Proving UX Was a Revenue Lever, Not a Cost Center, at Blackboard

Situation

Early in my career, at an EdTech company that treated design as decoration. I had to prove it drove revenue, and the only way to do that was numbers.

What I Built

Deployed 84 mobile applications across ParentLink, the school-to-parent communication platform, increasing usage 14% year-over-year and contributing directly to the company's eventual acquisition.
An administrator dashboard and approvals workflow, designed and launched to remove friction from a process that had been quietly driving customers away, boosting repeat customer rate by 30%.
An A/B testing and feedback loop program, the first systematic one the product had, raising customer satisfaction 93% by replacing guesswork with evidence.
UX and engagement improvements that drove a 64% year-over-year increase in product sales, the number that ended the debate about whether design investment paid for itself.
Analysis and design work on ITSM and ITIL implementation for small-to-medium-sized businesses, applying IT service management practice to a market segment that rarely got it.

Design moved from a finishing touch to the metric that ended the funding debate: 64% YoY sales growth.

The Hardest Problem

Getting a sales-driven organization to fund design work before there was any proof it would pay off. The only way through was shipping something small, measuring it honestly, and letting the repeat customer and satisfaction numbers argue the case. A slide deck never could have.

Outcome

Sales grew 64% year over year. Customer satisfaction climbed 93%. Repeat customer rate rose 30%. The mobile app portfolio grew to 84 deployed applications and became part of the story that led to the company's acquisition.

Skills Demonstrated

UX strategy tied to revenue outcomes, product management, A/B testing and experimentation, enterprise EdTech, ITSM and ITIL implementation, design advocacy backed by data.