2021-2022 / YOLA · SITEBUILDER
Product design that drives growth
Product Designer · Teams: Activation, Monetization
Activation & retention · Monetization · User acquisition · Product growth strategy
Activation journeys & Website Assistant · Paywall, checkout & domain purchase flows · 20+ templates across 16 business verticals
Yola helps small businesses and creators build websites without coding. I focused on improving growth across the customer journey, helping users reach value sooner.
USERS
Small businesses and creators building websites without coding.
BUSINESS CONTEXT
Growth became a key focus across activation, monetization, and acquisition.
CONSTRAINTS
Balance user progress with opportunities to introduce paid value.
I worked across activation, monetization, and acquisition, designing connected improvements throughout the journey: from personalized onboarding and product guidance to paywalls, checkout, domain purchase flows, and new website templates.
Acquisition + activation + monetization = inputs Sustainable product growth = outcome
Helping users reach value sooner
Approach I mapped where users lost momentum from initial intent to publishing, focusing on two stages: reaching first value and creating reasons to return.
Define the goal → Set up the site → Build → Publish
Return → Discover more value → Expand usage → Upgrade
These stages shaped the activation work that followed: personalized setup, contextual guidance, and a clearer path to publishing.
PERSONALIZATION
Adapting setup to user goals
What I did:
- Added self-classification to setup
- Captured website type and goals
- Tailored starting paths by user needs
Result:
Better segmentation enabled relevant recommendations and clearer paths to first value.
PRODUCT GUIDANCE
Turning guidance into progress
What I did:
- Designed task-based welcome guidance
- Added contextual Website Assistant tips
- Surfaced relevant next steps
Result:
Users completed key tasks with fewer errors, supporting activation and early retention.
EDITING & PUBLISHING
Reducing friction before publishing
What I did:
- Improved image, text, button, and link editing
- Streamlined block discovery and customization
- Added clearer publishing and upgrade triggers
Result:
Website-quality proxy metrics improved, reinforcing their link to publishing and retention.
Making upgrades feel clear, not disruptive
Approach Timing + transparency + tone = less disruptive selling.
Monetization needed to support the user journey without undermining trust or interrupting users before they understood the product’s value.
PAYWALL
Clarifying value before upgrade
What I did:
- Redesigned in-app and website paywalls
- Simplified pricing and plan comparison
- Optimized plan selection for mobile
Result:
Clearer choices improved conversion from paywall display to hosting purchase.
CHECKOUT
Reducing friction at purchase
What I did:
- Created a responsive checkout flow
- Simplified multi-product purchases
- Clarified payments and order details
Result:
Checkout abandonment decreased while mobile engagement increased.
DOMAIN PURCHASE
Making domain selection easier
What I did:
- Redesigned domain search and selection
- Added autocomplete and clearer results
- Matched domain offers to relevant plans
Result:
The updated flow improved domain purchase conversion and supported stronger retention.
Turning customer needs into discoverable templates
Opportunity:
Customer requests revealed gaps in Yola’s template library across key business categories, limiting product relevance and organic discovery.
What I did:
- Analyzed requests and missing categories
- Prioritized high-value template opportunities
- Built a repeatable design-to-launch process
- Created 20+ SEO-ready templates across 16 verticals
The redesigned journey helped more users return, reach value, and publish their websites.
Day-1 user retention
user activation rate
site publish rate
The work also established a more connected product-growth approach across activation, monetization, and acquisition.
KEY LESSON Sustainable growth comes from connecting the entire customer journey rather than optimizing individual screens.
Design for the journey
Small improvements become more meaningful when they support a connected path toward customer value.
Align user and business value
Activation and monetization work best when users understand the product’s value before being asked to upgrade.
Measure beyond the interface
Funnel data, behavioral signals, and direct feedback helped connect design changes to retention and growth.
