Zendesk / Klaus
Redesigning Klaus for an AI-First Future
2024
B2B
Information Architecture
Product Management
UI Systems
A strategic redesign to support AI-powered workflows, improve usability, and drive growth — paving the way for Zendesk’s acquisition.
Designed a scalable interface for AI and human-led reviews
Simplified complex workflows and modernised the experience
Supported 37% revenue growth, contributing to Zendesk acquisition
+37%
Revenue growth in 3 months
3.7 / 5
Beta satisfaction *
100%
Adoption rate
* 90% response rate. Issue flagged by detractors resolved post-launch.
Role
Design Lead
Acting Product Manager
Collaborators
Visual Designers (2)
Front-End Developer
Rest of our Design team
Tool stack
Figma
Linear
Amplitude
Survicate
With limited PM support, I took full ownership — from identifying the opportunity to delivering the final product.
Led user research with internal experts and customers
Conducted ideation sessions and prototyped key flows
Defined scope, timelines, and delivery milestones
Simplified complex workflows into intuitive UI patterns
Collaborated across teams to launch and iterate fast
Background
Klaus is a conversation review platform for customer service teams. It was originally designed for manual, human-led QA — but with the rise of AI-generated responses and auto QA, our product was falling behind. The interface couldn’t support the growing complexity of hybrid review workflows.
To stay competitive, we needed to modernise — quickly.
Challenge
Klaus was nearing a breaking point:
The UI couldn’t scale to support AI workflows without overwhelming users
Core review components like drawers and comment boxes caused friction
Heavy use of hover states and poor keyboard navigation made accessibility difficult, especially in dense interfaces
Design work had been deprioritised, and with limited PM support, I took full ownership of the scope, process, and delivery.
Approach
I pitched the redesign to leadership and secured buy-in. We released in phases to learn fast and reduce delivery risk.
My process included:
Internal research and expert interviews
Framing and scoping the opportunity
Rapid prototyping of layout systems and workflows
Beta testing and iterative rollout
I supported delivery and rapid post-launch iteration to ensure adoption stuck
An example of how the framework explorations went through various iterations.
Framework for layouts on all pages.
Results
The impact was immediate:
+37% revenue growth in the following months
3.7/5 satisfaction in beta, with the main detractor issue resolved post-launch
100% adoption by all customers
Multiple customer quotes praising usability
UX cited in Zendesk’s acquisition of Klaus
“The new design of Klaus is amazing and very intuitive and user friendly”
— FinTech with a revenue over $1b and over 5k employees
“Great so far, made navigation so much more comfortable!”
— B2C SaaS with a revenue over $1.5b and over 4k employees
“You are one step ahead of our feedback. Thanks a ton!”
— Small family business for dogs
“Keep up the good work!”
— BPO with a revenue over $400m and over 10k employees
Before
Unable to view all relevant info at the same time
Middle help desk info
Blocking the conversation and inaccessible via keyboard
Feedback + surveys
Surveys are not common, but get lots of real estate
Bottom drawer
Blocking the feedback, limited vertical space to comment
After
A switch from drawers to sidebars and reorganising content
Sidebar
Room to expand and add additional features
Scorecard
Increased whitespace, and reduced visual clutter
Review mode
New panel on the right to focus on the reviewing
CTA accessibility
Labels rather than icons
Help desk info
Moved to right to own tab
Comment box
Expandability
Learnings
This project reaffirmed my belief that fast, iterative delivery always beats big-bang redesigns. It also reminded me that you can’t please everyone — strong product sense matters more than chasing every edge case.
When PM support is light, a designer can still shape direction with conviction and evidence.
What happened next
I brought the same mindset into Zendesk, where I lead fast-paced, AI-driven design initiatives. Our tooling — and our thinking — is evolving alongside the future of customer service.