This project delivered a consumer-facing billing platform that made it easier for people to access and pay bills online. It increased payment volume, improved conversion and retention, generated $500K in new ARR within eight months, and enabled DAKCS to enter new market verticals for the first time in 40 years.
I joined DAKCS as the company’s first UX Designer with a mission to establish UX as a strategic pillar of the organization. DAKCS was a 40-year-old software company with a mature Accounts Receivable product suite and limited design maturity. My early work focused on embedding design thinking into product and leadership decisions, elevating how products were defined and prioritized. As UX became integral to product strategy, the team grew to three designers—creating the foundation for the initiative that followed.
The products at DAKCS were built for a very niche industry that was shrinking quickly due to consolidation, low margins, and increasing complexity. The software was still valuable to existing customers, but future growth was becoming less certain. At the same time, the company was understandably hesitant to chase new markets or take on large, risky bets. The challenge for the UX & Strategy team was to find a realistic way to expand—opening up new opportunities while using as little time, budget, and engineering effort as possible.
We began without a predetermined solution. As a small discovery team we spoke with 50+ DAKCS customers and other business owners to understand where their industries were headed, what concerned them, and what felt broken in their work. Interviews were recorded and systematically analyzed so patterns could be identified across conversations, not just from the most vocal customers. We focused on isolating root problems rather than surface complaints, then evaluated potential opportunities using lightweight prioritization models. This process narrowed a broad set of possibilities down to a small number of viable directions and clarified what was worth building next.
After thoroguh Discovery and market research, we built a modern billing platform that addressed the biggest pain points for both consumers and billing teams. It made accessing and paying bills online simple and secure, removed common obstacles like reference numbers and passwords, and automated follow-ups to reduce unpaid invoices. The platform also created opportunities for DAKCS to enter new markets with minimal disruption to existing products. By focusing on the problems customers were already experiencing and streamlining key workflows, we delivered a solution that was immediately useful and strategically meaningful for the company.
The billing platform made it easy for consumers to access and pay their bills online, which boosted payment volume, improved sign-in rates, and reduced manual work for billing teams. It also improved customer retention, opened new market opportunities for DAKCS, and showed how UX could directly impact both product performance and business growth.
