CASE STUDY

Establishing the AI Baseline: Understanding Customers and Competitors

Project Summary

As part of Dell’s emerging AI strategy, I led an initiative to better understand both the competitive AI solutions landscape and customer perceptions around AI. This foundational work shaped the content strategy and experience of a new AI landing page. While managing an external design agency executing a quick-turn page launch, I concurrently led deep research efforts intended to inform long-term AI experience investments and be repeated annually.

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My Role

  • Led a team of 2 designers

  • Directed and coordinated research across multiple business units

  • Managed a third-party agency delivering the MVP landing page

  • Aligned cross-functional stakeholders across design, product, engineering, and marketing

THE CHALLENGE

Standing up a new team while simultaneously managing an agency partner — all within a landscape where AI ownership was distributed and fast-evolving. I had to define each group’s role, ensure strategic alignment to yearly business goals, and establish a clear working model between internal design and the agency.

STRATEGIC APPROACH

Discovery & Research

  • Launched a dual-track process: agency moved forward with Discovery + Framing for the MVP landing page, while my team began deep foundational research

  • Conducted competitive analysis of 15+ enterprise AI solution providers

  • Facilitated stakeholder interviews to understand gaps in internal knowledge about customer perceptions

  • Developed a framework to assess the evolution of AI expectations across time (baseline + future-state)

Strategy Definition

Computer screen with research data in the background and a light bulb in the foreground

  • Positioned our research as a strategic input for all future AI GTM and web initiatives

  • Aligned research findings to business goals: help customers understand Dell’s differentiators in AI, reduce bounce on AI pages, and increase qualified engagement

  • Defined a phased research approach to repeat annually, allowing us to measure shifts in customer understanding over time

Cross-functional Leadership

Icon of three people standing together, symbolizing unity or teamwork.

  • Unified a fragmented set of stakeholders (across product, marketing, and design) around a shared customer understanding

  • Embedded human-centered design into strategic planning processes

  • Set up operational rhythms and frameworks for internal and agency collaboration, ensuring continuity and transparency

Research Plan

Define research goals & objectives

1

Communicate cross-collaborative approach

2

Specify research methodologies & artifacts

3

Create a timeline

4

OUTCOMES AND BUSINESS IMPACT

  • Strategic Alignment: Enabled internal teams to align future AI investments with a customer-informed roadmap

  • Agency Partnership Success: Delivered the first AI landing page MVP while ensuring it was grounded in real insights

  • Scalable Research Model: Established a repeatable research practice to track changes in the AI landscape over time

  • Organizational Unity: Reduced misalignment between teams by facilitating shared insights and decision frameworks

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REFLECTIONS & LESSONS LEARNED

This work reinforced that human-centered design isn’t just a method — it’s a vehicle for aligning complex orgs around a common vision. I had to drive both strategy and execution in parallel, influencing without authority while advocating for the customer. Balancing long-term research and short-term delivery sharpened my ability to prioritize ruthlessly, establish trust, and lead with clarity in a shifting landscape.

This momentum carried forward into my work with the AI Strategy team, where I continued to define processes, scale foundational research, and embed design leadership into long-range planning.