DUO MOBILE AS TRUSTED
Streamlined security flows → 90% customer adoption
Reduced complex remediation process by 50% and prevented enterprise churn.
Why this project?
Duo Mobile as Trusted (DMAT) was causing customer churn. Complex remediation flows overwhelmed help desks and frustrated end users, leading to subscription downgrades and lost revenue. With DMAT being critical to Duo's broader Zero Trust strategy, we needed to solve this customer retention crisis while making the feature easier for sales teams to sell.
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What I did
Led cross-functional redesign as project manager and IC, mentoring 2 junior designers while planning and conducting user research. Streamlined remediation processes by 50% and boosted feature adoption from 80% to over 90% with key enterprise customers.
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Impact delivered
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Increased adoption from 80% to 90%+ with 6 key customers
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Reduced user flows from 6 to 3 (50% complexity reduction)
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Decreased help desk burden and improved customer confidence
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Informed broader Zero Trust product strategy
Role
Senior Product Designer, Design Lead
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Duration
14 weeks
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Team
In-house product design team
2 Jr. Product Designers, Product Management, Engineering​​
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Deliverables
Creative Brief
Research findings doc
User flows & wireframes
Prototype
Mockups
Design documentation
Phab Stories/Tasks
The problem: When security becomes a customer retention risk
Duo Mobile as Trusted (DMAT) ensures employee phones meet security policies before accessing work resources. In theory, it's seamless. In reality, it was driving customers away.
Lee, an Acme Corporation employee, stops at a coffee shop to catch up on work. She needs to access her files on Box.
In a perfect world: Lee signs in → DMAT runs a trust check → She gets access
In our reality: Lee's phone fails the trust check → She's blocked → Must contact help desk → And this is where customer heartburn begins
Help desk teams had to navigate complex flows and edge cases across multiple operating systems. Meanwhile, Lee still can't get to her work.
The business impact was clear
The complexity was killing us:
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Android and iOS users each had separate flows
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Help desks were overwhelmed servicing these issues
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Customers were losing confidence in the product
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Subscription downgrades = lost business
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Sales teams struggled to sell the feature
Root cause: Help desk agents had to ask "Does Lee have an iPhone or Android?" and then from there, figure out complex remediation paths. End users felt stuck without understanding what was happening behind the scenes.
This wasn't just a UX problem—it was a customer experience crisis affecting our business model.
Activities & outputs
Stakeholder interviews, Identify business goals, Research user needs, Define scope, Write Creative Brief
A strategic path from complexity to confidence
Recognizing this fit into Duo's larger Zero Trust strategy, I reframed the challenge from a feature problem to a business problem:
How might we reduce complexity so we can regain confidence and drive adoption?
As Duo moved toward a Zero Trust business model, this project needed to create something cohesive for sales teams and easily digestible by customers.
Driving the shift from features to metrics
When our team got stuck debating details, I shifted our focus to outcomes that mattered to the business. Rather than getting mired in interface elements, for example, we aligned on what success would actually look like:
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Success metrics I established:
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Support ticket volume - Fewer tickets means users are getting to their work instead of calling for help
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Average resolution time - When help desk is contacted, faster resolution benefits both end users and support teams
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First-contact resolution rate - No escalation to tier 2 or 3 means help desk is solving issues efficiently
Why this worked: This pivot transformed our relationship with Engineering from transactional ("build what design says") to collaborative ("solve the business problem together"). We were now driving toward shared goals instead of defending our own turf.
Activities & outputs
Collaborative workshops, Stakeholder alignment, Define success metrics, Create project roadmap
Collaboration and research helped us reach consensus
I planned and led collaborative workshops to map existing user flows and edge cases. Starting on whiteboards, I quickly moved us to Miro to include our Ann Arbor Engineering team. These sessions brought us to consensus on the core problems.
What we discovered: Multiple redundant steps, plenty of edge cases, unclear messaging, and trust check processes that weren't transparent to users. But most importantly, we identified the business cost of this complexity.
Choosing how deep to pull the weed
Our forensics revealed the problem, but we faced a classic strategic decision with engineering constraints: quick wins with faster implementation versus rebuilding from scratch with high time costs. My recommendation was to find a middle ground between the two.
Strategic simplification: By focusing on our success metrics rather than perfect technical solutions, we could achieve meaningful business impact within realistic constraints.
The result: This approach led us to the "happy path" solution that reduced complexity by 50% while staying within engineering feasibility.
Research was an opportunity to also lead and mentor
I planned and led user testing on our prototypes while turning it into a teaching moment for junior designers who were new to research. I guided them through the strategic aspects rather than treating it as a methodical exercise:
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Research approach:
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Created separate iOS/Android prototypes based on user's device
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Recruited 10 participants through product management partnerships (end users, help desk, admins)
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Focused testing on our success metrics: perceived complexity, time on task, content clarity
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Had junior designers take notes while Engineering observed to demystify the process
Key insight from testing: Users don't care about our product at all—they just want to get to their work. Our success should be measured by invisibility, not engagement.
Activities & outputs
Cross-functional workshops, User flow mapping, Prototyping, User research, Synthesis & insights
Becoming invisible by design
The ultimate realization: This wasn't going to be a flashy solution with beautiful screens. Success would be the opposite—a flow so seamless it feels nearly invisible to users.
The two moments DMAT reveals itself
Moment 1
Progress indicator during trust check (so users don't think they're stuck)
Moment 2
Simple instruction for next steps (due to iOS technical limitations)
Refining for brevity and clarity
Based on research findings, we shifted from long-form text to intuitive icon-and-text combinations. When users hit blocks, messaging became clear and actionable, guiding them toward the right next step.
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All refinements were documented in a content matrix for consistency and future reference.
Activities & outputs
Wireframes, High-fidelity designs, Content and design documentation
Adoption by 6 key customers led to full market rollout and +10% customer adoption overall
Field feedback confirmed success:
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Help desk burden decreased significantly
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New flow resolved prior complexity, making remediation easier
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Adoption improved and customer retention strengthened
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Customers felt more confident rolling out the feature
What we learned defined what came next
Insights from this project informed our broader Zero Trust strategy:
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Prioritizing simplicity in technology decisions
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Integrating visual cues and assistive guidance across products
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Making content actionable throughout the product suite
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Embedding help directly in user flows
Key lesson: Design decisions impact adjacent teams, company operations, and long-term strategy. Simplification processes could be applied across other teams and products.
Activities & outputs
Performance tracking, Stakeholder feedback, Post-launch analysis, Strategic recommendations
Reflection:
Building trust through collaboration
What worked
Research was key to staying on track. The positive impact after launch reinforced our approach, and working relationships with Engineering and Product Management partners made us more effective in future projects.
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What I'd do differently
I would have addressed Engineering collaboration challenges earlier. Despite smooth kickoffs, Engineering wasn't used to working with designers and initially viewed us as interlopers with a transactional relationship.
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The solution: We proved our worth through meticulous project management, documentation, and full transparency in our process. By listening to and respecting their suggestions, we built rapport and mutual understanding that their job isn't to "accept" our suggestions any more than ours is to accept theirs.
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This project delivered visible business-aligned results and set the foundation for our feature team to develop several more products, including Duo Desktop.
Next up : Verta Prime Case Study