I led the end-to-end UX/UI redesign of the Community Hub setup experience.
Overview
At Breakthru, a CRM platform for nonprofits and political organizations, I led the end-to-end UX/UI redesign of the Community Hub setup experience. Previously, creating a new Hub required backend intervention from developers — a tedious 4–6 hour process per request that limited scalability.
I designed a self-service tool embedded directly into the CRM, allowing organizations to configure and launch their own Community Hubs in under 20 minutes. Boosting customer autonomy and reducing developer workload.
Problem
The original process for launching Community Hubs created friction across the board:
Developer bottleneck: Manual setup required 4–6 hours per hub, repeated across clients.
No user autonomy: Customers couldn’t manage or update their hubs independently.
Slowed growth: Engagement initiatives were delayed, impacting campaign effectiveness.
Breakthru needed a scalable, intuitive solution that put power back into users' hands — without adding complexity to the CRM.
Research & Discovery
To identify opportunities and constraints, I:
Interviewed 6 customers to understand needs around customization, branding, and feature setup.
Consulted internal support and dev teams to uncover pain points and common requests.
Audited other SaaS onboarding flows to benchmark setup efficiency.
Key Findings:
80% of orgs wanted control over branding (colors, logos, layout).
Most had repetitive setup needs (forms, modules, permissions).
Developers felt frustrated doing low-value manual work instead of improving core features.
User Flow Mapping
I mapped out the ideal end-to-end setup journey, ensuring it felt seamless and integrated within the CRM - from naming the Hub to previewing and launching it.
Wireframing
I designed a modular system where users could:
Choose templates based on use-case (e.g., volunteer signup, event promotion)
Customize branding, text, and layout
Toggle features like contact forms, media blocks, and permission levels
Usability Testing
I ran 3 rounds of remote tests with existing customers and internal stakeholders to validate clarity, reduce cognitive load, and optimize field defaults. Key improvements based on feedback:
Added real-time preview
Grouped settings into logical tabs (e.g. Design, Features, Branding)
Used tooltips to reduce overwhelm for non-technical users
Solution
The final product was a self-service interface built into the CRM:
Self-Serve Creation: Customers could launch multiple Community Hubs in minutes
Flexible Customization: Adjust branding, layout, and features directly
Real-Time Feedback: Users saw changes reflected immediately — no waiting
Results & Impact
Before
Before
After
What I Learned
Think in Systems, Not Screens: Designing modular components made the interface easy to scale across use cases.
Internal Teams Are Stakeholders Too: Understanding dev pain points helped prioritize automation that freed them up for higher-impact work.
Simplicity Wins: Users preferred fewer decisions when setting up — prefilled defaults and visual previews went a long way.