How opportunity trees led to a contract comparison tool and an app's first 1,000 subscribers
PRODUCT STRATEGY
CUSTOMER DISCOVERY
UX RESEARCH
tldr
I built and deployed the strategy for customer dicovery which led to a more informed product roadmap and the development of the Utility Contract Comparison Toolkit.
1k+
APP SUBSCRIBERS
Surpassed the brand’s goal of 1k subscribers by the end of 2024
9x
USABILITY IMPROVEMENTS
Significant improvements to app flow, usability, and new product features
+1
PRODUCT TOOLKIT
Contributed to a new product feature that led to 1k+ new users
01
—
Speak the language.
Get buy-in.
WHEN I JOINED the project, Jotson was in the early stages of validating its market fit. The CEO and COO had assumptions about their target audience, but had no structured way to test and validate these hypotheses.
To manage expectations, I developed a customer discovery roadmap and presented it in a format that’s already familiar to leadership.
Company building
Customer creation
Customer validation
Customer discovery
My focus was in discovery and validation. I worked closely with the leads to define who their users are, their problems, and what possible outcomes they seek.
02
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Narrow the focus with opportunity trees
To prove if those outcomes are true and to understand what product capabilities would enable those outcomes I built opportunity trees to map out:
User outcomes – What are they trying to achieve?
Behaviors & actions – What actions do they take to reach their goals?
Product interventions – How can the app support these behaviors?
💡
This framework gave a clear mental model for leadership.
03
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Maximize research efforts even with modest means
Given budget constraints, I proposed a lean research strategy using:
Backyard FGT (Focus Group Testing) – Reached out to friends & family for initial user insights
Roadshows & field research – On-site interviews in Canmore, a community already transitioning to carbon-zero
User interviews - Invited and interviewed early access users
Between December 2023 to mid-2024, we ran a structured qualitative research study.
SHELDON MANABAT
SR. SOFTWARE DEVELOPER, JOTSON
At Jotson, Trace made a lasting impact across multiple fronts. She was instrumental in our product design efforts—collaborating closely with Michelle, our in-house designer, to deliver a clean and scalable design system that made development smooth and efficient.
Her customer discovery work—designing and administering surveys—helped us better understand our users and informed our roadmap in meaningful ways. She also has a fantastic visual sensibility and brought real polish to our product through her thoughtful approach to iconography and visual design. Her ability to balance design thinking with practical execution made her contributions incredibly valuable from both a product and engineering perspective.
Total Energy
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Analytics
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4,363
Total cost of fuel, electricity, and natural gas.
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364
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HQ
Analytics
Vehicles
Property
04
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Key insights & design implications
1. Legibility & data visualization Issues
Older users increased font sizes on their phones, causing data visualizations to break and run off-screen
We addressed the aspect ratios issues and set the font to fixed sizes to preserve readability
2. Carbon footprint confusion
Users didn’t understand if their carbon footprint score was “good” or “bad”
We introduced benchmarks to provide clearer insights
3. Cost savings as the primary driver
Unsurprising, users cared most about how much money they could save
This led to the contract comparison tool, a feature that helped users find the most cost-effective energy plan
05
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Impact & measurable outcomes
Given budget constraints, I proposed a lean research strategy using:
The customer discovery roadmap became an ongoing reference for product planning
Prioritized usability fixes improved user experience
Jotson gained clarity on user motivations, leading to the contract comparison tool
Between December 2023 to mid-2024, we ran a structured qualitative research study.
What I learned
This project reinforced how presenting information in a language already familiar to your decision makers help with getting buy-in.
Even with a mature team, there is still a tendency to default to personal opinions and gut feel when deciding on which product feature to develop.
A strong, objective framework can help democratize the decision-making. Specifically, it allowed me to demonstrate how:
Opportunity trees are powerful alignment tools that help bridge business strategy with user needs
Qualitative research can be effective, even without a big budget
User motivations can define more than one type of product feature.
The resource articles feature were not as engaging as originally hoped but with the combination of a data-rich contract comparison tool, the resource articles now provided contextual support for users.
SHOUTOUTS TO—
Michelle Walstra - For being an amazing copilot! For jumping in to the deep end while the project was already more thank halfway through. For bringing her deep UX insights and enriching our research and making it even more impactful.
Mark Little - For doing the heavy work of being the face of the brand and leading the much needed field work in Canmore and all over Alberta. For supporting the CDR work and recognizing the value user research brings to the product. For being a truly down-to-earth nice guy!
Remus Lacatus - For being an amazing client, manager, and all around good human. For recognizing the role of design and where good design offers value in the product. For holding space for different perspectives and nurturing it to the benefit of the team and to the product.
