GoDaddy · AI Web Designer (Managed WordPress) · Oct 2024–Mar 2025
How I joined a fast-moving AI product late and brought it direction
I joined five weeks before a launch and a live demo to investors. The AI was hallucinating, users could fall into a chat loop with no way out, and there was no process for delivering designs or holding scope. I shifted the team’s focus from building more editing features to fixing the experience, and we shipped a demo we could stand behind. We then launched again a month later with a stronger set of editing tools.
Context
- Platform:Web. An AI onboarding flow inside GoDaddy's Managed WordPress product.
- Type:In-house, on an existing product team I joined mid-flight.
- Shipped:Yes. Launched to users and included in an AI demo to investors in Dec 2024. Continual launches through Q1 2025.
- Role:Design lead on the experience and creative strategy. My design partner, Rafael Olivera, focused on UI patterns and handing off final designs while I focused on the broader creative strategy.
- Timeline:Five weeks to the demo, with a fast-follow launch after.
- How we defined success:A demo that held together end to end, and an onboarding a user could complete without hitting a dead end or losing trust in the WordPress product.
- Outcome:A well-received demo, an easier onboarding journey, and a stronger editing toolset at the second launch.
- What I took away:Design is a driver for clarity. My most impactful work was holding context for the whole experience while the team focused on the parts.
Tunnel vision led to gaps in the journey
When I joined, I went looking for a clear definition of what we wanted the experience to be in five weeks. What I found instead was a team focused on developing editing tools without a view of how everything worked together.
The gaps showed up when you tried to get through the experience. A user could fall into a continuous chat loop with no clear path except to publish their site. The patterns used for editing allowed too many changes at once, which made the hallucinations worse. Key steps in the onboarding, like choosing a data center, had gone missing.
Time constraints and trade-offs
There wasn’t time to build everything in a way that made the experience better before the demo. One of the things I’m most proud of on this project is shifting focus to the overall experience in lieu of releasing features. Sometimes the most valuable thing a designer does is say “not yet.” We set aside editing work that was already in motion so we could fix the problems that were eroding trust in the product: the hallucinations and the missing path through onboarding.
Using service design to reduce hallucinations
Once we pointed the effort at the problems I’d surfaced, we came up with solutions as a team to reduce hallucinations. One measure was gathering information up front so the AI had more context to build the first version of the site. We also built exit paths for users who wanted to onboard into the product a different way than our new AI tool.
These efforts resulted in a well-received demo and an onboarding that was easier for users to move through. Within a month we were able to launch again with a much stronger set of editing tools, this time on a foundation we trusted.
What changed with how we worked
Instead of building everything at once, I drove a system to design and ship in milestones. We defined buckets of work and let real user feedback inform what came next. Shifting from a feature-by-feature push to milestone-based, user-first work allowed us to learn easier with each new push.
“Thank you, Kelsey, for joining in on the AI Web Designer project and making huge contributions in a short amount of time, to help us deliver the best possible experience by our December timeline. It has been fantastic to watch your partnership with Rafael & the whole prod/eng team.”
“You are an inspiration to work with, Kelsey. I appreciate you and Rafael Olivera’s work in pursuing difficult answers! Fighting for customer experience and asking difficult questions is what makes this company better. Thank you so much for all your hard work in achieving great customer outcomes.”
What I learned
On reflection: design is a driver for clarity. My most impactful work came from holding context for the whole experience while the team was focused on the individual parts. Coming into a project late and going against the grain is intimidating, and sometimes I came on strong and created tension. That part is hard for me, because I’m relationship-oriented and I care about my partnerships. What I took away is how to advocate for what I see while still partnering closely with the team. My favorite piece of feedback from this experience:
“Fighting for customer experience and asking difficult questions is what makes this company better.”
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