Project
Microsoft Founders Hub Redesign
Background
Founders Hub provides free access to leading AI models through Azure, including OpenAI GPT-4o, up to $150,000 in Azure credits, and one-on-one guidance from Microsoft experts. As Microsoft was building their AI assistant, Copilot, a restructuring of Founders Hub was necessary to streamline the user experience.
Timeline
6 months
Role
Design Lead
Design direction & strategy
Design direction & strategy
Team
Beth Mouriño Thurnher - Director of Product Management
Enrique Flamini - Product Manager
Ryan Mesches - Product Manager
Reed Fansler, Michelle Fine, Shalvi Sharma - Designers
Enrique Flamini - Product Manager
Ryan Mesches - Product Manager
Reed Fansler, Michelle Fine, Shalvi Sharma - Designers
Old Site
I was brought onto Microsoft for Startups team to help revamp the Founders Hub. The site layout was confusing and areas of the UI clunky, with the information architecture lacking consistent organization. I was tasked with spearheading the redesign, partnering with PMs gathering user research to focus the overall product.
Research
Card sorting exercises were a starting point to understand how founders navigate the app, and better understand what they are looking for in Microsoft's product. We interviewed a dozen founders over a few weeks to validate some assumptions on how they use the app.
Site Map Restructure
An IA restructure was a necessary starting point, where main sections were updated based on the initial set of research. The navigation was cleaned up and reorganized with clarified UX copy. Areas of the app that lived outside of the Microsoft for Startups org (such as Virtual Studio) were moved out of the main pages, with Copilot added to the overall experience and linked to the Perks/Benefits.
UX Research
Continued research was conducted to home in what features needed refinement. Affinity Mapping exercises were conducted for future features of Founders Hub, and once the core screens were redesigned prototypes were tested with actual users.
Wireframes
I introduced a wireframe process into our design exercises to quickly iterate on new layouts and ideas. Multiple directions were created with the design team using these lo-fi layouts to quickly reimagine our directions.
Phased Approach
Overhauling an entire app is a time consuming process, so I pushed us to take a phased approach moving chunks of the app to new areas and updating certain sections first. The roadmap was broken down into 2 week sprints, with extended work continuing in parallel.
New App
The new Founders Hub had a focus on tracking a user's Azure usage as well as completing tasks to level up for more credits. Tasks were moved to a drawer with a more focused UI that was more in accordance with the Fluent design system.
