02. Joining a Live Product Mid-Course Correction
The product was born in an emergency context and built rapidly in fast sprints without preliminary user research. As the user base expanded, the product grew organically - but without clear data on who was actually using it.
Two rounds of surveys — 579 respondents in the first, 384 in the second — revealed a crucial reality: users were not ages 16-30 as originally assumed, but 50+. The team was midway through a redesign to adapt the product for this demographic: larger typography, larger touch targets, explanatory onboarding, less visual noise, and direct functionality.
What I owned end-to-end:
- Responsive Expansion: Expanding the entire interface across 7 distinct screen resolutions.
- Desktop Navigation Header: Designing the desktop header navigation from scratch (didn't exist previously).
- Registration Flow: Complete mobile and desktop onboarding and sign-up flows.
- User Profile Engine: Full end-to-end personal profile flow & impact tracking.
- Multi-Platform Integration: Adding X (Twitter) as an additional network and designing the network switcher.
- Qualitative User Research: Initiating, leading, and executing in-depth user interviews.
03. From Mobile-Only to 7 Screen Resolutions
The original user journey was linear: WhatsApp link → Mobile web interface → One-tap copy → Switch to Facebook. The interface wasn't a destination - it was a temporary station on the way.
Because it was built solely for mobile screens, users opening the link on a desktop computer received a broken experience. I expanded the entire system across seven resolutions and built the desktop navigation architecture from scratch.
Additionally, the product existed in both Hebrew (RTL) and English (LTR), requiring every component, header, and action button to reverse direction while remaining completely intuitive for 50+ users.
04. Pushing for Qualitative User Interviews
The team relied heavily on quantitative surveys and Clarity heatmaps, believing quantitative data was sufficient. I pushed to introduce in-depth qualitative interviews against initial team skepticism.
Quantitative data shows what users are doing.
It cannot explain why they leave.
I conducted 7 deep-dive qualitative interviews sampled from survey respondents across three strict criteria: age group, product usage frequency, and tenure with Facts Commando. The findings uncovered critical product flaws that heatmaps could never detect.
05 & 06. Key Discoveries Analytics Couldn't Catch
“I look critically at the posts you send, and a lot of things I simply don't share. A lot of things.”
- Deep Interview QuoteThe Core Insight: In an advocacy platform, the content IS the interface. Users act as editorial filters - if incoming content doesn't align with their personal values, they don't share it, and eventually stop visiting. This insight drove us from a uniform content feed to user-selected content customization.
- WhatsApp is the Entry Engine: Notifications drive engagement; the product relies on external triggers rather than competing for constant attention.
- Desire for Transparent Impact: Users wanted proof their advocacy mattered - directly spawning the design of the Personal Profile.
- The Data Discrepancy Bug: Interviews revealed that failed shares were being incorrectly counted as successful shares in the database! Heatmaps showed clicks, but couldn't catch broken metrics.
07. Research Insights → Design Execution
08 & 10. Shipped to Production & Lasting Impact
When a product relies on third-party platforms (like Facebook or X), account blocks are an existential threat to active users. Designing in-app block reporting transformed support into risk management infrastructure.
Production Hand-Off: The Personal Profile system I specified and designed went into production development after I transitioned to Tel Aviv University - shipped with zero changes to my original design files.
Where the Platform Stands Today
Current live metrics from the platform — non-stop advocacy delivering a post every 50 seconds, from a global network of 15,000+ volunteers.
11. Key Takeaway
Data tells you what happens.
Only people tell you why.
Heatmaps showed us where users clicked - but couldn't reveal that the metric itself was broken. Bringing qualitative research into the room transformed the product strategy and created lasting value.