MCAFEE VPN

Using AI to turn generic upsells into helpful recommendations that actually convert

Overview

McAfee's VPN is one of many security tools, often bundled in protection plans. Over time, the tool had fallen behind as updates rolled out to newer products, and was not being maintained by a dedicated team.

To address long-standing pain points and it's outdated MVP, I assisted with early research, feature planning, and end-to-end designs.

With Susanna Huang, Nina Wang, Jeffrey Jose & Jen Barrell.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Design Documentation Component Creation

Prototyping

Workshop Facilitator

TIMELINE

Nov — Jan 2024

TOOLS

Figma + Figjam

PROBLEM

Taxes are already complicated, picking a product shouldn't be

PROBLEM

Instead of raising prices to hit revenue goals, TurboTax needed a smarter (and less lazy) strategy to appeal to customers

SOLUTION

Using AI to filter messaging based on peoples tax situations, we can support their most needed benefits, instead of one-size-fits-all marketing

PROBLEM

Raising the price would hit revenue goals, but doesn't work long-term

Customers are price sensitive and tired of broad messaging

In the past, TurboTax relied on price increases to meet revenue goals, applying generalized discount offers and peak deadline prices.

These approaches, while simple to implement, fail to account for key factors such as customer price sensitivity, price elasticity, and willingness to pay, potentially leaving revenue on the table or adversely affecting conversion.

Everyones taxes are unique, so how can we appeal to them as an individual?

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor.

Content and value is confusing - what does the plan offer?
Unreadable - accessibility, formatting
appear in unideal times
Lack a scalable system (they are all different and inconsistent)

bUSINESS CONTEXT

AI tells us who we're targeting and when to do it. Then AI filters users into groups for us, our job is to design pages that appeal to those people.

How do you visualize something that you can't prove?

Unlike security software that shows what dangers they stopped, VPNs work by making you invisible to threats, making it difficult to show their value.

Without a clear purpose, we saw a decline in users renewing their VPN subscription

Current VPN design

Current VPN design

PROBLEM

The paths to upgrade aren't clear, so we added persistent, new verbiage, and a better side panel comp chart

How do you visualize something that you can't prove?

Unlike security software that shows what dangers they stopped, VPNs work by making you invisible to threats, making it difficult to show their value.

Without a clear purpose, we saw a decline in users renewing their VPN subscription

PROBLEM

New users struggled to understand what a VPN does, and when to use it.

How do you visualize something that you can't prove?

Unlike security software that shows what dangers they stopped, VPNs work by making you invisible to threats, making it difficult to show their value.

Without a clear purpose, we saw a decline in users renewing their VPN subscription

"It says that it's on, but how do I know it's working? What is it even protecting me from?"

400+ people agree with this

OPPORTUNITTY

We need to better communicate how our VPN is protecting the users privacy → contextual to when they use it.

LONG TERM GOAL

We hypothesize that with proper context, users will instinctively

activate their VPN when a network feels unsafe

→

"This airport WI-FI seems sketchy,

I should turn on my VPN just in case"

PROBLEM

New users struggled to understand what a VPN does, and when to use it.

This is statement number 3

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

This is statement number 3

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

This is statement number 3

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

This is statement number 3

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

PROBLEM

New users struggled to understand what a VPN does, and when to use it.

How do you visualize something that you can't prove?

Unlike security software that shows what dangers they stopped, VPNs work by making you invisible to threats, making it difficult to show their value.

Image |

Current VPN design

This is statement number 1

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

This is statement number 2

Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.

This is statement number 3

Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Unlike security software that shows what dangers they stopped, VPNs work by making you invisible to threats, making it difficult to show value.

Going further

Side quest—Let's not make accessibility an afterthought

1/3

New users struggled to understand what a VPN does, and when to use it.

Unlike security software that shows what dangers they stopped, VPNs work by making you invisible to threats, making it difficult to show their value. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur.

2/3

New users struggled to understand what a VPN does, and when to use it.

3/3

New users struggled to understand what a VPN does, and when to use it.

REFLECTION

Despite the internal hype, priorities changed and the revamp was shelved. But my learnings shipped.

Everyone hates reading, but they love conversations.

Balancing what we as a business want users to know V.S what a user actually wants to know is a difficult line. This project helped me learn how to use metaphors on boring language into legible content.

Sketching is for starting discussions, not beauty contests.

I typically jump into higher fidelity, but if I need to align a team on layout and abstract concepts, I’m now confident in running a workshop to rapid-fire ideas and align stakeholders from other teams.

Up next

Teaching Slack your work lingo

Up next

Teaching Slack your work lingo

Up next

Teaching Slack your work lingo

Reading this was a test. You passed ツ

MCAFEE VPN

Using AI to turn generic upsells into helpful recommendations that actually convert

Overview

CONTRIBUTIONS

TIMELINE

TOOLS

PROBLEM

Taxes are already complicated, picking a product shouldn't be

PROBLEM

Instead of raising prices to hit revenue goals, TurboTax needed a smarter (and less lazy) strategy to appeal to customers

SOLUTION

Using AI to filter messaging based on peoples tax situations, we can support their most needed benefits, instead of one-size-fits-all marketing

PROBLEM

Raising the price would hit revenue goals, but doesn't work long-term

Customers are price sensitive and tired of broad messaging

Customers are price sensitive and tired of broad messaging

Everyones taxes are unique, so how can we appeal to them as an individual?

Everyones taxes are unique, so how can we appeal to them as an individual?

Content and value is confusing - what does the plan offer?Unreadable - accessibility, formattingappear in unideal timesLack a scalable system (they are all different and inconsistent)

Content and value is confusing - what does the plan offer?Unreadable - accessibility, formattingappear in unideal timesLack a scalable system (they are all different and inconsistent)

bUSINESS CONTEXT

AI tells us who we're targeting and when to do it. Then AI filters users into groups for us, our job is to design pages that appeal to those people.

How do you visualize something that you can't prove?

How do you visualize something that you can't prove?

PROBLEM

The paths to upgrade aren't clear, so we added persistent, new verbiage, and a better side panel comp chart

How do you visualize something that you can't prove?

How do you visualize something that you can't prove?

PROBLEM

New users struggled to understand what a VPN does, and when to use it.

How do you visualize something that you can't prove?

How do you visualize something that you can't prove?

OPPORTUNITTY

We need to better communicate how our VPN is protecting the users privacy → contextual to when they use it.

LONG TERM GOAL

PROBLEM

New users struggled to understand what a VPN does, and when to use it.

PROBLEM

New users struggled to understand what a VPN does, and when to use it.

How do you visualize something that you can't prove?

How do you visualize something that you can't prove?

This is statement number 1

This is statement number 1

This is statement number 2

This is statement number 2

This is statement number 3

This is statement number 3

Going further

Side quest—Let's not make accessibility an afterthought

1/3

New users struggled to understand what a VPN does, and when to use it.

2/3

New users struggled to understand what a VPN does, and when to use it.

3/3

New users struggled to understand what a VPN does, and when to use it.

REFLECTION

Despite the internal hype, priorities changed and the revamp was shelved. But my learnings shipped.

Everyone hates reading, but they love conversations.

Balancing what we as a business want users to know V.S what a user actually wants to know is a difficult line. This project helped me learn how to use metaphors on boring language into legible content.

Sketching is for starting discussions, not beauty contests.

I typically jump into higher fidelity, but if I need to align a team on layout and abstract concepts, I’m now confident in running a workshop to rapid-fire ideas and align stakeholders from other teams.

Up next

Teaching Slack your work lingo

Up next

Teaching Slack your work lingo

Up next

Teaching Slack your work lingo

Content and value is confusing - what does the plan offer?
Unreadable - accessibility, formatting
appear in unideal times
Lack a scalable system (they are all different and inconsistent)

Content and value is confusing - what does the plan offer?
Unreadable - accessibility, formatting
appear in unideal times
Lack a scalable system (they are all different and inconsistent)