Multiple projects over one year 2023-2024. Team of 4 engineers, 2 QA, 1 product manager and lots of crossfunctional partners
The Project
Hudl is a sports tech platform offering video analysis and performance tools for athletes and coaches at 99% of U.S. high schools.
As the platform grew into new markets, our team had the opportunity to sunset older versions, reduce storage costs, and refine the long-term strategy. As the storage management design owner, I led the incremental improvement of Hudl’s storage tools over the course of a year through multiple projects.
The solution
Based on user research that confirmed storage is most easily managed on desktop, I introduced suggestions and UI that allowed users to intelligently select, delete, and restore video files in our web app.
Feedback from executive stakeholders
"Katie's presentation showing that 80% of video content is restored within 30 days was crucial data. As we adapted our designs to support the product team's shift from a 180-day to a 14-day policy, having this concrete evidence helped us communicate the changes effectively. Grounding our design decisions in data has been a huge focus for me this year."
-Dan, VP of Design
"The storage enforcement launch stands out as an exceptionally well-executed initiative. While users naturally weren't thrilled about storage limits, the process we built around it was seamless. We developed effective tools for both users and our support team, backed by strategic, thoughtful messaging. It's proof that even challenging changes can be implemented with quality and care."
-Brooke, Director of Support - North America
My Contribution
Intelligent Suggestions
I collaborated with engineers to determine the best approach for interrupting users with important storage management decisions. We considered factors like data loading, video type, presumed value, and the potential for negative user sentiment if we made the wrong call.
User Feedback analysis
I led critical data analysis initiatives on this high-stakes project, where outcomes directly impacted business profitability. After each phased release of video management tools, I worked with our Support team to pull user feedback reports. I tagged the feedback by theme and then came up with several solutions for my squad and the release team to consider in order to make the impact of the next phase more palatable.
My strategic insights shaped our messaging approach, effectively mitigating potential negative user experiences while successfully delivering on our financial objectives.
Release Plan
We formed a release team months in advance to strategize the marketing push, as well as sales and support messaging. I created and demoed prototypes to help the team understand how the storage management tools would function, gathering feedback from executive stakeholders and other business units. Hudl’s diverse customer base—from high school to elite professional sports teams—required us to be sensitive to varying perceptions and impacts.
Visual Design
I adapted existing design system patterns to streamline decision-making and ensure consistency with Hudl’s established UI conventions.
Retrospective and Maintenance
We implemented a phased rollout strategy, first releasing storage management tools to users before enforcing any storage limits. By proactively collaborating with my PM, we stayed ahead of the engineering team and measured the impact of each release phase. I established a data feedback loop with our Support team, analyzing Salesforce reports that tracked all customer interactions for 30 days following the management tools release. This data-driven approach allowed me to identify and implement experience improvements before the enforcement phase began, giving users adequate time to adapt. The results were compelling: in the 90 days after full storage enforcement, we saw a 43% reduction in support tickets compared to pre-project baseline levels when our policies were unclear and stratified across all our user groups.