WHAT
A zero-to-one generative AI game-creation mobile app built using a conversational UI. It was being built alongside a companion web app, Horizon Studio.
Content designer across conversation strategy, creation and sharing product flows, and cross-platform terminology
Teams were working in silos, and foundational product decisions remained unresolved despite an initial eight-week development timeline.
Drove the conversation strategy through leadership approval and into model implementation.
Redesigned creation, sharing, and publishing flows to resolve ambiguity and unblock implementation.
Drove cross-platform consistency by establishing shared strategy and terminology governance.
THE INITIAL PROBLEM
MY APPROACH
Identified and consolidated disparate conversation strategy efforts by meeting with cross-functional stakeholders and reviewing existing documentation and frameworks to understand the current landscape and technical constraints.
Established a unified strategic direction. I evaluated competing approaches, reconciled inconsistencies, and synthesized the strongest elements into a cohesive conversation strategy.
IMPACT
Leadership approved the strategy. I led multiple rounds of review and aligned design and product leadership on the strategic direction.
Conversation strategy was incorporated into the model implementation. I brought the conversation designer and engineering team together to iron out practical constraints, fast-tracking internal user testing.
The web team adopted much of the framework and principles, adapting them to match their users’ specific needs.
THE PROBLEM
The team lacked a shared understanding of what sharing and publishing meant, creating confusion in both the product experience and implementation.
MY APPROACH
Challenged the underlying assumptions. PMs proposed a long disclaimer to explain who could access a game because, technically, a privately shared game “draft” was considered “published” on the backend. I pushed back on exposing this backend terminology in the UI and partnered with my product designer to rethink the experience.
Advocated for distinct sharing and publishing actions. The lead CD on the app initially favored using “Share” for everything for simplicity’s sake. I argued that for clarity we needed two actions that reflected different user intentions:
Share: Send a game directly to someone.
Publish: Finish creating a game and choose its visibility.
Through iterative design reviews, my PD and I demonstrated how distinguishing these actions created a clearer experience, ultimately gaining alignment on the two-term approach.
Established a shared product vocabulary. I updated the entire product requirements document with consistent terminology and definitions, aligning product, design, engineering, and marketing around a common understanding of the experience.
IMPACT
Established a clearer creation and distribution model. Creators could share games directly with friends or complete the publishing flow with an explicit choice between public and private visibility.
Unblocked product implementation. By resolving the interaction and terminology questions, I gave the team a coherent mental model to build against.
THE PROBLEM
Independent terminology decisions made across mobile and web threatened consistency as both products evolved.
MY APPROACH
Created a centralized terminology source of truth. I built a shared spreadsheet to document emerging terminology decisions, track unresolved questions, and surface inconsistencies across mobile and web.
Established a weekly CD alignment meeting. I created a recurring meeting with the content design team to evaluate terminology decisions against the needs of our distinct audiences (casual creators on mobile and more advanced creators on web) and determine where to align or differentiate.
IMPACT
Established intentional cross-platform consistency. I aligned terminology where concepts and interactions were shared, while preserving platform-specific language where different user needs warranted it.