UX DESIGNer & USER TESTING

Classic Alexa is well known and well loved by millions of users. How can we make Alexa even better using the power of LLMs and multi-agent experiences?

 

MY OPPORTUNITY

 

I had multiple opportunities to lead the design efforts and define the UX strategy for several multi-agent experiences for Alexa+. I focused primarily on onboarding, discovery, and automated task completion.

My Scope: Setup & First-Time User Experience

For Alexa+ to deliver on its promise of intelligent, proactive assistance — users first need to trust it with their most personal tools: their contacts, email, calendar, and messaging. I was the sole design lead responsible for defining how users onboard into these connected experiences.

  • Calling — Designed the flow for users to verify their phone number & sync contacts, enabling hands-free voice, video calls across Alexa devices

  • Email & Calendar — Led the strategic decision to unify email and calendar linking into a single OAuth flow, reducing setup friction while enabling Alexa to compose emails, retrieve forwarded information, schedule meetings, and create events

  • Texting — Defined the setup experience for voice-initiated text messaging, eliminating Bluetooth friction and introducing a wizard-style checklist pattern for seamless activation

Why Setup Matters for Alexa+

The challenge wasn't just how to set up these features — it was how to build trust on a communal, ambient device. Every decision I made balanced:

  • Privacy compliance — Voice ID verification to ensure household security

  • Mental model alignment — Decoupling confusing feature overlaps (e.g., "emailing Alexa" vs. "emailing contacts") based on user research

  • Reducing friction — Keeping interactions to ≤3 steps, supporting both voice and touch

  • Driving discovery — Ensuring users understand what's newly possible with Alexa+ before they even ask

 

RESULT

 

  • Four million customers signed up for the beta hours after the announcement

  • By June 2025, over one million beta users had enabled Alexa+

 

Challenges Faced

  • Continuous Shifts in Direction — Countered constant leadership pivots by creating a dynamic user flow as the single source of truth, keeping six teams aligned without Figma overhead.

  • Complex Legal Requirements — Designed a modular legal framework across Voice ID, OAuth consent, and messaging permissions — enabling rapid updates without rebuilding flows.

  • Aligning Leadership & Stakeholders — Consolidated conflicting requirements across six teams, presented three optimization paths to VP leadership, and secured alignment on a unified setup experience.