PHYLLO

Turning creator discovery into a 10% revenue driver

My role: Led design at Phyllo, and took on product ownership for InsightIQ dashboard

CONTEXT & CHALLENGE

Making APIs tangible and sellable

Phyllo’s core business was social media APIs for developers.
To help prospects see their value and to test a SaaS layer on top of its API business, the team built InsightIQ, a dashboard that visualised creator data and let marketers find the right creators for their brands.

But it wasn’t selling. Sales said prospects found it “too technical and outdated.”

I joined to lead 2 product designers with a 2 month deadline to turn it around, while also managing 2 visual designers across other Phyllo products.

DIAGNOSIS

Why it really wasn’t working

Instead of a surface level refresh, we interviewed marketers to understand the friction. We found:

Instead of a surface level refresh, we interviewed marketers to understand the friction. We found:


  • A confusing blend of developer and marketer experiences

  • Missing campaign tools that blocked adoption

  • Restrictive exports

  • Credit based usage metrics instead of SaaS style plans

Instead of a surface level refresh, we interviewed marketers to understand the friction. We found:

  • A confusing blend of developer and marketer experiences

  • Missing campaign tools that blocked adoption

  • Restrictive exports

  • Credit based usage metrics instead of SaaS style plans

  • A confusing blend of developer and marketer experiences

  • Missing campaign tools that blocked adoption

  • Restrictive exports

  • Credit based usage metrics instead of SaaS style plans

REDESIGN

Fixing fundamentals (and also pixels)

Working with product, sales, engineering, and support, we rebuilt InsightIQ end to end:

  • Reframed pricing around SaaS style usage tiers.

  • Simplified navigation for marketer workflows.

  • Built a component library with engineers to fix inconsistent UI.

  • Refreshed the visuals.

  • Improved exports and added campaign insights.

Convincing engineering to drop the credit model was the hardest part, it meant rewriting how we priced and measured usage. We shipped the redesign in under 8 weeks.

ITERATION & RESULTS

From pilot to growth engine

The redesign worked. Within six months, 10+ companies adopted the dashboard.
We kept iterating through customer calls and feedback from sales and support.

When early AI ideas underperformed, we pivoted to proven marketer workflows that directly drove adoption and revenue. We shipped:

  • Bulk export: 3 million+ records in 12 months, top upsell driver.

  • Creator lists: most used feature for campaign workflows.

  • Google SSO: boosted sign-up conversions by 30%

  • Self-serve payments: doubled customer base in 6 months (what sales achieved in 1.5 years)

InsightIQ now contributes ~10% of Phyllo’s total revenue.

LEADERSHIP & MORE

Owning design at Phyllo, and product at InsightIQ

When both product designers moved on, I stayed hands-on as the sole product designer for InsightIQ, hired another designer for other Phyllo products, and continued managing two visual designers.

I also took on product management responsibilities for InsightIQ, driving roadmap, priorities, and cross-team alignment. As a design leader, I:

  • Set design vision and component-system standards

  • Managed hiring and growth of designers

  • Introduced design reviews and documentation that sped up delivery and consistency

  • Led a 5 person design function within a 75 person company

Customer feedback wall

Fin