Myota Data Security
Myota is a SaaS start up that helps companies keep their data resilient from ransomware and other cyber attacks through a high level of zero trust control. I came on board Myota as the Lead Product Designer, helping design the UI and experience of their products. They needed help turning a somewhat complicated methodology into a product that could be easily used and adopted. I also helped Myota create a cohesive brand experience within their website and all marketing materials and helped streamline brand experience with customers and partners.
ROLE
Lead Product Designer
Experience Director
DELIVERABLES
UI/UX Design
User Testing & Research
Brand Development
Customer Experience
The Myota Client
Testing & Refinement
The Myota Client is a desktop application for both Mac and Windows that is designed to store, backup, and secure files. When I joined the Myota team, the design of the client was already underway. I led the team in refining features and improving design based on technical constraints, stakeholder feedback, and of course, the outcomes of user testing efforts (after taking some time to define user personas). As always, my focus was on taking an evidence based approach to design, while also factoring in technical and security constraints.
The Myota Console
Getting to MVP
The Myota Console is an administrator area designed to configure and manage parameters for storage and to apply settings for the Myota Client. Although the Console works directly with the client, the user personas are completely different and the UI is significantly more complex. Most of my time spent creating this UI was working directly with stakeholders and the development team to understand the underlying technology, and working with potential users to understand how they would be using it. With some research and testing, we brought the Console to MVP pretty quickly and completed 4 release iterations based on testing and other feedback.
Customers & Partners
Creating a brand experience
I worked closely with the Myota executive team to establish guidelines not only for our brand, but how the brand interacts with potential and existing customers and partners. This included developing parameters and materials for onboarding new customers and creating a partner portal where marketing materials and guidelines can be easily accessed.
Branding & Marketing
Establishing a cohesive brand
I took the already established visual brand and worked with the team and customers to create a defined set of brand parameters as well as voice and tone guidelines to be used in the creation of marketing materials. I oversaw the development of the Myota Website and all marketing materials done by our creative team to ensure that the brand was always accurately delivered.
From MVP to Funding
During my time with Myota, we took a bare bones idea and turned it into 2 fully developed products that received $3.65M in funding and is currently being adopted by many security focused organizations. We put multiple design and process systems in place that will serve design and development as they move forward in creating a mature product.
Lessons Learned
- In a startup, creating design systems and establishing guidelines early will help greatly. They don’t need to be perfect, but try to make everything as modular as possible for when design updates inevitably come.
- Get feedback early and often. From team members, stakeholders, advisors, existing users, potential users, the general public, your grandma. Don’t always use formal means. You can be scrappy.
- You will be iterating quickly after MVP release, make sure that user-informed experience improvements are placed in every release. Do not allow all product decisions to be driven by internal factors.
