Redesigning a B2B SaaS App for Success — full case study

The work in detail

Redesigning a B2B SaaS app for success

Heading Line1: Redesigning a B2B

Heading Line2: SaaS app for

Heading Highlight: success

How user research and data-driven design transformed Huggg's B2B gifting platform, increasing purchases fourfold and revenue per user by 1.2x

Category Label: B2B SaaS

Role

Value: Senior Product Designer

Timeline

Value: 2023 to 2024

Team

Value: Product, Engineering, External Agency

Key outcome

Value: 4x purchase rate

Context

Hero Image Alt: Huggg B2B gifting platform overview

• Huggg's B2B SaaS platform was struggling with low adoption, poor conversion rates, and small basket sizes. Users were not engaging as expected, and core features like budget selection and occasion categories were unclear or unappealing, which led to fewer purchases.
• Revenue was weak, with slow recurring sales and difficulty in building customer loyalty. It was clear that the product was failing to create a sustainable revenue stream, which highlighted the urgent need for a redesign.
• I led a full redesign, using user research such as contextual enquiries and buyer journey analysis to understand pain points and needs. As a result, the percentage of users making purchases increased fourfold, revenue per user went up 1.2 times, and user satisfaction improved significantly.

Problem identification

To understand the challenges with Huggg's B2B SaaS platform, I led a structured problem identification process. I facilitated a workshop with internal stakeholders to map the entire buyer journey, highlighting pain points and opportunities for improvement. This helped the team see where the experience was breaking down and what needed urgent attention.

Stakeholder workshop: team mapping the buyer journey with sticky notes on a whiteboard

1. User research

With the help of an external agency, we conducted user research to understand mental models and gather insights through contextual enquiries and interviews. These sessions revealed how users interacted with the platform, what caused friction, and where expectations were not being met.

User research discussion guide: contextual questions about gifting behaviour and buying decisions

2. Brainstorming and workshops

I facilitated brainstorming sessions and workshops with the team to generate ideas and prioritise solutions. Dot-voting and card sorting helped us align on which problems to tackle first and which ideas had the most potential.

Brainstorming output: dot-voted sticky notes showing prioritised ideas and feature concepts

3. Data-informed decisions

I ran A/B tests comparing existing and new designs to gather quantitative data on user behaviour. Combining stakeholder insights, user feedback, and data-driven testing allowed us to clearly identify the key problems affecting adoption, conversion, and revenue.

4. Competitive analysis

We reviewed competing gifting and rewards platforms to understand industry standards and identify where Huggg was falling behind. This gave us a clearer benchmark for what users expected from a modern B2B SaaS tool.

Summary Heading: Summary of why the product was in the red

• Users were not engaging as expected, and core features like budget selection and occasion categories were unclear or unappealing
• Lack of awareness of certain features meant the product was not fully meeting user needs
• Revenue was weak, with slow recurring sales and difficulty building customer loyalty
• The product was failing to create a sustainable revenue stream, highlighting the urgent need for a redesign

Potential root causes

Unclear purpose or mismatched expectations

Lack of trust

Lack of value proposition

Poor performance (loading time)

Bugs and errors

Led To: Led to low conversion, adoption, and basket size

• Users did not expect the platform to feel so much like an e-commerce site. They were looking for a cleaner, more straightforward SaaS experience, so seeing so many categories and occasion cards at once felt overwhelming. This mismatch between expectation and reality made it hard for users to trust the platform, and many ended up leaving before really engaging with it.
• There were also technical problems that made things worse. Users ran into bugs and errors, which reduced their confidence in the product. On top of that, the site was very slow, taking around eight seconds to load because it was pulling in a lot of data at once. This poor performance frustrated users and became the main reason why adoption, conversion, and overall engagement were so low.

Balanced solutions

• To address the issues, we focused on making the platform more helpful and easier to use. This included giving users clear feedback and visible calls-to-action, simplifying workflows, and progressively disclosing information so they were not overwhelmed. We also "SaaSified" the experience, making it feel cleaner and more intuitive, which matched user expectations better and helped build trust.
• We improved the platform's functionality as well. A comprehensive dashboard was introduced, along with enhanced reports and better order tracking, giving users a clear overview of their activity and performance. These changes made it easier for users to navigate the platform, complete tasks efficiently, and feel confident in the system, ultimately supporting higher adoption and engagement.

Progressively disclosed user experience

Information revealed gradually so users are not overwhelmed by choices upfront. The catalogue view guides users through browsing, sharing, and sending in a natural sequence.

• Huggg gift catalogue: progressive disclosure redesign
• Sharing workflow: how to share gift links
• Choose sending method: guided selection interface

Simple and clear workflows

Streamlined task flows guide users step by step through gifting, with helpful feedback and clear CTAs at every stage.

• Confirmation screen: helpful feedback and clear CTAs
• Success: your links have been sent confirmation

Comprehensive dashboard

A comprehensive dashboard gives users a clear overview of their activity and performance, including program funding tracking, participation metrics, gifts purchased analytics, gifting reasons breakdown, and a unique bonds-created visualisation.

• Huggg comprehensive dashboard: program funding, participation, gifts purchased, gifting reasons, unique bonds created

Enhanced reports and order tracking

Improved reporting and order tracking give users better visibility into orders, delivery status, and redemption history.

• Orders table: status, reason codes, team names
• Delivery tracking: status, redemption, expiry dates

Celebrate outcomes

The redesign delivered measurable improvements across adoption, conversion, and revenue, demonstrating how thoughtful design and data-driven decisions can improve both user experience and business outcomes.

Performance transformed

Average loading time dropped from 12 seconds to just 1 second, a 92% improvement that immediately reduced user frustration and bounce rates.

Conversion multiplied

The percentage of users making purchases increased 4.1 times, with purchases per session up 2.1 times and purchases per user up 1.8 times.

Revenue growth enabled

Revenue per session increased 1.5 times and revenue per user grew 1.2 times, creating a sustainable growth trajectory for the platform.

Stats Heading: 2023 statistics

Text: Ops jobs completed reduced by

Text: @tech requests reduced by

Suffix: Hugggs created

Suffix: Hugggs redeemed

Suffix: Welfare Hugggs' value redeemed

Suffix: flow moved through our wallets

Reflections

What worked well

• Combining stakeholder workshops, user research, and A/B testing gave a complete picture of the problems
• Progressive disclosure matched user expectations for a SaaS experience
• Performance improvements (12s to 1s load time) had an immediate, measurable impact
• Data-driven approach to design decisions built confidence with stakeholders

What I would do differently

• Involve end users earlier in the ideation phase, not just during validation
• Set up continuous measurement from day one to track incremental improvements
• Explore more personalisation opportunities based on user role and company size
• Build a more solid design system to scale the improvements faster