Next-gen Builder Experience

Rebuild the Core Editing Experience

Reprise's demo builder had become untenable: inconsistent patterns, confusing UX, codebase nobody wanted to touch. I led a principles-driven redesign of the entire editing experience, shipping 4+ interlocking systems with a smaller team.

The old editor was holding us back

Inconsistent interaction patterns, confusing IA, codebase that slowed eng down. Users couldn't figure things out, support tickets piled up.

Paving the way for plugins

A modular product architecture allowed us to serve customers with specialized functionality without introducing clutter and complexity across the entire customer base.

Opinionated simplification

No right sidebar. All element editing happens through a context menu on canvas, spawning dialogs above the work area. Less chrome, more focus.

Sections for flexible structure

Introduced Sections: ad-hoc groupings for product areas, chapters, whatever users needed. Full drag & drop in the Assets tab, mirrored in the left nav. Everything stays in sync.

Handing off to the future

At this point I had designed the extensible system and frameworks to manage the plugin variability. I handed this product area to another team member and AI functionality slotted in wonderfully.

Outcomes

Faster time-to-value for basic demos. Richer experiences for complex demos. Light mode default that customers loved. Modular architecture that made AI features easy to add later. "Figure-outable", users could self-serve.

• Default experience for all new customers
• Faster demo asset creation meant 3x TTV improvement
• Migrated most users in the first week of release