In April, like many others this year, I found myself in a new and unexpected situation. I had been laid off due to the coronavirus pandemic and was suddenly searching for my next opportunity. …

A professor’s primary role is to teach, but like most jobs, professors often get stuck doing other repetitive tasks to administer their courses. For professors using Packback, one of these tasks was finalizing and uploading Packback assignment grades to their Learning Management System (LMS) gradebook. The Packback gradebook feature had…

When I joined Packback in September 2019, the design team consisted of one person, Packback co-founder and CPO, Jessica Tenuta. My addition to the team signaled team growth and expansion. As we discussed my role in the growth of the team, it was decided that I would lay the foundation…

A Case Study: Progressive Leasing and Alpha — Far too often, emails are unnecessary, uninteresting, and unhelpful. Marketing campaigns, newsletters, and spam messages clog user inboxes. How can we make emails a better experience for users? Redesigning the Email User Experience for Consumers We recently undertook a project to redesign the user experience of transactional emails at Progressive Leasing. Transactional emails are emails triggered by…

Designers don’t always get to craft delightful, happy user experiences. There are situations users fall into that can be difficult and uncomfortable. This is something I encountered recently as I redesigned Progressive Leasing’s collection emails. Many individuals and institutions have to send a collection email at some point. …

In June, Progressive Leasing held its first-ever company wide hack-a-thon event. Employees were encouraged to form teams that would produce something in 24 hours. My team consisted of a product manager, a product researcher, a software engineer, and a user experience designer (me).

How do you let users know about new features and updates to products? Tell them about it! When the Customer Tools team updated MyAccount (the customer facing app at Progressive Leasing) we decided to do just that. We started by introducing users to the new features within the app, which…

How does a business drive customers to return? This is a question all companies must ask themselves at some point. When I started my internship at Progressive Leasing, the Customer Tools team was concerned with this exact question. A little background Before I jump in, let me give you a little background to…

The Problem Roommates get a bad rap. Yet, with rising housing costs, climbing student loan rates, and marrying ages trending older, many young adults have turned to living with roommates. In fact, according to Zillow’s assessment of the most recent census, fifty-four percent of 23 to 29-year-olds live in a doubled-up household. …