First-to-market AI category. 199 leads, 139 upgrades, G2 Leader status in 6 months.
When a new market category has zero competitors, the design bar is lower than the framing bar. I had a 1-day deadline to align leadership on a concept, 2 weeks of research happening in parallel, and no competitor in the space. I owned the UX strategy, research direction, and aspects of GTM. Result: we launched in 6 weeks, defined a category competitors copied, and I proposed 9 post-launch features to extend the lead — 8 shipped or scheduled by Q2 2026.
Muck Rack helps PR teams monitor press coverage, pitch journalists, and manage media relationships at scale. As AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity began influencing brand perception, a new uncertainty emerged: PR teams had no visibility into how these LLMs described their brands or clients. Were they showing up at all? What sources was the AI citing? Were key messages being picked up? The fear was real. The answer didn't exist anywhere in the market.
Muck Rack had a unique advantage: journalist data. By matching our media database against the sources cited in LLM responses, we could surface which journalists and outlets were influencing AI-generated results. We could help PR teams optimize their media strategy around these AI-driven channels. But the category itself was new—Generative Engine Optimization. No competitor had built this. No customer fully understood why they needed it.
In June 2025, leadership set a launch date around an embargoed press story. Research hadn't started. The path forward was uncertain.
I had one day to align leadership on a concept.
Not "one day to explore options." One day to show them something they could believe in. A fixed launch date was driving a compressed timeline, and I needed to establish proof of concept before the research phase could even begin.
Concept (Day 1)
I designed a high-fidelity Figma prototype showing what a Generative Pulse report would deliver: an executive summary of what we found about how LLMs described the brand, share of voice across AI platforms, a visibility score, breakdown of earned vs. social sources, top cited journalists and outlets, brand sentiment analysis, and total visits from LLM referrals. The prototype positioned GEO as a legitimate addition to Muck Rack's product line — not a beta feature, but a strategic tool for media planning.
Leadership aligned within a day.
Research (Weeks 2–3, Concurrent with Design)
The timeline demanded parallelization. While design was already in motion, I directed a research program: six customer interviews (3 brand teams, 3 agencies) and four internal sessions (Sales, Customer Success, PR/Comms team). Six hours of interviews, compressed into two weeks.
The research revealed something crucial: participants understood GEO conceptually (4–5 out of 5 value rating, one called it "7 out of 5" for market relevance), but they were just beginning to know how to use it. The must-have features were clear—Summary, Share of Voice, Top Journalists, Top Outlets—but participants also asked for deeper drill-down and period-over-period tracking to prove impact over time.
More importantly, research exposed two risks: one agency partner's confidence dropped from 5 to 1 when confronted with data accuracy concerns. Education and enablement became non-negotiable for post-launch.
We changed scope based on what we heard. Features like "Media Strategy," "Visibility Score," and "Brand Mention Sentiment" moved to post-MVP. Drill-down and reporting integrations were deferred. Risks were documented and added to the roadmap.
Brand & Microsite (Weeks 2–4)
I designed the Generative Pulse microsite from wireframes through QA, overseeing the build. I also owned the brand extension work: collaborated on the Generative Pulse signature/logo, defined the visual language, and created a GTM communication guide for our marketing team that addressed different audience segments (GEO-savvy vs. new to GEO), with sample topics, formats, and cadence recommendations.
Post-Launch Roadmap (Weeks 5–6)
Following a competitive review of Profound, Trakkr, Xfunnel, Brandlight, and Goodie, I authored a prioritized nine-initiative roadmap addressing recurring user requests around visibility tracking over time, competitive analysis, sentiment monitoring, integrations with analytics tools, report sharing, and deeper drill-down capabilities. Each initiative was mapped to user needs, competitive positioning, and implementation effort. Eight of these nine have been released or scheduled for release by Q2 2026.
Most UX leaders are handed a pre-framed problem. This one wasn't. The work was owning an unstructured problem under real constraints, running research without using those constraints as an excuse, and thinking past launch to what the product needed to become next. When the category is new, framing matters more than pixels.