Role: Senior Product Designer | Timeline: July 2024 – Present | Company: Nextdoor | Platforms: Web + Native (iOS, Android)
Focus Areas:
Nextdoor is deeply rooted in real neighborhoods—and so are its advertisers. From small dog walking businesses to regional home service franchises, these advertisers don’t behave like typical digital marketers. Many are doing paid advertising for the first time, and their needs are as practical as they are emotional: clear value, local relevance, and a fast path to publish.
Since joining Nextdoor in July 2024, I’ve led multiple monetization projects across four major themes: improving the local ad creation journey, designing scalable templates for ad partnerships, evolving our self-serve flows, and experimenting with AI-generated ad copy.
While each of these threads had its own technical and strategic complexity, they shared one north star: help local advertisers feel confident, capable, and in control of their campaign success.
When I joined Nextdoor, the advertising system was built for enterprise clients. The experience was dense, fragmented, and inaccessible to the casual neighbors and small businesses that made up most of our community. Our tools worked functionally, but not behaviorally — and that was a massive design opportunity.
Nextdoor’s core business model relies on hyperlocal trust—but ads are not inherently trusted. We faced a nuanced challenge: unlock more value from monetized surfaces (like search and profile pages) without making the product feel like a generic ad network. Every design decision had to respect the fabric of real neighborhoods, while still driving real revenue growth.
Most of our advertisers were local service providers or micro, small and medium size business owners with limited ad creation experience. They were skeptical, budget-conscious, and often overwhelmed by too many options.
At the same time, executive pressure to accelerate revenue was growing—and we needed to find scalable ways to increase advertiser conversion, campaign effectiveness, and product clarity.
I treated this as a systems design problem. It wasn’t just about UI fixes—it was about rethinking the mental models, feedback loops, and onboarding architecture that shaped advertiser confidence and performance.
I was the lead designer across all monetization initiatives, responsible for strategy, systems, and execution. But more importantly, I saw my role as building a new internal language for how we approach monetization—especially for micro, small and medium businesses.
Rather than jumping into wireframes, I first focused on surfacing the real obstacles:
My mandate wasn’t to simply make things usable—it was to make ads feel like a natural extension of Nextdoor’s neighborhood value, not an interruption to it.
Across each initiative, I drove toward three guiding objectives:
To design effective monetization systems at scale, I began by reframing the question:
“Why aren’t local advertisers succeeding—not just completing the flow, but confidently publishing and seeing results they trust?”
This reframing shaped my approach to research. It wasn’t enough to look at drop-off metrics—we needed to interrogate the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral blockers embedded in the ad creation journey. I ran a multi-pronged discovery process grounded in:
I partnered with our data science team to break down completion rates across every step of the ad flow—segmented by advertiser type (e.g. SMBs vs. agencies), budget size, and region.
🔍 Insight: Over 60% of local advertisers dropped off after targeting or creative steps. Confusion and friction—not lack of intent—were the dominant drivers.
We also observed:
I ran qualitative interviews with 12 advertisers across the U.S., including first-time users and long-term customers. These conversations helped surface not just usability issues, but confidence gaps, mental model mismatches, and perceived risk.
💬 “I just want something that works. I don’t know how to ‘optimize a campaign.’ I fix plumbing.”
I synthesized these sessions into experience themes:
To pressure test our assumptions, I audited ad creation flows across:
I created a comparative UX breakdown of time-to-publish, terminology complexity, and clarity of value prop at each step. Most competitors leaned too far in one direction:
This helped us carve out our positioning:
✨ Nextdoor should feel like: “Local, guided, smart—but not prescriptive.”
I initiated cross-functional listening tours with Sales, Support, and Partnerships. These uncovered edge cases and recurring friction points:
This surfaced opportunities to build systems—not just UIs.
Finally, I consolidated all findings into 3 core advertiser archetypes—each with distinct motivations and tech fluency:
Each persona was mapped to a clear Job to Be Done, such as:
This discovery phase was not just about learning pain points—it was about aligning the business, product, and technical constraints around a shared customer truth. I used these insights to anchor cross-functional roadmapping, prioritize what to fix vs. what to rethink entirely, and build the foundation for design systems that could scale with confidence.
After synthesizing our research, it became clear that Nextdoor’s local ad experience wasn’t just “broken” — it was fundamentally misaligned with the mindset, mental models, and emotional needs of the advertisers we served.
Advertisers weren’t struggling because of one issue—they were facing friction across the entire funnel: from the language we used, to the decisions we asked them to make, to the lack of feedback once their ads went live.
So instead of treating this as a UI cleanup, I framed the work as a multi-surface experience architecture problem—one that required structural clarity, scalable systems, and emotionally intelligent interactions.
How might we create a monetization system that empowers local advertisers to launch, trust, and scale campaigns without needing to be marketers?
This problem statement became the north star for a series of focused design initiatives that all contributed to one larger ecosystem shift.
To bring clarity to the team and build alignment across product, marketing, and engineering, I codified a set of experience principles. These principles weren’t static—they evolved through internal roadshows, design crits, and feedback from sales and support. These became guardrails we returned to throughout the design process:
To make this actionable, I visualized the full advertiser journey as a lifecycle, not a one-time funnel:
At each stage, I mapped:
This led to four key opportunity areas that structured the roadmap:
This lifecycle lens helped shift the team from “shipping ad tools” to designing a long-term advertiser journey.
To ensure we were driving impact in ways that mattered, I helped define a dual-track success framework:
Behavioral Metrics
Perception Metrics
I built alignment around these KPIs early—so we weren’t optimizing for the wrong outcomes mid-flight.
The goal here wasn’t to launch features. It was to design a system of trust and guidance that could adapt to various advertiser types and scale across surfaces—search, profile pages, neighborhood feeds—without introducing friction. These opportunity areas gave our cross-functional team the clarity and constraints needed to move forward with intention.
With a clear system opportunity and validated pain points in hand, I moved into a structured ideation sprint to explore how we might reduce friction and increase advertiser confidence at each step of the ad journey.
But unlike traditional blue-sky brainstorming, my goal wasn’t just volume — it was designing leverage: repeatable, scalable UX mechanisms that could reduce effort while increasing perceived control and clarity.
I treated IA as a product risk mitigation tool — simplifying the user journey while preserving flexibility for power users. This version keeps the flow of the case study smooth and focuses on how structure shaped the experience.
I structured my exploration process into three phases:
I generated a wide range of divergent ideas through solo sketching, async team whiteboarding, and rapid-fire concept sprints. This included:
✍️ I framed this phase around interaction patterns, not pixel-perfect UIs — anchoring on user energy and task flow, not just aesthetic form.
I synthesized the ideas into themes:
These themes helped facilitate cross-functional prioritization and aligned engineering on feasibility tiers for each group.
I mapped each concept to its impact on friction points from research:
This allowed us to shift from “interesting ideas” to a directional roadmap, backed by evidence and cross-functional buy-in.
As part of our early monetization exploration at Nextdoor, we ran a collaborative brainstorming session to answer: “How might we engage our SMBs?” This FigJam board captures the ideas generated across six themes—ranging from in-product nudges and push notifications to ROI-driven insights and community-building tactics. It helped align cross-functional teams around high-impact opportunities to drive engagement and long-term revenue.
This flow illustrates how users encounter the mobile advertising experience for the first time versus returning visits. When a user lands on a business page through a mobile browser, they’re directed into the Ads Dashboard.
From there, all users move into the Quick Create (QC) flow, beginning with objective selection and progressing through ad creative, audience targeting, and review before launching. This design ensures both new and experienced advertisers follow a guided, structured process while minimizing confusion between empty and active states.
This flow breaks down how different advertiser types encounter campaign creation depending on their acquisition path and experience level. By mapping four representative user journeys, I was able to account for varying needs and reduce friction across the onboarding funnel:
By differentiating flows for each user type, the system balances onboarding simplicity for newcomers with workflow efficiency for experienced advertisers.
One of my key explorations at Nextdoor focused on helping local businesses amplify their reach by making it simple and approachable to boost organic posts into paid promotions.
For many small business owners, traditional ad managers feel overwhelming and overly complex. My challenge was to design a flow that felt native to Nextdoor’s posting experience, while still offering the right level of control over goals, audiences, and budgets.
Across several iterations, I explored different entry points (from an organic post, from within the boost flow itself, and from the business entity page), testing how context influenced confidence and usability. Each concept prioritized:
These explorations laid the groundwork for a more approachable self-serve ads experience, empowering neighborhood businesses to grow visibility without needing deep marketing expertise.
As part of my time at Nextdoor, I explored ways to make it easier for small businesses and local creators to reach their neighbors by seamlessly transitioning from an organic post to a boosted ad.
The flow was designed to feel natural within Nextdoor’s existing posting experience. After crafting a standard post, users were given the option to “boost” it—unlocking tools typically reserved for advertisers without requiring them to start from scratch.
Key elements of the exploration included:
This exploration was aimed at reducing friction for local business owners who may not be familiar with complex advertising tools, while giving them more control and visibility into how their promotions perform. It brought together organic posting and paid promotion into one cohesive experience, aligned with Nextdoor’s mission of helping neighbors and small businesses thrive.
After the initial exploration, I refined the “Boost Post” experience to make it cleaner, faster, and more actionable for small business owners.
The goal of this iteration was to reduce decision fatigue and help users quickly understand the value of promoting their posts without feeling like they were entering a complex ad manager.
Key improvements in this version:
This iteration focused on minimizing cognitive load and ensuring local businesses could set up a campaign in just a few taps. By shifting away from overly detailed controls, the flow stayed approachable, aligning with Nextdoor’s mission of supporting neighborhood businesses.
In addition to boosting from organic posts, I explored how small businesses could seamlessly promote their content directly from their business profile.
This entry point leveraged the business entity page as a central hub, allowing owners to manage their presence and promotions in one place.
Key considerations in this exploration:
This exploration tested the hypothesis that business owners may feel more confident boosting from their own profile—where they already manage brand content—rather than only from the consumer-facing feed.
While at Nextdoor, I led the design work for a partnership with Thumbtack to bring service provider ads directly into the Nextdoor ecosystem. The goal was to help neighbors quickly find trusted professionals while unlocking a new revenue stream through integrated ad placements.
I explored three core entry points where Thumbtack could add value within Nextdoor’s existing flows:
This work balanced the needs of neighbors seeking reliable services, local professionals looking for visibility, and Nextdoor’s broader monetization strategy.
As part of the Thumbtack partnership, I designed how service provider ads would appear directly within Nextdoor’s search results. The goal was to connect neighbors searching for local businesses—like plumbers, cleaners, or landscapers—with relevant, trusted professionals from Thumbtack.
Key design considerations included:
By embedding Thumbtack ads in search, we created a frictionless way for neighbors to discover professionals exactly at the moment of intent, while driving a new monetization channel for Nextdoor.
To expand the ways neighbors could discover trusted professionals, I designed a dedicated Hire a Pro experience powered by Thumbtack. This space gave service providers visibility in a native Nextdoor environment while seamlessly connecting neighbors to Thumbtack’s booking flow.
Key design elements:
This integration created a one-stop shop for hiring local pros on Nextdoor, reducing friction for neighbors and positioning Nextdoor as a trusted marketplace for services.
Neighbors often use Nextdoor posts to ask for service recommendations (e.g., “Looking for a good plumber in Noe”). While organic replies are valuable, these posts signal high-intent service needs—a key opportunity to surface Thumbtack providers.
I designed a Post to Search flow that automatically transitions a neighbor’s service-related post into a search experience with Thumbtack ads embedded.
Key design elements:
This approach leveraged natural user behavior—asking neighbors for advice—and turned it into a seamless pathway to finding trusted pros, benefiting neighbors, Thumbtack, and Nextdoor’s ad ecosystem.
To help small businesses advertise more effectively, I explored how generative AI could reduce friction in creating ad copy and imagery within Nextdoor Ads Manager (NAM). Many local advertisers lack the time, design resources, or confidence to produce compelling creative, so the challenge was to design a flow that felt supportive, approachable, and easy to control.
Key design elements:
This exploration showed how generative AI could act as a creative partner, helping local businesses move from blank canvas to polished ad in minutes—empowering them to advertise with the same confidence as larger brands.
With validated problem areas and a clear opportunity map, I moved quickly into prototyping to pressure test key hypotheses:
Rather than chasing pixel-perfect mocks, I built high-interaction, low-fidelity prototypes to simulate behavior, test tone, and assess comprehension. These allowed us to test direction, not polish — and saved time by validating concepts before deeper investment.
I created interactive card-based templates organized by business type (e.g. dog walking, landscaping, home repair), each pre-filled with default targeting and a sample CTA.
We explored integrating generative AI into the ad copy step using GPT-based models fine-tuned on our most successful campaigns.
Two key UX decisions:
Advertisers could tweak tone (friendly, professional, promotional) before committing. We embedded contextual nudges during setup — like:
These small moments of encouragement increased perceived quality and decreased “draft abandonment.”
These weren’t just usability tests — they were signal amplifiers. I used each round to tighten the feedback loop between product strategy, user behavior, and long-term platform health. My prototypes became shared artifacts across product, sales, and engineering — helping multiple teams visualize not just the interface, but the system shifts we were aiming to create.
After multiple rounds of iteration and validation, I led the refinement and rollout of a cohesive monetization system that empowered local advertisers to go from “I’m not sure how this works” to “I just launched my first campaign” — with confidence, speed, and clarity.
This was not just a visual overhaul — it was a systemic rethink of how we frame ad creation across surfaces. We built new entry points, scaffolding mechanisms, trust cues, and AI integrations into a seamless journey that respected the user’s time, context, and confidence level.
Ad Templates & Recipes
Our rollout of the new monetization experience wasn’t just well-received—it meaningfully shifted both business and user outcomes.
I partnered with product and data science teams to track short- and long-term indicators that reflected advertiser success, experience quality, and platform monetization growth.
Beyond the product UI, this work helped establish a new framework for how Nextdoor builds trust-first monetization systems:
I didn’t just design interfaces—I created a foundation. These systems are still evolving across teams, and the core experience principles have been adopted into the broader monetization design strategy.
This project reminded me that good design isn’t just usable—it’s reassuring. Our advertisers weren’t asking for more features. They were asking for a system they could trust.
This project deepened my belief that designing for trust at scale requires more than usability. It demands systems that guide, support, and evolve with your user—especially when they’re putting their money on the line.
