Building production-ready voice AI agents for lead qualification, onboarding, reactivation, and query resolution; driving measurable reductions in drop-offs and support effort.
Timeline
2022-2024
Role
Founding Product Designer
Responsibilties
End-to-end chat: user experience, ops tooling, notification systems, integrations
ABOUT THE PROJECT
About Inkle
Inkle helps US-based startups and founders manage the parts of running a business that keep them up at night — tax filing, bookkeeping, compliance, and regulatory obligations. For many founders, especially those operating remotely or internationally, the stakes are high and the margin for error is low.
The platform handled everything from incorporation to annual filings. But no matter where users were in their workflow, they always came back to one place: chat.
Chat was the constant. A direct line to the people who understood their business — accountants, compliance experts, and the Inkle team. Not a helpdesk. Not a ticketing system. A relationship.
Quick Facts
Product
Inkle — US compliance & tax platform
Users
Founders, bookkeepers, tax filers, ops team
WHAT I SOLVED
The problem wasn't the interface. It was the entire communication layer.
Chat at Inkle wasn't a support widget — it was the primary relationship between founders and their finance team during one of the most stressful parts of running a business. Tax filing, compliance deadlines, regulatory decisions. High stakes, low tolerance for error.
But the experience didn't reflect that weight. Users didn't know which channel to use. Ops teams missed critical messages. Context was buried. Escalations to leadership had no clear path. And behind the scenes, a customer team was manually messaging hundreds of companies one by one during peak filing season.
The interface was just the symptom. The real problem was that a product built on trust had a communication system held together with duct tape.
I was brought in to clean up the UI. I ended up redesigning the system.
CONSTRAINTS
We couldn't just redesign. We had to redesign carefully.
Sendbird dependency
Chat ran on third-party infrastructure. Every improvement had to be negotiated between what was desirable and what was actually buildable within the system.
Live conversations we couldn't break
Hundreds of companies were already mid-conversation — ongoing filings, documents, compliance threads spanning months. Any change had to preserve continuity, not disrupt it.
Chat lived in three places simultaneously
A dedicated section, a side panel inside filings, and a floating element across the platform. Nothing could be designed in isolation.
Every decision had to be deliberate. And in many ways, these constraints made the solutions stronger.
PROBLEMS
The real issues ran deeper than the interface
01
Users didn't know which chat to use
Multiple channels per company, per filing, per year. No clear structure. Users hesitated before every message.
02
Ops teams were missing conversations
With hundreds of active channels, important queries slipped through. Users were left waiting during the most critical points of their filing.
03
Context was invisible
Chat was linked to filings, documents, and tasks — but that connection wasn't visible inside the conversation. Users and ops constantly had to cross-reference manually.
04
No quick path to escalation
Some queries needed the CEO or CTO. But with no way to surface urgent threads, leadership had no idea where their input was needed.
05
Users kept leaving chat to take action
Every time a user had to upload a document, make a payment, or complete a task — they had to leave the conversation entirely and find their way back.
06
Ops had no tools for scale
During peak filing season, the team manually messaged every single channel. No broadcast. No filters. No
priority view.
07
Time zones created silence
Global users expected responses. The ops team had no way to communicate their availability — leaving users in the dark.
USERS
Silence
"It's been 12 hours. Are they even available?"
Confusion
"Which chat do I even use?"
Friction
"I have to leave chat just to upload a document?"
OPS TEAM
Scale
"We're messaging 200 companies one by one."
Missed
"This was sent 3 days ago. Nobody replied."
HOW WE WORKED
How we got to the
Right Answers
No formal research sprints. Insights came from being close to the problem — users, ops, founders, and edge cases.
Startup pace
Constraint-driven
Observing & Listening
No formal research sprints. Insights came from being close to the problem — users, ops, founders, and edge cases.
Aligning with Founders & Engineering
Major decisions went straight to founders. Engineering involved early so constraints were understood before solutions were built.
Incremental Releases
Nothing shipped all at once. Changes released in layers — tested, observed, and refined without breaking live conversations.
SYSTEM THINKING
I wasn't designing screens. I was designing a system.
New Chat UI- Clarity over clutter
Every conversation now shows exactly where it belongs — which filing, which year, which company. No hunting, no guessing.
Action-driven Chat, from conversation to action, without leaving the page
Documents, payments, filing steps — all completable inside the chat. The workflow came to the user, not the other way around.
Multiple Entry Points, Chat wherever you need it
A dedicated section, a filing side panel, a floating widget. Three surfaces, one consistent experience — always one click away.
Ops Dashboard Built for scale, not just volume
Filters, assignment, escalation paths, and priority indicators gave the ops team full visibility across hundreds of live conversations.
Broadcast Messaging. Every company that needed it.
During peak filing season, ops could reach all relevant channels at once — without a single manual copy-paste.
Canned Messages. The right response, already written
Ops teams saved frequently used message templates and sent them in one click — consistent communication, no repetitive typing, faster response times during peak season.
Availability Settings. Silence replaced with context
Ops teams could set availability status and expected response times — so users across time zones always knew what to expect.
Notification Ecosystem: Users always knew where to look
Ops teams could set availability status and expected response times — so users across time zones always knew what to expect.
IMPACT
The difference it made
98% of queries answered on time
Before, missed messages were a recurring problem during peak filing season. After the ops dashboard redesign, canned messages, and broadcast tools — the team responded to 98% of queries within expected response windows.
Users noticed the difference
Feedback from customers directly called out the improved chat experience. For a high-stakes financial product, that kind of unsolicited praise is rare — and meaningful.
Less back-and-forth, more work done
The floating chat and filing side panel eliminated the constant switching between sections. Users could ask a question and complete the required action without ever losing their place in the workflow. Tasks that previously required multiple context switches were completed in a single flow
Ops went from firefighting to managing
Filters, assignment, escalation paths, and canned messages transformed how the internal team worked. What was once a chaotic inbox of hundreds of unstructured conversations became a manageable, prioritised system.
Chat became the backbone, not a fallback
By the end, chat wasn't something users turned to when things went wrong. It was woven into every major workflow — filings, documents, payments, escalations. The product felt more connected because it was.
TEAM
Built together
There was no product manager on chat. Just an engineering lead, a designer, and a shared belief that communication could be better. Jawakar Durai, Engineering Lead at Inkle, worked alongside me through every constraint, every iteration, and every release.
"I've worked with many designers throughout my career as an engineering lead, but Vivekita is hands down the best I've ever collaborated with. She elevated our application across the board, with particularly exceptional work on our chat interactions. What sets her apart is her rare ability to blend stunning design with genuine care for user experience—she doesn't just make things look beautiful, she makes them work beautifully. Working with her was an absolute privilege, made even better by her charming personality and collaborative spirit."
Jawakar Durai
Engineering Lead