Variations: designing a faster way to scale approved creative

My role: Lead designer
Responsibilities: Discovery, research & interviews, wireframing, design system, user stories
Collaborators: Customer team, SLT, engineering, production, PMs, product marketing
Timeline: 10 months

Overview

Scaling creative used to mean restarting the whole project process from the brief.

I led the design of a new flow that lets users create variations from approved creative — reducing friction, simplifying workflows, and now accounting for around 30% of all platform output.

The variations flow: a dark project view with a set of approved creative deliverables selected for variation. — Creating a variation.

The problem

Our customers needed a faster way to scale content once creative had been approved, but the platform only supported full project creation through the original brief flow. Teams had to restart the entire process just to make small format or copy changes — slowing turnaround and increasing manual work for internal teams.

Goal

Make it easier and quicker for marketing teams to request variations of their approved creative without having to navigate a new brief.

Discovery & flow mapping

I started by speaking with:

Customers — to understand how they currently made variations
Internal production — to uncover friction in managing new formats or edits
Customer teams — to refine naming and language in the flow

I broke the experience into clear user actions: how users enter the flow, what internal vs. external users see, how variations are reviewed and approved, and how users add or scale formats.

Research notes and screenshots showing customer requests for minor changes to old projects submitted as new briefs. — Research showing customer asks — minor changes to old projects, submitted as new briefs.

Process & approach

I was essentially designing for two key use cases:

Requesting variations of approved creative
Scaling a concept into new formats — different ratios, durations or platforms

Due to concerns around impact on the production team, I split the process. Customers could either create variations of approved assets, or scale approved assets into new formats. Not both at once.

A set of annotated user flow diagrams mapping the routes through the variation process, with notes in red. — Mapping user flows.

Wireframe sheets working through terminology and layout for each step of the flow. — Defining terminology.

Key design moves

Modular entry point — users could start from either approved creative or a brief
Terminology alignment — collaborated with CX and production to refine copy for clarity
Progressive disclosure — showed relevant options only at key moments, to reduce cognitive overload
Dev-ready flows — delivered clearly labelled Figma files plus short walkthrough videos to align stakeholders across the business

A modal headed “Order Variation” offering two routes: order a deliverable in a new ratio, or re-order an existing deliverable with a copy or asset variation. — Early exploration of entering the variation flow.

The variations interface with several approved deliverables selected and an add-variations action. — Creating variations.

The scaling interface showing existing deliverables alongside empty format slots being added to reach a wider audience. — Scaling with new formats.

Outcomes

Successfully launched the new Variations flow
Now accounts for around 30% of all deliverables through the platform
Reduced friction for clients and improved handoff to production
Built alignment across PM, engineering, customer success, and production
Provided a new foundation for scaling future features

“It’s amazing because I can’t imagine how tedious it would have been to keep submitting a brand new brief. If you took that away I would riot.”

Marketing lead, global food brand (North America)

Reflection

This project showed the value of clarity — not just in UI, but in process. By aligning early with stakeholders, breaking the experience into logical steps, and reducing ambiguity in copy and flow, we launched something simple, scalable, and genuinely impactful.

Next steps

I’ve been working on enhancements to the variation flow as a key part of the delivery, review and revise flow since launch. We’ve just released a big update that solves one of our initial challenges — allowing users to create a variation and scale at the same time.

The updated interface allowing a user to create a variation and scale into new formats in a single pass. — Latest scaling update — create a variation and scale with new formats.