Pattern · Advertising platform

Destiny

One place to run the campaigns

I redesigned Pattern's ad platform so strategists could see budget, performance, and alerts in one place.

The problem

The old Destiny could not keep up. Scattered tools, manual workarounds, and no one place to act.

Product Group interface showing group creation and management

Performance Dashboard showing product metrics and analytics

My role: Lead Product Designer – Destiny 2.0
Focus: Advertising platform
Team: PM, Engineering, Data Science, and Ad Strategy teams
Signal: Trust, control, and scale

01 · The opportunity

The old platform could not keep up with the work.

Pattern's advertising business grew across thousands of SKUs, campaigns, and marketplaces. The original Destiny could not keep up. Teams used scattered tools and manual workarounds to manage budgets and strategies.

I rebuilt it around how strategists already work, so they could see the number and act in the same place.

My role

UX strategy, systems thinking, and full redesign
Partnered with PM, Engineering, Data Science, and Ad Strategy teams
Drove cross-functional alignment across business, design, and dev

02 · What I built

I rebuilt Destiny around how strategists think.

Every screen had to earn its place: less friction, clearer signal, a way to act without leaving the page.

Curious how it all came together?

The Messy Middle

Framing the Problem

Research

Before touching any interface, I immersed myself in the strategist's world to uncover where decisions were breaking down and whether their tools supported them.

I asked to shadow ad strategists and be trained as one myself in my first weeks. This helped me avoid making UI decisions in a vacuum and instead focus on the actual gaps in their day-to-day workflow.

I didn't stop at shadowing. I enrolled in Amazon Ads Academy courses to ensure I fully understood the terminology and platform-specific nuances. This deep dive into the advertising ecosystem helped me speak the same language as the strategists and understand their pain points from a technical perspective.

Amazon Ads Academy website showing educational resources for advertising professionals — Amazon Ads Academy courses helped me understand the technical terminology and platform-specific metrics.

I reframed the problem from:
"Make a dashboard to manage ad spend"
to
"Help strategists make confident, fast decisions before performance derails."

PrincipleCustomer-immersive approach

PrincipleBuild from the inside out

Early Thinking + Sketches

Once I understood the core problem, I began sketching and researching ways to make performance data more decision-ready and easier to act on.

I started by sketching flows around budget pacing, which I observed was the area most strategists fumbled with: too much guesswork, not enough surfacing of what's actually wrong. Early designs included a large line graph and bulk tables, but they weren't actionable.

Simultaneously, I immersed myself in data visualization best practices, devouring books like "Storytelling with Data" and "Better Data Visualizations" to learn everything I could about presenting complex information clearly. This research was crucial in helping me transform raw metrics into actionable insights.

Storytelling with Data book cover by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic — Learning data storytelling principles to make metrics more meaningful.

Better Data Visualizations book cover by Jonathan Schwabish — Studying visualization techniques to present complex data clearly.

We dropped the full-screen graph dashboard. It was visually nice but didn't help the user take next steps.

ApproachMove fast, then simplify

ApproachFrameworks over guesses

Dashboard showing budget pacing with colored blocks displaying various performance metrics — Early budget pacing
Early budget pacing sketch showing the initial graph-heavy direction we ended up dropping.

FigJam board showing clustered sticky notes organizing strategist pain points by urgency and level of control — Initial FigJam cluster sorting strategist pain points by urgency and level of control.

What I Heard from Users

These quotes helped me spot recurring pain points: lack of clarity, lack of prioritization, and lack of trust in alerts.

I don't know what's worth my time to fix.
Senior Ad Strategist

It takes too long to know which group is tanking the overall ROAS.
Ad Strategist

By the time I notice something's wrong, we've already burned through half the budget.
Staff Ad Strategist

I spend more time hunting for problems than actually solving them.
Jr Ad Strategist

The data is all there, but I can't quickly see what needs my attention first.
Senior Ad Strategist

I'm constantly switching between platforms just to get a complete picture.
Ad Strategist

When everything looks urgent, nothing feels urgent anymore.
Staff Ad Strategist

I need to know not just what's broken, but what I can actually do about it.
Jr Ad Strategist

The alerts come too late, and when they do come, there are too many of them.
Ad Strategist

I wish I could see the forest instead of getting lost in individual trees.
Senior Ad Strategist

Insight

They weren't lacking data. They lacked clarity and priority.

ThemeClarity over completeness

ApproachShow only what matters now

Hand-drawn sketches showing user stories and interface concepts based on strategist needs — User story sketches that shaped our shift from surfacing everything to surfacing only what matters now.

These research takeaways weren't just insight. They were guardrails. Every feature choice that followed aimed to reduce cognitive load, surface the right data, and help strategists act earlier with more confidence.

Iteration in Action

These early insights shaped the next phase of design. Each pass had to help someone act, not only look at the number.

v1: Static dashboard with pacing % and ROAS
v2: Added alert states based on internal thresholds
v3: Collapsed table showing only outliers with inline edit options and "fix it" CTAs

I minimized the graph and let "what to fix" take center stage. The final experience worked for both junior and senior strategists with no training needed.

ApproachAdaptive iteration

Working styleTight feedback loops with partners

Strategic Design Decisions

Color-coded pacing system understood by all (green/yellow/red)
Modular performance cards that scaled across product groups
Universal alerting framework that applied across brands

Design ruleStructure creates confidence

ExecutionClarity over cleverness

Budget allocation interface showing flight plan details and product groups — One of the most important decisions strategists make is how to allocate budget. Destiny makes that process visual, flexible, and traceable.

03 · Product group page

Product groups that can hold thousands of SKUs

01
Introduced smart grouping logic
to cluster products by performance and strategy
02
Allowed bulk updates
to campaigns and budgets from one central view
03
Designed a CSV import experience
that cut manual work by 80%
04
Enabled inline alerts and bulk edits
to resolve issues without context switching

I added a CSV import so campaign setup was faster and harder to get wrong.

Download Template modal for CSV import process — Step 1: Download Template

Upload Summary showing import results and new groups created — Step 2: Upload Summary

Final result showing successfully created product groups — Step 3: Success

Strategist

It used to take 5 tabs to find this info. Now I can fix it in one click.

04 · Performance page

Performance in one place, not five tabs

01
Created a unified dashboard
that shows ROAS, pacing, and alerts in one glance
02
Added drill-downs
to trace performance issues back to the source
03
Designed KPI callouts
to flag what's helping vs. hurting results

Performance Dashboard showing comprehensive analytics, budget tracking, and alerts

05 · Alerts system

Alerts that say what to do next

01
Net-new feature
introduced in Destiny 2.0
02
Alerts are ranked
and shown directly within workflow screens
03
Every alert includes a direct link to resolution
a way to fix it, not only a warning

Alerts Dashboard showing alert metrics, trends, and detailed alert management table

06 · Impact & results

Impact & results

40%: fewer clicks to complete common actions
32%: improvement in budget pacing accuracy
28%: increase in strategist satisfaction score
2x: faster campaign setup time

07 · Strategic takeaways

Strategic takeaways

01
Built to grow past the first version
Every component was built to evolve
02
Grounded in real strategist workflows
Insights came from weekly discovery
03
Enabled trust through transparency
Users now see what's working, what's not, and what to do about it

PM Quote

Destiny 2.0 gave us structure and flexibility. We finally feel ahead of the curve.

08 · Final thoughts

A new product, not a reskin.

I connected how strategists work to budget, performance, and alerts they can act on.

The same job showed up later in GYST: make operational signal trustworthy enough to act on. Destiny taught the team to explain why a recommendation existed. Those Pattern details live here as one story, not a second case.

Welcome to Destiny landing page showing the unified, focused experience

Destiny

The old platform could not keep up with the work.

I rebuilt Destiny around how strategists think.

Product groups that can hold thousands of SKUs

Introduced smart grouping logic

Allowed bulk updates

Designed a CSV import experience

Enabled inline alerts and bulk edits

Performance in one place, not five tabs

Created a unified dashboard

Added drill-downs

Designed KPI callouts

Alerts that say what to do next

Net-new feature

Alerts are ranked

Every alert includes a direct link to resolution

Impact & results

Strategic takeaways

Built to grow past the first version

Grounded in real strategist workflows

Enabled trust through transparency

A new product, not a reskin.