15 million+ Trailblazers
One global community... divided
A platform redesign to help Salesforce’s Trailblazer Community foster better collaboration, connection, and knowledge-sharing between newcomers and experts.
TIMELINE
COURSE
ROLE
TEAM
MY CONTRIBUTIONS
January 2024 - May 2024
I590 Studio Practice (Indiana University)
Product Design Extern
8 researchers & designers + 3 Salesforce mentors
Team Facilitator
Interviews (Protocol + Note-taker)
Digital Ethnography
Designed Coffee chat + Dashboard
Newcomers felt isolated.
Experts felt overwhelmed.
The Trailblazer Community was growing, but engagement was broken.
Newcomers
Experts
intimidated
technical jargon
superuser dominance
scared to be judged for being new
repetitive onboarding questions
burdened
power groups
maintain quality
HOW MIGHT WE?
How might we bridge this engagement gap and foster inclusivity in Salesforce's Trailblazer Community?
By redesigning onboarding, facilitating structured networking, and leveraging AI-driven engagement tools, we helped Salesforce create a more inclusive, participatory community.
Redefining Engagement
At first glance, improving engagement in the Trailblazer Community seemed straightforward: make it more rewarding. But through multiple cycles of research and design iteration, including:
- digital ethnography
- competitive & comparable analysis
- 6 semi-structured interviews
- co-design workshop -- scrapped due to recruitment issues :(
- cognitive walkthrough
- heuristic evaluations
We realized the issue wasn’t just retention, it was how users engaged with one another in the first place.
REFRAMING
We reframed constantly
Through iterative reframing, we moved away from thinking about engagement as an individual problem (users dropping off) and toward understanding it as a relational problem (how users connect, contribute, and find value in the community).
Our research pointed to three critical shifts:
From retention to relational support
INITIAL ASSUMPTION
Users leave because they aren’t motivated to stay → solution? Gamification?
WHAT WE FOUND
Users weren’t disengaging due to lack of rewards, but due to lack of support.
INSIGHT
Engagement isn’t about making users ‘work harder’ to contribute. It’s about making it easier for them to connect meaningfully.
DIRECTION
We moved away from leaderboards & competitive gamification, and toward collaboration-first mechanisms (e.g., peer-matching & guided help-seeking).
Inclusivity isn't about equal treatment, rather equitable participation
INITIAL ASSUMPTION
New users need help → Power users provide help.
WHAT WE FOUND
This dynamic overburdened seasoned users while leaving new users in passive roles.
INSIGHT
Inclusivity isn’t about equal treatment. It’s about equitable participation.
DIRECTION
We explored ways for new users to contribute earlier: peer-support groups, structured Q&A formats, and an interaction model inspired by situated learning.
How can new users give back, quicker?
Shifting the perspective to new users getting help themselves earlier instead of relying on power users only, so that experts can focus on complex issues, empowering new users to embrace a supportive and collaborative culture from the start.
WHO’S PARTICIPATION ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?
Through interviews and digital ethnography, we mapped 3 distinct behavioral archetypes on the platform:
EXPLORERS
GUIDES
CURATORS
NEEDS
Safe space to ask
Meaningful impact
Quality control
PAIN POINTS
Fear of judgement
Answer fatigue
Content overload
REALIZATION
Design couldn't force connections,
only facilitate them
This insight shifted our focus to enabling interactions, creating space for organic community growth. The following designs reflect this approach.
COFFEE CHAT & TIMED GROUPS
AI POSTING WIZARD
A virtual space for spontaneous connections between new and experienced users. Design focused on lowering barriers to interaction and allowing topics to emerge organically.
A tool to empower users to articulate their questions effectively, reducing anxiety and promoting clearer communication within the community.
- Matches based on shared interests vs. expertise hierarchy
- Optional follow-up preserves user agency
- Structured templates reduce "blank page anxiety"
- Duplicate detection respects experts' time
- Editable suggestions maintain authentic voice
Short-term, focused discussions designed to scaffold participation for new users and create a sense of safety for sharing.
- Time-boxed sessions (15 min) create low-stakes commitment
CLOSING OUT
Our journey in redesigning the Trailblazer Community was centered on shifting the focus from simply retaining users to fostering genuine relational support. This required moving beyond a “feature-centric” approach to understanding the community as a dynamic ecosystem.
The positive response from Salesforce was incredibly rewarding, especially their enthusiasm for our emphasis on 'equitable participation.' It was also validating to hear them acknowledge how our value-centric approach – guided by trust, credibility, visibility, and clarity – strengthened the project. This project reinforced my belief in the transformative power of design to connect people and foster a sense of belonging.
REFLECTING BACK...
Looking back, this project wasn't a perfectly linear journey, and that's okay! We definitely wrestled with narrowing our scope – anyone who's tried to align a whole team (plus stakeholders!) knows that's a real challenge. But I think that messy exploration is where the magic happened. We stumbled upon some really cool insights about how to truly nurture a community, not just manage it.
DEEPER DIVE
To explore the research process, usability testing findings, and detailed design specifications:
VIEW THE PRESENTATION
