Ask

Information was everywhere, but getting to the right answer was still a daily source of friction. A product question could mean searching through a datasheet, checking a spreadsheet, looking up a PLM record, finding a Teams message, or waiting for someone who already knew the answer.

I worked on the experience for Ask, an internal AI product expert designed to remove that friction. The opportunity was bigger than making product information easier to search. Ask could understand what employees were trying to accomplish, connect the question to the right source or capability, and help them move forward with an answer they could verify.

Fully embracing AI tools, I used AI to map Ask’s capabilities, knowledge sources, and potential workflows. I consolidated product documentation and internal context into a working knowledge base, then used AI to identify patterns and opportunities for an agentic experience. I reviewed the findings with the product team and refined the direction around user intent, trustworthy sources, and purposeful actions.

Ask was built for teams across Cambium, from sales and support to engineering, operations, product, and marketing. Their questions varied, but the friction was similar: finding a reliable answer often meant searching multiple sources or asking someone who knew where to look.

The opportunity was to replace that search with intent. Users could describe what they needed, while Ask connected their intent to the right information, source, or action.

I designed the experience around a simple idea: users should describe what they need, not figure out where the answer lives. I shaped the interaction around three things: understanding intent, grounding responses in trusted sources, and taking the right action when needed.

I drove the design with AI tools, using them to rapidly explore interaction patterns, agent behaviors, and visual directions. This helped me test multiple approaches quickly, while I refined the experience around Ask’s capabilities, trusted sources, and the moments where users need the agent to answer, clarify, or act.

The challenge was making a broad product expert feel approachable without hiding everything behind a blank chat box. I organized the experience around three entry points: suggested questions for quick starts, capability areas to show what Ask can do, and a conversational input for anything beyond the examples.

This gives users a clear path whether they already know what they need or are still exploring what Ask can help with.

Ask was designed to do more than return information. It can help customers move from a question to an outcome, building a BOM, checking product and part information, comparing options, or generating a file they can use next.

The interaction shifts from “here’s the information” to “here’s what I understood, what I found, and what you can do next.” This makes Ask feel less like a search interface and more like a product assistant that helps customers complete work.

In parallel, I partnered with engineering to define the structure behind Ask, mapping common user intents to the capabilities and outputs that could support them. This helped us create a system where the interface and backend logic worked together, giving users a consistent path from question to action.

With the layout set, I developed the visual direction for Ask, using the Cambium design system to create a focused, low-friction interface. I made component-level decisions that reduced visual distraction while keeping the experience consistent with the broader product.

I proposed and developed the visual direction, grounded in the existing Cambium design system and extended to fit the more agentic, conversational feel of the experience. I worked with the Cambium design system team to align on it so the app stays consistent with the rest of the console.

I made component-level decisions to keep Ask focused on the conversation and the task at hand. I removed unnecessary borders, decorative elements, and redundant labels, while using Cambium’s visual language to create a clear hierarchy.

The before-and-after shows how the same interface becomes quieter and more intentional. The goal was not to make the UI look simpler for the sake of simplicity, but to make the important parts of the interaction easier to see, understand, and act on.