Client Management Tool
Client Management Tool
CRM | Design for Agentic AI
CRM | Design for Agentic AI
6 months
6 months
AlphaSights
AlphaSights
context.
context.
AlphaSights is an expert network - clients come to us when they need to speak with industry experts as part of their research, and we connect them. While our core offering is setting up calls, we also offer other products which we pitch to clients on a proactive basis, including pre-made research that companies can purchase directly.
AlphaSights is an expert network - clients come to us when they need to speak with industry experts as part of their research, and we connect them. While our core offering is setting up calls, we also offer other products which we pitch to clients on a proactive basis, including pre-made research that companies can purchase directly.
problem.
problem.
Our client services team manages over 500,000 client profiles. Their job is to keep clients engaged across all of our offerings, spotting when someone hasn't purchased in a while, identifying what to reach out about, and following up at the right time. The workflow for proactively engaging clients lived across multiple spreadsheets, scattered documents, and the team's own memory. Outreach happened through Gmail, nothing was connected, and it was hard to know what to pitch to which clients and when.
I was the sole designer working on the CRM, alongside a product manager.
Our client services team manages over 500,000 client profiles. Their job is to keep clients engaged across all of our offerings, spotting when someone hasn't purchased in a while, identifying what to reach out about, and following up at the right time. The workflow for proactively engaging clients lived across multiple spreadsheets, scattered documents, and the team's own memory. Outreach happened through Gmail, nothing was connected, and it was hard to know what to pitch to which clients and when.
I was the sole designer working on the CRM, alongside a product manager.
systems.
systems.
Discovery involved conducting initial interviews with 25+ users, asking open-ended questions to understand the different workflows across teams within Client Services. After synthesising this and working with my PM to establish product requirements, I created designs, presented them to stakeholders (the Business Development team), then tested with the same 25+ users. Hover on a card to find out more.
Stakeholders
Support
Tools
Workflow
constraints.
CONSTRAINTS.
CONSTRAINTS.
01.
Building a lean MVP
02.
Stakeholder management
03.
Complex systems
01.
Building a lean MVP
We had limited engineering capacity, so the first release had to be lean enough to ship fast but complete enough to pull people off their existing workflow. I also came onto this project after some foundational decisions had already been made, including the concept of campaigns, so I had to build context fast and find where my own thinking could push things further. With a small team I often stepped into product management alongside design.
02.
Stakeholder management
There were two stakeholder groups with different definitions of success. The client services team knew what worked for them day to day and had strong instincts about what they needed. The business development team were defining what successful outreach looked like at a company level and were key decision makers in shaping the strategy.
03.
Complex systems
AlphaSights already has a complex internal tool ecosystem, each part with its own stakeholders and its own logic. Whatever we built had to fit the mental models people had already developed using those tools, and had to be designed with an eye toward eventually sharing patterns and components across the wider system.
design outcome.
design outcome.
The biggest design challenge was turning dense, overwhelming data into actionable next steps.
01. one view workflow
01. one view workflow
Client context, email editor, and pitch panel sit side by side in a single workspace. The team used to piece this together across Gmail, spreadsheets, and memory. Putting it all at the point of action meant reaching out to a client and understanding that client happen in the same place.
Client context, email editor, and pitch panel sit side by side in a single workspace. The team used to piece this together across Gmail, spreadsheets, and memory. Putting it all at the point of action meant reaching out to a client and understanding that client happen in the same place.
02. unified tracking and analytics
02. unified tracking and analytics
Positive feedback loops - surfacing wins, completed actions, and outreach in progress - ensures the team can spend less time on admin and more time on outreach.
Positive feedback loops - surfacing wins, completed actions, and outreach in progress - ensures the team can spend less time on admin and more time on outreach.
03. next outreach is top of mind
03. next outreach is top of mind
Clear calls to action and a prioritised list mean users know exactly who to contact when they open the tool. The list is maintained by the BD team, so the question of who to reach out to is already answered.
Clear calls to action and a prioritised list mean users know exactly who to contact when they open the tool. The list is maintained by the BD team, so the question of who to reach out to is already answered.
outcome.
+32%
+32%
Increase in revenue generating outreach
6300+
6300+
Client users reactivated since tool launch
"Now I have an extra 5 minutes a day to tailor client outreach instead of figuring out who to reach out to next."
"Now I have an extra 5 minutes a day to tailor client outreach instead of figuring out who to reach out to next."
reflection.
reflection.
Joining a project where foundational decisions have already been made means you're always balancing building context with pushing things forward. I spent time understanding why certain decisions had been made before proposing changes, which was the right instinct, but it slowed my early contribution. Next time I'd be more deliberate about separating what I need to understand from what I need to accept and move past.
The bigger challenge was pulling people off workflows they were comfortable with. Even when the new tool was objectively better, the switch asked people to give up something familiar. I'd spend more time upfront designing the transition itself, not just the destination.
Joining a project where foundational decisions have already been made means you're always balancing building context with pushing things forward. I spent time understanding why certain decisions had been made before proposing changes, which was the right instinct, but it slowed my early contribution. Next time I'd be more deliberate about separating what I need to understand from what I need to accept and move past.
The bigger challenge was pulling people off workflows they were comfortable with. Even when the new tool was objectively better, the switch asked people to give up something familiar. I'd spend more time upfront designing the transition itself, not just the destination.