Kelly Nakawatase
 

Hi, I’m Kelly.

Award winning designer with 9 years UX experience

I have
  • Been the sole designer for an entirely new service that reached $1M ARR in less than 8 months.
  • Further grew ARR 12% by leading product-led growth experimentation.
  • Improved efficiency by 11% by leading UX initiatives.
  • A background in linguistics and conversational structures that compliments my experience collaborating with data science and working on machine learning projects.
  • I have a passion for research-backed design and building a collaborative team culture, both within UX and cross-functionally.

Based in Orange, CA

 
 
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Projects


Expel

 

October 2019 - February 2024

Expel is a B2B managed security service provider (MSSP). In August 2020, we launched a new service: Expel Managed Phishing. Customer users submit suspicious looking emails to us and our security analysts determine whether or not the email is malicious or benign, whether or not there has been a security breach, and how to remediate the situation.

I was the sole designer for this cross functional feature team since its inception, and designed for both external customer users and internal security analysts, from dashboards to workflows. This service exceeded $1M ARR in less than 8 months.

 

ExpelDashboard-preview
 

managed phishing dashboard

I designed a customer facing metrics dashboard for our new service. The design was so successful that it became a selling point for the sales team and an anchor in our product-led growth initiatives.

  • User interviews, competitive analysis, card sorting

  • Data visualization

  • Developer collaboration

  • Widescreen, standard, and tablet

  • Outcome: Became a cornerstone for PLG, increased ARR 12%


 

(Automated) Remediations

If we find a security risk, we create actions for the customer to secure their environment. These are called remediations. I designed how remediations and auto remediations would manifest within the phishing service.

  • Proposing change

  • Designing for internal users and external customers

  • Designing and creating a notification strategy

  • Maintaining consistency between services (or trying to)

  • User testing

  • Outcome: Reduced time on task 13 minutes


 

Machine Learning Model data visualization

I designed a visualization to show the output of a machine learning model to support automated email analysis.

  • Developer and data science collaboration

  • Taking something complex and putting it into an easily digestible format for internal users and customers

  • Outcome: Reduced time on task 11%


 

Phishing Service Onboarding

Since Phishing was a new service, onboarding customers was an entirely manual effort from internal Expel users. I designed an onboarding wizard so customers could onboard themselves.

  • PM and dev collaboration

  • Workflow building

  • UX team collaboration to create reusable wizard component


 

SecureAuth

April 2017 - October 2019

SecureAuth is a B2B security company that specializes in identity and access management using multi-factor authentication (think login passcodes). They serve as a strong layer of security, guarding large scale enterprises against security breaches.

 
 

End to End Authentication Experience

I provided the first research driven, consistent end-user experience across all of the company’s products

  • Experience mapping

  • Mobile App for iOS and Android

  • Apple Watch and Android Wear apps

  • Endpoint security software


 

NailSnaps

June 2015 - March 2017

NailSnaps was an app that allows users to create custom nail art decals using any image. Along the with creation and purchasing experience on mobile, we had an e-commerce website hosted on Shopify to allow customers to buy pre-made designs that we’d print and ship to their door.

 
NailSnaps-preview
 

mobile and web e-commerce

I was the sole designer and first hire at this startup

  • Applied holistic UX across an entire brand ecosystem

  • Mobile app and responsive e-commerce redesign

  • Outcome: Increased sales 8% with website redesign