Concept Car Work
Design the future before anyone asked
Design Vision WorkHow I led a design vision initiative that moved Assent from feature-focused incrementalism to a shared, design-led future state that also happened to help close a $7M in news deals.
The Problem With Incrementalism
Nobody asked for a Concept Car. There was no brief, no OKR, no stakeholder request. What I saw was an organization building feature by feature without a shared picture of where it was all going.
Stakeholders described the future in abstractions. Engineering couldn't prioritize what mattered most. Design was reactive. And customers had no way to see that Assent had a compelling vision for what the platform could become.
The answer wasn't another roadmap deck. It was a designed experience - something you could feel, not just read.
The Challenge
Without a unifying vision, product teams build in silos. Stakeholders talk about the future in abstractions. Customers struggle to see where the product is going. And design gets reactive rather than generative. Assent needed a way to show — not just describe — its future. The Concept Car was the answer.
The Concept
Named deliberately after automotive concept cars ( vehicles that showcase a new visual and technical direction to gauge reaction and inspire investment ), Assent's Concept Car was a multi-format artifact designed to benefit:
Product, Customer Facing, and Engineering teams (internal alignment)
Marketing and Sales (storytelling and competitive differentiation)
Leadership and Investors (confidence in product trajectory)
New and prospective customers (vision credibility)
What was built
The Concept Car was not a single slide deck. It was a suite of artifacts built across a structured narrative:
A presentation following three acts: Submitting a Response, Collecting Information, and Defining a Compliance Strategy
A 'steel thread' story showing the end-to-end Assent 2.0 experience through a named persona (Connie)
A concept car website for broad internal and external access
FigJam boards with journey maps supporting the visual narrative
A booth experience at Assent All Hands (October 2024), with monitors, iPads, and QR codes linking to the deck and survey
My Role
As Director, I established the vision, maintained strategic relevance across multiple quarters, and drove the design-led creation of all core artifacts. Key responsibilities:
Set the long-term vision and framing for the initiative
Drove cross-functional alignment across Product Management, Marketing, and Engineering
Pushed for joint presentation ownership rather than a single-team delivery
Directed the team to surface and resurface the Concept Car as a living artifact throughout 2025
Framed the Concept Car as a repeatable practice — now codified as a 2025 design priority
Impact
Deal Impact: Contributed to New Logo, valued at $7M
CEO Resonance: Explicitly recognized as resonating with the CEO at the strategic level
Skunkworks Foundation: Presented May 2025; strong reception particularly around Declaration workflow and Building Programs
Organizational Adoption: Creating a repeatable concept car practice became a 2025 Product Design priority
Leadership Recognition: Cited as showcasing ability to align strategy with storytelling and creative execution
All Hands Reach: Booth format at Quarterly All Hands, reaching the full organization
