MVP built in 3 months.
Sharpened by data.
Designed Yeti's 0→1 freemium tier for a field service platform serving 35,000+ snow and lawn care businesses, reimagined how legacy SaaS acquire new users.
Background
The Company ↗
Yeti powers 35,000+ field ops teams across North America, streamlining the heavy lifting of snow removal and landscaping management.
The Problem
Product access was locked behind a mandatory one-hour sales demo. For busy SMB owners, this was a massive friction point — most dropped off before ever seeing the interface.
The Constraint
I had three months to launch the MVP as the sole designer, with zero budget for primary research. Every design choice had to be lean, buildable, and driven by existing team insights.
The Users
User 01
The New Prospect
Small business owners evaluating software between seasons. Won't commit to a sales call before seeing the product — they need to explore on their own terms.
User 02
The Subcontractor
Operators already working within a Yeti-powered company with limited access. The free tier gives them a foothold to manage their own jobs — with a natural path to upgrade.
What they share / What's different
Common Ground
Time-poor, skeptical of software overhead, making decisions for a business. They need to see value before they trust.
Different Needs
The prospect needs a reason to start. The subcontractor needs room to grow and convert.
Approach
I led the end-to-end design process, defining product strategy through to final execution. Post-launch, I utilized internal hallway testing and Amplitude analytics to continuously iterate based on real user behavior.
Research
Competitive analysis of freemium structures in field service and adjacent B2B tools. Hallway testing with internal stakeholders to pressure-test assumptions.
Design
Onboarding flow, usage-based limit system, upgrade path — all designed from scratch within an existing design system that I also maintained.
Iteration
Post-launch, used Amplitude to identify drop-off points and friction in the upgrade flow. Iterated from a 6-step to 2-step upgrade path based on data.
Design
Fig 1: Onboarding modal flow highlighting crucial steps leading users to generate first SHR (Service History Report)
Key Decisions
Three decisions defined the shape of this product. Each one had real tradeoffs.
Decision 01
Usage-based limits, not time-based
Field service businesses think in storms and seasons. A 30-day trial expires before they see real value. Usage-based limits meant the free tier worked on their schedule, and let sub-contractors (mainly snow SMBs) evaluate during summer downtime, ready when the season hit.
Decision 02
Modals over a setup checklist
60–70% of signing up are brand new users to the product. A checklist/dashboard does not deliver narrative quickly. Given resources on hand, I chose modals to deliver guidance upfront, serving needs for both user groups. For subcontractors already familiar with the platform, the AI chatbot served as a lightweight support layer — answering edge-case questions without routing them to a sales rep.
Decision 03
Upgrade and payment path: 6 steps → 2
After launch our support team received many calls regarding payment. I spotted the issue from our legacy payment system and cut the flow from 6 to 2 steps. Support call volume dropped meaningfully after.
Results
Launched June 2025. These numbers are from September, 3 months after launch:
149
Signups in September
(3× baseline)
30%
Free-to-paid
conversion rate
10
Fully self-serve
conversions
+23%
MRR growth
post-launch
Reflections
What I'd do differently
I'd push harder for more structured user research before launch — hallway testing was scrappy by necessity, and some of the friction we caught post-launch with Amplitude could have been caught earlier with even light usability sessions with real customers.
Taking Full Ownership
This was my first time owning a project end-to-end. Beyond design, I had to work across departments — engineering, product, and support — navigating each team's priorities while keeping the user experience coherent.