Conducted a thorough review of existing user research, surfacing past insights and identifying areas where previous research could guide our new approach, such as "Jobs to Be Done".

Interview Team

Held in-depth discussions with the Sales team, Product team, and senior leadership to identify pain points, capture feedback on current workflows, and gather insights on frequently requested features.

Mapping the Problem

..and we need holistic navigation in order to scale.

To ground our vision in real user needs, we began by consulting our user focus group to surface common pain points, uncover gaps in current workflows, and collect feedback on frequently requested features. Using those insights, we mapped existing user journeys to identify friction points and opportunities to better surface value throughout the experience. This synthesis directly informed the creation of a new, holistic navigation system—designed to unify the product ecosystem and simplify access for a more intuitive, scalable experience.

New navigation + architecture proposal

Rooted in our users’ Jobs to be Done, this new format would surface all major tasks into a single platform where they can:

  • Monitor: a single dashboard that would display statuses from all products​
  • Protect: be guided through backing up data and setting up for success quickly​
  • Recover: launch the wizard or run a DR test​
  • Manage: access all clients, users, orgs, and reports more holistically​

Vision Exploration + Design

Let’s prioritize scalability and cross-platform cohesion, while maintaining our values.

We presented a future-focused product vision centered on three simplified strategy themes: Protect Everything, Recovery First, and User Experience. This unified direction guided our proposed navigation and architecture redesign, streamlining workflows that would result in a more intuitive, scalable experience with the potential to deliver faster outcomes and a true single pane of glass.

Our values

Protect Everything

With Chain-Free backups at the core, we ensure MSPs can safeguard clients' data seamlessly and provide lasting peace of mind that their critical systems are always protected.​

Recovery First

Through rapid recovery technology, we enable MSPs to deliver the fastest RTOs in the industry, helping their clients thrive without the fear of data loss in even the most critical situations.

User Experience

Empowering our partners with scalable, secure BCDR solutions and AI-driven automation, we streamline operations to help MSPs manage their businesses more efficiently and grow confidently.​

Our vision is to equip MSPs with scalable, secure business continuity and disaster recovery solutions that protect client data and deliver lasting peace of mind.

Outcomes + Impact

The result? Faster, more intuitive workflows within a single pane of glass.

Our work aligned cross-functional stakeholders around a unified product vision, establishing a clear foundation for the long-term roadmap. The proposed streamlined workflows and information architecture improved clarity and usability, while also laying the groundwork for a scalable design system. Leadership responded with enthusiasm, validating the vision and opening the door for future implementation.

Stakeholder Feedback

“This is a great start for unifying our products and definitely the direction we want to be going in!”

Product Manager

“Finally, a single pane of glasss!”

VP of Product

“This gives us a clearer path forward and solves a lot of user pain points.”

UX Manager

Reflection

This project reinforced the value of forward-thinking design as a strategic tool—not just a reactive one. I learned how to balance blue-sky thinking with grounded user insights, and how to bring multiple stakeholders into alignment around a shared vision. In the future, I’d advocate for even earlier integration of engineering and marketing teams to ensure holistic buy-in from day one.

BRITTANY NICHOLS

UX Designer based in Denver, CO

© 2025 All rights reserved.

Strategic Design + Product Vision

Blue-Sky Redesign: Reimagining SaaS for the Future

Through future-focused visioning, I helped reimagine the next 3–5 years of product experience. By combining research insights, stakeholder alignment, and scalable design thinking, the initiative reshaped navigation, streamlined workflows, and delivered a strategy that unites user needs with business goals.

tl;dr

Role + Timeline

UX Designer

August 2024 - December 2024

Situation

Our current product vision lacks alignment with future growth and market trends, causing challenges in adoption, competitive positioning, clear understanding of where the product could or should go in the next 3–5 years. Leadership recognized the need for a high-level, aspirational concept that could inspire, align, and guide cross-functional teams toward a shared future.

Task

Create a conceptual north star unconstrained by current technological or resource limitations that would define the product’s ideal future state, improve strategic clarity, and provide design direction for scaling experiences to realign the overall product vision with future business goals.

Action

  • Conducted stakeholder interviews and workshops to surface business goals and product ambitions
  • Compiled existing research and journey maps to identify key themes and opportunities for innovation
  • Mapped current pain points and problem areas across workflows and personas, reframing these into actionable problem statements and drafted future-state user journeys to explore ideal workflows
  • Designed and delivered a product vision readout

Result

  • A new product vision statement encapsulating the desired 3–5 year outcome that captured both user and business needs
  • Proposed future-state navigation and information architecture to reflect a scalable and intuitive experience that would streamline existing workflows to reduce complexity and support potential feature growth
  • Stronger alignment across product, design, and engineering leadership on long-term goals

Discovery + Team Alignment

We need to define what we’re building and why..

To begin, we needed to align the team around a future-focused, user-centered vision for the x360 platform and secure stakeholder buy-in. We aimed to bridge knowledge gaps, analyze workflows, and envision a cohesive, aspirational experience. We focused on defining the platform’s ultimate potential and exploring future possibilities without being limited by current constraints such as technology, resources, or market conditions.

Goal Setting Workshop

Defined clear goals for the session, such as identifying pain points, aligning on product value, and setting the stage for a cohesive redesign that serves user needs and business objectives.

Jobs to Be Done Framework

Conducted a thorough review of existing user research, surfacing past insights and identifying areas where previous research could guide our new approach, such as "Jobs to Be Done".

Interview Team

Held in-depth discussions with the Sales team, Product team, and senior leadership to identify pain points, capture feedback on current workflows, and gather insights on frequently requested features.

Efficiency

User Empowerment

Scalability

Goal

Mapping the Problem

..and we need holistic navigation in order to scale.

To ground our vision in real user needs, we began by consulting our user focus group to surface common pain points, uncover gaps in current workflows, and collect feedback on frequently requested features. Using those insights, we mapped existing user journeys to identify friction points and opportunities to better surface value throughout the experience. This synthesis directly informed the creation of a new, holistic navigation system—designed to unify the product ecosystem and simplify access for a more intuitive, scalable experience.

New navigation + architecture proposal

Rooted in our users’ Jobs to be Done, this new format would surface all major tasks into a single platform where they can:

  • Monitor: a single dashboard that would display statuses from all products​
  • Protect: be guided through backing up data and setting up for success quickly​
  • Recover: launch the wizard or run a DR test​
  • Manage: access all clients, users, orgs, and reports more holistically​

Vision Exploration + Design

Let’s prioritize scalability and cross-platform cohesion, while maintaining our values.

We presented a future-focused product vision centered on three simplified strategy themes: Protect Everything, Recovery First, and User Experience. This unified direction guided our proposed navigation and architecture redesign, streamlining workflows that would result in a more intuitive, scalable experience with the potential to deliver faster outcomes and a true single pane of glass.

Our values

Protect Everything

With Chain-Free backups at the core, we ensure MSPs can safeguard clients' data seamlessly and provide lasting peace of mind that their critical systems are always protected.​

Recovery First

Through rapid recovery technology, we enable MSPs to deliver the fastest RTOs in the industry, helping their clients thrive without the fear of data loss in even the most critical situations.

User Experience

Empowering our partners with scalable, secure BCDR solutions and AI-driven automation, we streamline operations to help MSPs manage their businesses more efficiently and grow confidently.​

Our vision is to equip MSPs with scalable, secure business continuity and disaster recovery solutions that protect client data and deliver lasting peace of mind.

Outcomes + Impact

The result? Faster, more intuitive workflows within a single pane of glass.

Our work aligned cross-functional stakeholders around a unified product vision, establishing a clear foundation for the long-term roadmap. The proposed streamlined workflows and information architecture improved clarity and usability, while also laying the groundwork for a scalable design system. Leadership responded with enthusiasm, validating the vision and opening the door for future implementation.

Stakeholder Feedback

“This is a great start for unifying our products and definitely the direction we want to be going in!”

Product Manager

“Finally, a single pane of glasss!”

VP of Product

“This gives us a clearer path forward and solves a lot of user pain points.”

UX Manager

Reflection

This project reinforced the value of forward-thinking design as a strategic tool—not just a reactive one. I learned how to balance blue-sky thinking with grounded user insights, and how to bring multiple stakeholders into alignment around a shared vision. In the future, I’d advocate for even earlier integration of engineering and marketing teams to ensure holistic buy-in from day one.