Accelerating Revenue Through AI Asset Creation

I improved NPS and reduced TTV by redesigning the asset creation process with AI. The new flow minimized errors, reduced cognitive load for maintenance engineers, and accelerated revenue growth by making the tool more reliable — ensuring smoother hotel operations and better guest experiences.

Date:

November, 2024

Client:

Transcendent by Actabl

Services:

Web Design

UI/UX

Transcendent by Actabl

Hotel operations leave little room for error. One broken boiler, a failed HVAC, or a floor without hot water can ruin the experience for hundreds of guests — and damage the hotel’s reputation overnight. This is exactly why Transcendent was built: to help maintenance teams reduce costs and prevent disruptions before they ever reached a guest.

Transcendent is a preventive maintenance platform that enables Maintenance Engineers to:

Easily catalog and manage hotel assets (like HVAC units, boilers, TVs, and heaters)
Plan and track maintenance to keep equipment running reliably
Avoid costly failures by detecting issues before they disrupt guests
Cut operational costs while improving guest experience

About the Project

Maintenance Engineers had a critical first step: cataloging hotel equipment into the system (known as assets, such as HVAC units, boilers, TVs, and heaters). Without this database, they couldn’t use the software — and without usage, the company couldn’t start billing the users.

The problem was that cataloging was long and overwhelming. Engineers had to fill out all the important details about each piece of equipment. In Transcendent, we had already introduced QR codes to speed things up, but they only solved part of the issue — engineers still had to manually enter other key information, which slowed them down.

Thus, my challenge was clear: how could I make this process easier and faster, in a way that reduced user frustration and accelerated revenue for the business?

Who would use the AI Asset?

For this feature, our main users are — non-tech-savvy— Maintenance Engineers.

Their main job-to-be-done is keeping hotel equipment operating without disruptions, so guests enjoy a great and seamless stay and hotels avoid umpredictable and expensive breakdowns.

Wellington, 30-55 years old

Maintenance Engineer

Timeline

2 weeks

Discovery

Reviewed interview recordings with engineers, mapped workflows (including failure paths), and gathered stakeholder feedback. This gave us a clear view of both user frustrations and system limitations.

2 weeks

Discovery

1 week

Define

Turned insights into clear problem statements and prioritized opportunities by impact and development effort. Some features (like group chat, broadcast, and translation) were mapped as future improvements to ensure scalability.

1 week

Define

2-3 weeks

Design

Turned research insights into prototypes, focusing on reducing errors and cognitive overload. Replaced overwhelming single-screen flows with step-by-step guidance, added progress indicators, and simplified forms to make the process faster and more reliable.

2-3 weeks

Design

3-4 weeks

Iterate

Incorporated stakeholder feedback continuously, ran internal usability checks, and refined designs through multiple cycles until the experience felt intuitive, consistent, and technically feasible.

3-4 weeks

Iterate

Incorporated stakeholder feedback continuously, ran internal usability checks, and refined designs through multiple cycles until the experience felt intuitive, consistent, and technically feasible.

Discovery

2 weeks

Reviewed interview recordings with maintenance engineers, mapped workflows (including failure paths), and gathered stakeholder feedback. This gave me a clear view of both user frustrations and system limitations.

Discovery

2 weeks

Define

1 week

Benchmarked other tools, highlighted pain points that slowed adoption and delayed revenue, and aligned on KPIs (reduce errors, simplify flows, accelerate revenue). These priorities shaped the design direction from the start.

Define

1 week

Design

2-3 weeks

Design

2-3 weeks

Iterate

3-4 weeks

Incorporated stakeholder feedback continuously, ran internal usability checks, and refined designs through multiple cycles until the experience felt intuitive, consistent, and technically feasible.

Iterate

3-4 weeks

Incorporated stakeholder feedback continuously, ran internal usability checks, and refined designs through multiple cycles until the experience felt intuitive, consistent, and technically feasible.

Design Challenge

Engineers needed to catalog assets quickly and reliably, but the existing tool made the process overwhelming and error-prone. A critical blocker was the endless scroll with numerous input fields that had to be entered manually, which frustrated engineers and increased mistakes.

At the same time, the business depended on this step to unlock billing and deliver value faster. The challenge wasn’t just about making the flow easier — it was about balancing user confidence with business outcomes, turning a frustrating process into one that felt simple, trustworthy, and efficient.

Data-Driven Design Insights

From the research and definition phases, several opportunities emerged that guided the solution:

Break down long flows to reduce cognitive overload

Use progress indicators to build trust and clarity

Reduce user errors with structured, guided forms

Balance AI automation with human oversight to build confidence

Ensure engineers could experience value faster (shorter TTV), so revenue wasn’t delayed and churn risk decreased

Timeline

2 weeks

Discovery

2 weeks

Discovery

1 week

Define

1 week

Define

2-3 weeks

Design

2-3 weeks

Design

3-4 weeks

Iterate

Incorporated stakeholder feedback continuously, ran internal usability checks, and refined designs through multiple cycles until the experience felt intuitive, consistent, and technically feasible.

3-4 weeks

Iterate

Incorporated stakeholder feedback continuously, ran internal usability checks, and refined designs through multiple cycles until the experience felt intuitive, consistent, and technically feasible.

Impact on Business

The redesign made asset cataloging faster, clearer, and more reliable, reducing frustration for maintenance engineers and giving them confidence in the tool.

For the business, this meant customers could be billed sooner and experience value earlier, effectively shortening time-to-value (TTV). By smoothing out this critical first step, the company accelerated revenue and lowered the risk of churn.

Prototype

Walk Through the Solution

By breaking the flow into smaller steps with progress indicators, adding structured forms, and introducing offline mode, engineers could catalog equipment with confidence anywhere.

I redesigned the mobile chat with clarity, simplicity, and efficiency in mind, keeping staff needs at the center. The new experience is modern and reliable, helping teams manage their daily tasks with less effort and respond to guests faster and more effectively.

Outcome

Takaways

Navigating Business-Driven Initiatives

I learned how to approach projects that start from business goals without losing the perspective of design thinking. This showed me it’s possible to align company strategy and user experience in a practical, consistent way.

Navigating Business-Driven Initiatives

Navigating Business-Driven Initiatives

Navigating Business-Driven Initiatives

Designing for Real-World Constraints

Accounting for conditions like offline environments reminded me that design needs to work not just in ideal scenarios, but in the messy realities where users actually operate.

Designing for Real-World Constraints

Accounting for conditions like offline environments reminded me that design needs to work not just in ideal scenarios, but in the messy realities where users actually operate.

Designing for Real-World Constraints

Accounting for conditions like offline environments reminded me that design needs to work not just in ideal scenarios, but in the messy realities where users actually operate.

Designing for Real-World Constraints

Accounting for conditions like offline environments reminded me that design needs to work not just in ideal scenarios, but in the messy realities where users actually operate.

Balancing Strategy, Usability, and Technical Constraints

This project taught me how to balance strategy, usability, and technical constraints — building solutions that serve both users and business in a consistent, data-driven way.

Balancing Strategy, Usability, and Technical Constraints

This project taught me how to balance strategy, usability, and technical constraints — building solutions that serve both users and business in a consistent, data-driven way.

Balancing Strategy, Usability, and Technical Constraints

This project taught me how to balance strategy, usability, and technical constraints — building solutions that serve both users and business in a consistent, data-driven way.

Balancing Strategy, Usability, and Technical Constraints

This project taught me how to balance strategy, usability, and technical constraints — building solutions that serve both users and business in a consistent, data-driven way.

Testing Earlier Matters

If I had the chance to redo the project, I would prioritize usability tests sooner — even internal ones — to validate assumptions before advancing too far.

Testing Earlier Matters

If I had the chance to redo the project, I would prioritize usability tests sooner — even internal ones — to validate assumptions before advancing too far.

Testing Earlier Matters

If I had the chance to redo the project, I would prioritize usability tests sooner — even internal ones — to validate assumptions before advancing too far.

Testing Earlier Matters

If I had the chance to redo the project, I would prioritize usability tests sooner — even internal ones — to validate assumptions before advancing too far.