Product-to-Platform Pivot: Building a Unified Software Intelligence Solution
Context
Early-stage developer tool designed to provide insights on code change impacts, dependencies, databases, and APIs
Targeted users who needed to manage or reduce tech debt
Challenges
Company struggled to secure its first sale despite rising customer demos, signaling increased interest
Prospects faced tool fatigue, indicating preference for a single “thing'“ to house all their needs
Customers couldn’t see the product value proposition
Lacked clear user personas and target customer group
My Role
UX product lead driving clarity of value proposition and cohesive user experience
Cross-functional team leader, acting as the “glue” between squads (backend, UI, installation agents) to accelerate delivery and execution of product vision
Partnered with engineers and designers to reposition product for enterprise buyers, laying the groundwork for a unified platform vision
Key Actions
Defined requirements for a cohesive user experience, shifting narrative from a developer tool to software intelligence platform
Conducted competitive analysis and market research to refine target user groups and user personas, categorizing use cases
Created wireframes and prototypes to validate user preferences for in-app navigation, starting from high-level overview to deep dives into the codebase
Rapid internal dogfooding to document user flow, categorize usability issues, and surface adoption blockers within first week
Collaborated with Sales, Marketing, and Product team to introduce tiered pricing, licensing controls, and launched IDE plugins to expand reach to enterprise prospects
Implemented process to capture and triage new feature ideas across squads, balancing short-term fixes with strategic bets
Results & Impact
First $6k paid contract secured; opened $102k sales pipeline within 6 months
Launched IDE plugins with 3.8k installs to date, expanding customer reach and increasing trial conversions (tracked via JetBrains Marketplace analytics)
Navigation improvements reduced time-to-insight by ~25%, validated in usability studies with engineering managers
Platform pivot direction was validated through surveys and interviews, which directly informed long-term roadmap and market positioning
Spearheaded new pricing model, defining and executing requirements for the new pricing framework across UI elements, backend development, and sales/marketing teams
Learnings
There’s only one constant, and that’s change.
Speed gives way to flexibility and risk. Alignment on vision and strategy is critical.
It’s not enough to fail fast and learn faster. Create frameworks for what to do with the learnings from failures and implement a process for applying.