Turned a chaotic multi-stack brief into a unified product direction for a global AI platform.

Lead Product Designer · AI Data Collection / Global Platform

THE SITUATION

The brief was a blue-sky app unifying three business lines. The reality was multiple stakeholders on different stacks across different time zones, terminology that meant different things depending on who you asked, and a scope that kept expanding the moment I started mapping it.

WHAT I DID

I stayed lean, carved off an early prototype to show momentum, then worked through the problems one layer at a time. I solved the global testing challenge by running prototype tests as paid contributor projects through Appen's own platform. I resolved naming and convention conflicts across business lines, and found a working collaboration with the founding designer in Brazil, I took native app and annotation tooling, she took responsive web, and we agreed on a unified design system above both.

OUTCOMES

• Remote testing infrastructure built using Appen's own contributor platform

• Unified terminology and onboarding architecture resolved across business lines

• Global dev teams in China and Brazil aligned and building toward a shared direction

"We run a platform that pays people to do tasks. Running testing as a task was obvious in hindsight. Most good solutions are."