https://www.mollyapolis.com/about daily 1.0 2024-10-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1642123478908-IPCG7CK77GQJYFN2G7NL/City+Illustration.png About - Molly Hillstrom experience strategy • user research • product design I’m a freelance Product Designer with 25+ years of experience working with a wide variety of organizations and industries. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1642201136484-9RX1XSKKT8VS7IFJL3PY/Process.png About - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ce435d6bea1ed00016ba287/1558964652247-5MWXNMFZVOPGE4TY6U2Q/MHeiderich_ReflexionenZwei-05-copy.jpg About https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1642202523030-2108QB0TUIF6K2XOVK0T/Research%2BStrategy.png About https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1642202574743-CJP2E5SONVK1GM7Q0MU2/Content%2BDesign.png About https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1642202593126-16IS11GFUM5W0BH777SB/Experience+Leadership.png About https://www.mollyapolis.com/availability daily 0.75 2025-12-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1650484144172-0JSAP2J3W5EPKC4CVY8C/Sleeping.png Availability - I’d love to chat. I am fully booked for Q1 of 2026, but I am likely to have some room starting in Q2 of 2026. Send me a note if you have a project that fits that timeline. https://www.mollyapolis.com/contact daily 0.75 2023-11-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ce435d6bea1ed00016ba287/1558964652247-5MWXNMFZVOPGE4TY6U2Q/MHeiderich_ReflexionenZwei-05-copy.jpg Contact https://www.mollyapolis.com/work daily 0.75 2022-04-18 https://www.mollyapolis.com/work/coaching-overwhelmed-team monthly 0.5 2022-02-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1643841000797-H0EO9G0BUHKR3O7F3CE7/lifebouy.png Recent Work - Coaching an Overwhelmed Team - Dive In + Dig Out Because my client was in a desperate situation, the first thing I did was jump in to relieve the backlog of design work their single UX person was trying to get through. I worked collaboratively with developers to quickly make UX decisions as they were coding. These interactions also gave me the opportunity to better understand the pain points the teams were experiencing. In addition to not understanding exactly what they were building and why, the developers felt as though they were constantly tweaking designs. There were no consistent text styles and lots of UI variations. All this resulted in extra work, and frequent miscommunication. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1643843502711-B735R0CR4VNV488YKFOP/Pattern+Library.png Recent Work - Coaching an Overwhelmed Team - Pattern Library To reduce the effort involved in designing and developing their product, I knew the team would benefit from a pattern library. A pattern library is a collection of design elements that repeatedly appear on a site or app. Each element is accompanied by best practices, variations, rules, and any additional specifications. A pattern library helps everyone… Users get UI consistency and familiarity, which makes it easier to use. Designers get a set of building blocks, making it easier to quickly put together new designs and communicate ideas. Developers get a set of components with reusable code and clear design specifications. The team gets to focus on the bigger picture more, with less effort put into pushing pixels. The organization gets a consistent brand expression, continuity as staff turns over, and faster new employee onboarding. After doing an audit of all their colors, text styles, layouts, icons, graphics, and components, I worked with the team to pare down text styles, choose between redundant components, and discuss any element that wasn’t currently serving them well. This also was an opportunity for me to assess and identify several accessibility issues, which resulted in updates to font sizes, colors, and interactions so their product could be more inclusive (and avoid potential litigation). The end result was a comprehensive guide to building a high quality product that relieved a lot of frustration and set the team up to perform better going forward. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1644086610230-9GHS96W5PAS6BM5HEMDD/If+you+build+it.png Recent Work - Coaching an Overwhelmed Team - Introducing User Research While the pattern library helped my client build out their ideas faster, it did nothing to address whether they should be building them in the first place. Many on my client’s team had wanted to do user research before, but felt they were always too busy to make it happen. As a result, the team felt like they were always guessing at what users wanted, and they were disappointed the product wasn’t more successful. They needed to get out of the “if we build it, they will come” mentality, and start a new habit of testing their ideas before writing a single line of code. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1644085287938-85T54SVIX5VF7M1235RF/remote+prototype.png Recent Work - Coaching an Overwhelmed Team - After writing up a research plan and an interview script, I facilitated a series of hybrid interview and prototype tests. For the first half, I focused on probing for insights related to their product and industry. Then for the second half, we watched while participants completed tasks (via remote screen share) while using a prototype we built to solicit feedback on their new ideas. The team came out of the research sessions excited to talk about what they had learned and to iterate on their ideas. I sensed renewed energy and enhanced empathy after hearing directly from their users. The insights we gathered helped the team make informed decisions about the future direction of their product, and they were equipped to continue to learn. https://www.mollyapolis.com/work/discovering-opportunities monthly 0.5 2022-02-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1643217488034-39QLK4XCXYABNPZOSDTX/Business+model+canvas.png Recent Work - Discovering Opportunities - Brainstorm + Frame Insights Some clear themes began to emerge during our interviews, and I summarized those findings for an unpacking session where we discussed all the new learnings from our research. With these fresh new insights I worked with my client to imagine ways their company might be able to address the problems we were seeing. To fuel our conversations, we worked with How Might We statements, a tool to help us to reframe insights into opportunities for design. Because one of the opportunity areas we were seeing had the potential to impact the client’s business model, we also did some work with the Business Model Canvas. This simple worksheet helped us think through revenue, partnerships and operational needs. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1643223785293-LC8S0P2LLDSOFQIEFEJP/rapid+prototyping.png Recent Work - Discovering Opportunities - Prototyping With fresh ideas in hand, it was time to start making! This is my favorite phase of a project, when ideas start to take life and I see client teams get more engaged and aligned. The idea behind a prototype, is to create the bare minimum needed to accurately convey an idea. Initially, this is a simple wireframe or storyboard to help visualize the concept. This generates feedback, which helps refine the prototype, and with each iteration the prototype gets more detailed. Outcomes of rapid prototyping: Teams are aligned and having the right conversations Risks and dependencies are identified More ideas and opportunities are sparked Valuable feedback from stakeholders and users is gathered A vision and set of requirements starts to form https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1643334475544-SEP9AC3F1SSMMMWH538A/DFV.png Recent Work - Discovering Opportunities - Focusing the Vision Like most start-ups, my client needed to focus. Every idea we had couldn’t make it to development. We need to ask the right questions to identify the best path forward. My goal was to help my client’s project team sell the vision to their business leaders and have productive discussions about the desirability, feasibility, and viability of the ideas. Desirability - Do they want this? We knew from our research and prototyping that our solutions filled a need and was appealing to users, but it was clear that some ideas were more desirable than others. Only the most desirable ideas made it into the final vision deck. Feasibility - Can we do this? How long will it take? A solution will only work if the team can build and maintain it. Building technology costs time and money, and sometimes we need to work with what we’ve got. Aligning on this now will result in better design decisions later. Viability - Should we do this? We want to ensure the design solution aligns with business goals and fits into budgets. This is where we want to encourage discussion about return on investment. Is the effort needed to execute this solution worth the potential payoff in desired outcome - be that monetary or some other measure? https://www.mollyapolis.com/work/incorporating-an-acquisition monthly 0.5 2022-03-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1643668660972-8NJ4KJWZSDHB23U8V18T/JourneyMaps.png Recent Work - Incorporating an Acquisition Image: Side-by-side journey maps showing the same task completed across both platforms https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1643673741397-WR24EI8YWKW243RWEBFD/Remote+co-design.png Recent Work - Incorporating an Acquisition - Co-Design Sessions With a clearer picture of the overall impact, it was time to talk to users. This client already had an engaged group of “superuser” representatives from across their customer base who had been recruited for their knowledge and experience within the industry. While these individuals did not represent an average user, there was a lot of collective wisdom in the group that we wanted to harness. To do so, I set up a series of remote co-design sessions with 4-5 user group members at a time. Co-design (also called participatory design) is the act of creating something with others to ensure the results meet their needs. Using a shared virtual whiteboard, we worked through a number of activities that helped us zero in on the biggest pain points, uncover opportunities for customers to see the value in the change, and collected a list of ideas that would make the transition easier. Image: Screen grab from one of my co-design sessions https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1643751792794-HY8FPQLIS38SINZ9ARE0/strategic-plan.png Recent Work - Incorporating an Acquisition Image: High-level steps identified for my client’s strategic transition plan https://www.mollyapolis.com/work/website-reset monthly 0.5 2022-02-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1642634333515-T4HCAZ58HWUJEB416W5M/journeys.png Recent Work - Website Reset - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1642642947833-FE991O3T7GIR7E0IQK6T/Content+Map.png Recent Work - Website Reset - Content Strategy For each section from the new site map, I collaborated with the client to document… Intended purpose The reason why this section exists. It’s usually centered around a user task. Value to user group/persona Explanation of what the user gets from their visit. This is the user need we are meeting. Points to consider Examination of the research in order to highlight the most relevant insights. Themes These generally come from brand messaging and positioning. Tools/Approaches If there are ideas for features or specific experiences we capture them here. Content Outline With everything above figured out, we identified the major content blocks and hierarchy of the section. Calls to Action This is what we want visitors to do next in order to continue their journey. We typically assign both primary and secondary CTAs. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1642715577662-CLCQJFIK0JPV48LA1MU7/Homepage+scroll.png Recent Work - Website Reset - Homepage Strategy My client’s existing website had been experiencing organic growth for a while, which was most apparent on the homepage. Multiple initiatives and priorities over the years had been awarded space on the homepage, and as a result, the page had grown quite long. By looking at the website’s analytics, it was clear that this lengthy homepage was not working well for visitors since 83% stopped scrolling before reaching the page’s mid point. I collaborated with my client to create a homepage strategy that prioritized access to the key pathways and a governance plan that would maintain the integrity of the homepage for years to come. Homepage Purpose The purpose of my client’s homepage was to set brand tone and provide access to key pathways. This was also where they would feature one product at a time, and communicate critical/urgent information when needed. Homepage Principles Express diversity, wellbeing and transformation Present a competent and credible organization with broad acceptance globally Position our products as being in support of our mission, not just because we have something to sell Inspire visitors with stories of positive outcomes https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1642788673459-28SZEN8PXVSBUHCVZNFE/Wireframes.png Recent Work - Website Reset - Wireframes My next step was to bring together the strategy and content outlines and begin to lay out the basic structure and features for the new webpages. Wireframes are the blueprints of the user experience. I keep them as basic as possible with simple shapes and little color because they’re intended to be quick and dirty for gathering rapid feedback. This initial visual expression of a website helped get my client’s team aligned behind a vision. Team members who had been quiet up until this point began to engage and show buy-in as the new website started to come to life. These wireframes were fashioned into a prototype and used to gather feedback from stakeholders, partners, and user group representatives. Validating our new strategies built up the team’s confidence and nurtured enthusiasm about the website. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1642443842461-CU7QTU92WEBNW18U8ALZ/how+we+think.png Recent Work - Website Reset https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1642443861418-7GCIM1IU8YP8ZP9MLRCM/how+we+behave.png Recent Work - Website Reset https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61df425d63deea2d4b9c4ee0/1642443875632-3I4LEVG8G2NPMER2DG7M/How+we+experience.png Recent Work - Website Reset