When I joined Askable, the team had recently launched the first feature of Askable Sessions, a video interviewing tool that allows researchers to set up calls, invite observers, and conduct moderated interviews with participants recruited through Askable.
My role was to design the note-taking experience for both the on-call and playback experiences, enabling customers to capture, revisit, and collaborate on key moments during and after their interviews..
Askable
Product Designer
Year
2023
Research
Interaction Design
Visual Design
Prototyping
When Askable launched its video interviewing tool, many customers began using it to conduct research sessions. Through early feedback, we discovered two key opportunities:
During interviews, facilitators and observers had no way to collaborate in capturing important moments.
After interviews, customers had to download the recordings, as there was no way to watch them within Askable.
Enable facilitators and observers to collaborate during interviews and easily review those sessions afterward?
Release Planning
To move quickly and learn early, we divided the work into two main releases. The first focused on the note-taking experience during live calls, and the second introduced the playback experience, allowing customers to review calls and notes within Askable. This approach helped us gather real-world feedback and apply those insights to subsequent releases.
Release 1
During discovery, I found that many observers joined interviews primarily to take notes. To support this, I designed a note panel where facilitators and observers could capture key moments together without participants seeing them.
Release 1
I also learned that solo facilitators often found it difficult to take notes while conducting interviews. To address this, I designed a keyboard shortcut that allowed them to add timestamped “markers” for important moments they could revisit after the call.
After observing customers and conducting continuous discovery interviews, I found that everyone had different note-taking habits. Some preferred using Miro or Excel, others rewatched the recording, and some focused on reading transcripts. The range of approaches confirmed the need for a playback experience flexible enough to accommodate all styles.
Release 2
To support these varied approaches, I designed the playback feature to be simple yet dynamic. It included a note panel to view notes taken during the call and an input field to add new notes while rewatching the video. I also added an export option to download notes as a CSV file and made it easy to play from a note’s timestamp to quickly revisit key moments of the interview. This created a seamless way for customers to capture, review, and share their research insights all in one place.
Release 3
Following the playback release, we received strong demand from customers for automatic interview transcripts. In response, I designed a transcription panel within the playback experience that allowed customers to toggle between notes and transcript views. This made it easier to navigate and replay key moments whether referencing notes or the transcript itself.
Eight months after launching the notes and playback features, we saw a 111% increase in Sessions usage, driving higher engagement and sales.
Facilitators and observers created 37,401 notes during interviews.
10,883 transcripts were generated within the same period.
Research
When I started this project, continuous discovery had just been introduced to the product team. I conducted weekly customer interviews and began building our opportunity library. These sessions helped me understand how customers currently took notes, their pain points, and how we could design a more collaborative experience.
Landscape Review
I reviewed how other companies addressed note-taking for moderated interviews, including Maze, UserTesting, UserZoom, and Zoom. I analysed screenshots and documented their approaches to note-taking and playback. Combined with customer feedback, this review revealed gaps and informed the direction of Askable’s design.
Task Flows
I mapped the experience across facilitators, observers, and participants to understand each step, goal, and challenge within the interview journey. This process gave me a comprehensive understanding of how to support collaboration effectively across roles before beginning the design phase.
Design Exploration
When brainstorming, I explored features such as emoji reactions, replies to notes, and collaborative comments. After discussing these ideas with the team, we decided to keep the initial release simple. Focusing on a lean MVP helped us get the feature to customers faster and learn from how they naturally used it.
Design Exploration
Once the on-call designs were complete, I began exploring playback concepts. Early ideas included visual “note dots” on the video timeline and notes that covered broader video segments instead of single timestamps. Testing revealed that customers preferred a simple experience where they could view notes and jump to their specific moments. This insight shaped the final playback design.
Handoff
Once designs were finalised, I facilitated two story mapping sessions to define release priorities and align the team on scope. After confirming requirements, I prepared annotated Figma prototypes and created detailed design tickets. I worked closely with developers throughout implementation, reviewing progress and providing design support until release.
Release to learn
This project reinforced the importance of releasing early and iterating based on real customer behaviour. Many insights only surfaced once the feature was in the hands of customers.
How to collaborate with devs
Coming from an agency background, I had to adapt to working closely with developers within a product squad. Through this project, I learned that strong communication and collaboration between designers and engineers lead to more effective, higher-quality outcomes.
Keep things simple
Simplicity became a guiding principle throughout this project. Continuously questioning, "Do we really need this?" helped keep the focus on solving the core customer problems while maintaining clarity in the experience.