Michael Ajala

UX Designer || Researcher

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Michael Ajala

UX Designer || Researcher

Home

Portfolio

About

Say Hello

Michael Ajala

UX Designer || Researcher

Home

Portfolio

About

Say Hello

Michael Ajala

UX Designer || Researcher

SI Fuse

Transparent Funding Progress & Investor Confidence

Project Duration

8 months (2024)


Services Provided

User Experience Design, Research, User Interface Design, Interaction design, Prototype


Background/Overview


In 2024, I led the end-to-end design of SiFuse, a platform that standardizes how startups communicate progress and how investors evaluate it. The problem space was dominated by scattered spreadsheets, pitch decks, and email updates - making diligence slow, comparisons inconsistent, and “commitments” ambiguous. Our goal was a centralized, founder-friendly system that (1) structures traction signals, (2) clarifies capital pipeline status, and (3) gives investors a trustworthy, comparable view across companies and cohorts.


Understanding the Problem Space

To ground the solution, I combined founder and investor interviews, workflow observation, and competitive analysis.

Here’s what stood out:

Founders spent disproportionate time crafting bespoke updates and answering repeat questions; data drifted across tools, causing mismatched numbers over time.

  • Investors lacked a standard lens to compare startups; “traction” often mixed vanity metrics with signals that weren’t decision-useful.

  • Commitment tracking was opaque: verbal interest, soft commits, and signed terms were frequently conflated, delaying closes and eroding trust.

  • Both sides wanted auditability (who saw what, when), lightweight templates, and clear runway/round progress without exposing sensitive details by default.

These insights shaped a platform focused on structured updates, progressive disclosure, and a verifiable capital pipeline.

Target Audience

Primary users were early- to growth-stage founders and their prospective investors (angels, syndicates, VC associates/partners). Secondary users included portfolio ops/analysts and accelerator program managers who needed cross-company insights, benchmarking, and standardized reporting.

Project Duration

8 months (2024)


Services Provided

User Experience Design, Research, User Interface Design, Interaction design, Prototype


Background/Overview


In 2024, I led the end-to-end design of SiFuse, a platform that standardizes how startups communicate progress and how investors evaluate it. The problem space was dominated by scattered spreadsheets, pitch decks, and email updates - making diligence slow, comparisons inconsistent, and “commitments” ambiguous. Our goal was a centralized, founder-friendly system that (1) structures traction signals, (2) clarifies capital pipeline status, and (3) gives investors a trustworthy, comparable view across companies and cohorts.


Understanding the Problem Space

To ground the solution, I combined founder and investor interviews, workflow observation, and competitive analysis.

Here’s what stood out:

Founders spent disproportionate time crafting bespoke updates and answering repeat questions; data drifted across tools, causing mismatched numbers over time.

  • Investors lacked a standard lens to compare startups; “traction” often mixed vanity metrics with signals that weren’t decision-useful.

  • Commitment tracking was opaque: verbal interest, soft commits, and signed terms were frequently conflated, delaying closes and eroding trust.

  • Both sides wanted auditability (who saw what, when), lightweight templates, and clear runway/round progress without exposing sensitive details by default.

These insights shaped a platform focused on structured updates, progressive disclosure, and a verifiable capital pipeline.

Target Audience

Primary users were early- to growth-stage founders and their prospective investors (angels, syndicates, VC associates/partners). Secondary users included portfolio ops/analysts and accelerator program managers who needed cross-company insights, benchmarking, and standardized reporting.

Project Duration

8 months (2024)


Services Provided

User Experience Design, Research, User Interface Design, Interaction design, Prototype


Background/Overview


In 2024, I led the end-to-end design of SiFuse, a platform that standardizes how startups communicate progress and how investors evaluate it. The problem space was dominated by scattered spreadsheets, pitch decks, and email updates - making diligence slow, comparisons inconsistent, and “commitments” ambiguous. Our goal was a centralized, founder-friendly system that (1) structures traction signals, (2) clarifies capital pipeline status, and (3) gives investors a trustworthy, comparable view across companies and cohorts.


Understanding the Problem Space

To ground the solution, I combined founder and investor interviews, workflow observation, and competitive analysis.

Here’s what stood out:

Founders spent disproportionate time crafting bespoke updates and answering repeat questions; data drifted across tools, causing mismatched numbers over time.

  • Investors lacked a standard lens to compare startups; “traction” often mixed vanity metrics with signals that weren’t decision-useful.

  • Commitment tracking was opaque: verbal interest, soft commits, and signed terms were frequently conflated, delaying closes and eroding trust.

  • Both sides wanted auditability (who saw what, when), lightweight templates, and clear runway/round progress without exposing sensitive details by default.

These insights shaped a platform focused on structured updates, progressive disclosure, and a verifiable capital pipeline.

Target Audience

Primary users were early- to growth-stage founders and their prospective investors (angels, syndicates, VC associates/partners). Secondary users included portfolio ops/analysts and accelerator program managers who needed cross-company insights, benchmarking, and standardized reporting.

Project Duration

8 months (2024)


Services Provided

User Experience Design, Research, User Interface Design, Interaction design, Prototype


Background/Overview


In 2024, I led the end-to-end design of SiFuse, a platform that standardizes how startups communicate progress and how investors evaluate it. The problem space was dominated by scattered spreadsheets, pitch decks, and email updates - making diligence slow, comparisons inconsistent, and “commitments” ambiguous. Our goal was a centralized, founder-friendly system that (1) structures traction signals, (2) clarifies capital pipeline status, and (3) gives investors a trustworthy, comparable view across companies and cohorts.


Understanding the Problem Space

To ground the solution, I combined founder and investor interviews, workflow observation, and competitive analysis.

Here’s what stood out:

Founders spent disproportionate time crafting bespoke updates and answering repeat questions; data drifted across tools, causing mismatched numbers over time.

  • Investors lacked a standard lens to compare startups; “traction” often mixed vanity metrics with signals that weren’t decision-useful.

  • Commitment tracking was opaque: verbal interest, soft commits, and signed terms were frequently conflated, delaying closes and eroding trust.

  • Both sides wanted auditability (who saw what, when), lightweight templates, and clear runway/round progress without exposing sensitive details by default.

These insights shaped a platform focused on structured updates, progressive disclosure, and a verifiable capital pipeline.

Target Audience

Primary users were early- to growth-stage founders and their prospective investors (angels, syndicates, VC associates/partners). Secondary users included portfolio ops/analysts and accelerator program managers who needed cross-company insights, benchmarking, and standardized reporting.

Defining the User Types

Research

I mapped core personas and validated their workflows:

  • Founder (Company Admin): Publish monthly progress, share metrics selectively, manage data room access, track investor conversations and commitments.

  • Investor (Associate/Partner/Angel): Scan traction quickly, filter by sector/stage, compare cohorts, validate signals before scheduling calls, record diligence notes.

  • Portfolio/Platform Ops: Standardize templates, monitor update health (freshness/completeness), prepare IC summaries, and export fund-level views.

  • Compliance/Admin: Define access policies, retention, and audit logs to maintain trust and legal hygiene.

Methods: 24+ semi-structured interviews, journey shadowing for monthly updates and IC preparation, and comparative teardown of adjacent tools (CRM, data rooms, portfolio trackers).


Initial Sketch/Wireframing

Translating research into structure:

  • User Journey Mapping:

    • Founder → “Create Update” → “Attach Evidence” → “Select Audience & Permissions” → “Publish & Notify” → “Track Opens/Replies.”

    • Investor → “Scan Pipeline” → “Open Update” → “Compare Peers” → “Request Evidence/Call” → “Log Commit Decision.”

  • Feature Prioritization:

    1. Standardized Update Templates (traction cards, KPIs, milestones)

    2. Capital Pipeline & Commitment Ladder (interest → soft commit → signed)

    3. Evidence Locker & Audit Trail (links, files, verifications)

    4. Portfolio Insights (cross-company filters, trendlines, benchmarks)

    5. Permissions & Progressive Disclosure (share the minimum necessary)

Low-fi wires explored list vs. card vs. timeline paradigms; card-first with progressive drill-downs tested best for scanability and trust.

Prototyping

I produced interactive prototypes to validate information architecture and key interactions:

  • Traction Cards: Standard fields (metric, timeframe, source) + optional evidence links.

  • Progress Timeline: Milestones with status, date, and impact tags; hover to reveal proofs.

  • Commitment Tracker: Visual ladder showing investor stage (interested/soft/signed), amount, docs, and next step.

  • Investor View: One-screen summary (KPI trend, burn/runway, milestone velocity, open risks) with quick compare across similar companies.

  • Access Controls: Role-based defaults and quick “Redact/Reveal” toggles per section




Testing

We ran iterative tests with founders, analysts, and angels:

  • Usability Testing: Tasks included publishing a monthly update, attaching evidence, setting audience permissions, and logging an investor soft commit.

  • Feedback Iterations: Reduced cognitive load by (a) bundling KPIs into a “Most Decision-Useful” set, (b) adding inline definitions/tooltips, and (c) surfacing evidence previews inline.

  • Performance & Data Hygiene: Introduced autosave, versioning, and consistency checks (e.g., flagging total commitments exceeding round target).

What was contributed to the Final Designs

End-to-end UX research plan, synthesis, and insights.

  • Information architecture and navigation model (Updates, Companies, Investors, Insights).

  • Component library for traction cards, timelines, commitment ladder, and evidence blocks.

  • Interaction patterns for permissions, audit logs, and progressive disclosure.

  • High-fidelity responsive UI and clickable prototypes for stakeholder alignment.

  • Test scripts, facilitation, analysis, and recommendation backlogs.


Metrics used to define and measure success

Update Time: Median minutes for a founder to publish a standard monthly update.

  • Data Completeness & Freshness: % of updates with required KPIs + evidence within the last 30 days.

  • Investor Engagement: Open rate, time-to-first-meeting after update, compare-view usage.

  • Diligence Cycle Time: Days from first touch to commit decision (soft/signed).

  • Signal Quality: Reduction in “vanity metrics” usage; adoption of standardized KPI templates.

  • Trust & Control: NPS from founders/investors; permission mis-share incidents; audit log utilization.


Outcome

SiFuse delivered a unified, evidence-aware update and evaluation flow. Founders reported clearer storytelling with less rework; investors gained faster signal extraction and more consistent comparisons. Early rollouts showed higher engagement with standardized KPIs, improved clarity on commitment status, and smoother handoffs into IC preparation—building confidence while reducing back-and-forth.

Challenges Encountered

Standardization vs. Flexibility: Different sectors measure traction differently. We solved this with opinionated defaults + customizable fields and clear definitions.

  • Transparency vs. Sensitivity: Some data is confidential. We employed progressive disclosure, role-based access, redaction by section, and an evidence locker with granular permissions.

  • Trust & Verifiability: “Proof beats pitch.” We added evidence linking, version histories, and audit logs to ground claims.

  • Adoption Friction: Founders feared extra work. Templates, autosave, and CSV/CRM import reduced update overhead; guidance nudges kept entries consistent.