Collaboration Snapshot

• Researcher → Led interviews, usability sessions, synthesis

• Engineers → Stress-tested API publishing, validated flows, joined user sessions

• PMs → Defined adoption goals, aligned stakeholders, prioritized features

• My Role → Led design strategy, interaction models, and facilitated workshops

🔍 The Challenge

Before Fortellis, developer experiences in the automotive tech ecosystem were fragmented, unintuitive, and slow. Developers had trouble:

• Finding and testing APIs quickly

• Navigating outdated or inconsistent documentation

• Connecting with peers or community support

Our cross-functional mission: with PMs, engineers, and designers aligned, we set out to build a modern developer platform that made API onboarding seamless, API publishing self-service, and developer engagement continuous — reducing time-to-first-call and growing adoption.

🔬 Research & Insights

We started by understanding the pain points firsthand.

• 📊 Competitive Analysis: Benchmarked Stripe, Twilio, Salesforce, and Azure developer platforms.

• 🧠 Developer Interviews: Partnered with our UX researcher to conduct 15 developer interviews (internal and external). I helped frame questions around onboarding friction, while the researcher synthesized themes. Engineers also joined sessions to hear pain points firsthand, which later influenced technical prioritization.

• 📉 Key Findings:

  
  

  • Developers wanted to “get in and go” with minimal friction.

  • Sample requests and responses were more helpful than walls of text.

  • Testing tools needed to be embedded and intuitive.

  • Documentation should mirror actual use cases and be searchable.

“It was stinking easy!” – Developer, post-redesign usability test

“Having a search bar in Community is very important.” – Tom Hawbaker

🧭 Design Process

🗺️ 1. Mapping the Experience

We started with a sitemap overhaul, identifying gaps in the original structure and simplifying flows.

🖍️ 2. Design Sprint Workshops

I facilitated collaborative whiteboard workshops with stakeholders, engineers, and other designers. These sessions surfaced friction points (like test access and doc flow) and gave everyone a stake in shaping solutions to quickly ideate around the most critical UX issues:

• Quick test access

• Documentation flow

• Account creation and publishing

🧪 3. Usability Testing & Feedback

Our researcher and I co-ran moderated sessions with developers at NAMUG. While I observed flows and captured UX issues, the researcher focused on facilitation and debriefs. Engineers attended key sessions, which helped reduce back-and-forth later.

Usability testing with NAMUG participants shaped how we redesigned developer tools.

From NAMUG testing:

• Overall ease-of-use: 90%

• Satisfaction: 94%

• Confidence: 91%

“Users didn’t know how best to find answers to their specific questions.”

“Users had to remember where to go to test an API.”

“Consider a quick path from the solution to the API test page.”

✨ Final Designs

🎨 Developer Dashboard

New landing page simplifies messaging with a bold call-to-action for developers to join or explore APIs.

🧪 API Testing Flow

Interactive “Try It Out” feature lets devs test APIs without switching contexts — reducing confusion and frustration.

🧩 Marketplace & Publishing

🛒 Marketplace Overview

Redesigned Marketplace homepage highlights new solutions, recently added apps, and categorized filters for easier discovery — supporting both developers and dealership customers.

📄 App Listing – Default View

Each app has a structured detail page with tabbed content (Overview, Pricing, Issues), helping buyers evaluate solutions with clear specs, support links, and trial options.

🎥 App Listing – Media & Features

I worked with engineers and PMs to design new media support, like explainer videos and screenshots, giving vendors richer ways to showcase functionality. PMs helped define success metrics (engagement & conversion), while engineers validated feasibility..

🔗 App Connection to APIs

Once selected, apps guide users through connecting to APIs by choosing providers for services like quoting, repair orders, and vehicle specs — with a clean, step-by-step layout.

🛠️ API Publishing Flow (Condensed Series)

1. Start of Submission Flow

I co-designed the publishing flow with input from engineers (who flagged YAML validation challenges) and PMs (who set publishing KPIs). My role was simplifying the interaction design, while engineers stress-tested edge cases like error states.

2. File Upload In Progress

During upload, we provided real-time visual feedback so users felt confident the system was working — a small but powerful trust builder.

3. Upload Success State

Once the spec passed validation, users received immediate success confirmation with a clear next action to submit the API.

4. File Error Edge Case

Inline error messages were introduced to help developers resolve YAML validation issues without starting over — reducing frustration.

5. Exit Confirmation

To prevent accidental loss of work, we added a graceful exit confirmation that only triggers if data input has begun.

📊 Final Dashboard View

After submission, developers can track their published APIs, see live status (e.g., “Approved,” “Pending Review”), and manage implementations — completing the self-serve publishing loop.

🧾 Account Creation

Streamlined account creation with step indicators and subscription opt-in for community updates.

📈 Outcomes & Impact

✅ As a team, we reduced time-to-first API call by 40%. My contribution was leading UX strategy and design, while PMs drove adoption initiatives and engineers built developer tools that supported self-service publishing.
✅ Developer satisfaction score jumped from 2.5 → 4.3
✅ Active API integrations increased by 30% in the first year
✅ API publishers were able to self-serve using our structured submission flow

💬 What I Learned

• Getting developers, engineers, and researchers involved early drove better usability and adoption. This project reinforced how critical it is to test collaboratively — rapid prototyping plus researcher-led iteration cut misalignment and reduced rework.

• Fancy visuals don’t replace functional clarity — testable, transparent flows win.

• Rapid prototyping and research-led iteration cut down misalignment and rework.