AT&T Business - AI Incident Management

As AT&T Business partnered with ServiceNow to modernize Incident Management, I led the research, experience design, and high-level solution architecture for an AI-assisted troubleshooting framework.


What began as redesigning a troubleshooting flow evolved into defining reusable patterns for AI guidance, knowledge delivery, and connected support.

Impact

XX

Timeline

8 months

Role

Senior Product Designer

01

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Troubleshooting technical issues as a customer is already stressful.


The existing diagnostic experience often made that stress worse for AT&T Business customers.

The ambition extended far beyond launching another chatbot. The team needed a scalable framework that could connect diagnostics, knowledge articles, AI assistance, and customer support into a cohesive experience.


At the same time, AT&T's troubleshooting experiences spanned multiple products, brands, and support channels, leading many customers to abandon troubleshooting and contact support directly.

My Role

I led the research, experience design, and high-level solution architecture for the new troubleshooting framework, partnering with Product, Engineering, ServiceNow stakeholders, researchers, and technical SMEs to shape both the customer experience and the foundation for future support experiences.

Incident Management - Before

01

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Troubleshooting technical issues as a customer is already stressful.


The existing diagnostic experience often made that stress worse for AT&T Business customers.

The ambition extended far beyond launching another chatbot. The team needed a scalable framework that could connect diagnostics, knowledge articles, AI assistance, and customer support into a cohesive experience.


At the same time, AT&T's troubleshooting experiences spanned multiple products, brands, and support channels, leading many customers to abandon troubleshooting and contact support directly.

My Role

I led the research, experience design, and high-level solution architecture for the new troubleshooting framework, partnering with Product, Engineering, ServiceNow stakeholders, researchers, and technical SMEs to shape both the customer experience and the foundation for future support experiences.

Deals Page - Before

01

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Troubleshooting technical issues as a customer is already stressful.


The existing diagnostic experience often made that stress worse for AT&T Business customers.

The ambition extended far beyond launching another chatbot. The team needed a scalable framework that could connect diagnostics, knowledge articles, AI assistance, and customer support into a cohesive experience.


At the same time, AT&T's troubleshooting experiences spanned multiple products, brands, and support channels, leading many customers to abandon troubleshooting and contact support directly.

My Role

I led the research, experience design, and high-level solution architecture for the new troubleshooting framework, partnering with Product, Engineering, ServiceNow stakeholders, researchers, and technical SMEs to shape both the customer experience and the foundation for future support experiences.

Deals Page - Before

01

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Troubleshooting technical issues as a customer is already stressful.


The existing diagnostic experience often made that stress worse for AT&T Business customers.

The ambition extended far beyond launching another chatbot. The team needed a scalable framework that could connect diagnostics, knowledge articles, AI assistance, and customer support into a cohesive experience.


At the same time, AT&T's troubleshooting experiences spanned multiple products, brands, and support channels, leading many customers to abandon troubleshooting and contact support directly.

My Role

I led the research, experience design, and high-level solution architecture for the new troubleshooting framework, partnering with Product, Engineering, ServiceNow stakeholders, researchers, and technical SMEs to shape both the customer experience and the foundation for future support experiences.

Incident Management - Before

02

APPROACH & USER RESEARCH

The team's initial hypothesis was that improving AI and diagnostic capabilities would increase self-service adoption.


Before fully incorporating AI though, I wanted to understand why customers weren't using self-service.

Research Methods

  • Customer interviews

  • Internal agent interviews

  • Journey mapping

  • Technical documentation audits

After thorough user research, my hypothesis shifted. AI wasn't enough. The problem wasn't intelligence. It was trust.

After thorough user research, my hypothesis shifted. AI wasn't enough. The problem wasn't intelligence. It was trust.

After thorough user research, my hypothesis shifted. AI wasn't enough. The problem wasn't intelligence. It was trust.

After thorough user research, my hypothesis shifted. AI wasn't enough. The problem wasn't intelligence. It was trust.

02

APPROACH & USER RESEARCH

The team's initial hypothesis was that improving AI and diagnostic capabilities would increase self-service adoption.


Before fully incorporating AI though, I wanted to understand why customers weren't using self-service.

Heuristic Evaluations

Research Methods

  • Customer interviews

  • Internal agent interviews

  • Journey mapping

  • Technical documentation audits

Usability Studies

CRO & Behavioral Analytics

After thorough user research, my hypothesis shifted. AI wasn't enough. The problem wasn't intelligence. It was trust.

Everything competes equally for attention.

Pricing lacks hierarchy; no anchor for value comparison

Promotions blended together visually

Deals Page

What’s included?

How does this deal compare to others?

Deal Builder

Comparing deals required memory

Users had to open each builder to understand what’s included

02

APPROACH & USER RESEARCH

The team's initial hypothesis was that improving AI and diagnostic capabilities would increase self-service adoption.


Before fully incorporating AI though, I wanted to understand why customers weren't using self-service.

Heuristic Evaluations

Research Methods

  • Customer interviews

  • Internal agent interviews

  • Journey mapping

  • Technical documentation audits

Usability Studies

CRO & Behavioral Analytics

After thorough user research, my hypothesis shifted. AI wasn't enough. The problem wasn't intelligence. It was trust.

Everything competes equally for attention.

Pricing lacks hierarchy; no anchor for value comparison

Promotions blended together visually

Deals Page

What’s included?

Back and forth
repeatedly

Customer taps to open deal

How does this deal compare to others?

Deal Builder

Comparing deals required memory

Users had to open each builder to understand what’s included

03

THE CHALLENGE

Customers didn't abandon troubleshooting because recommendations were inaccurate.


They abandoned it because they couldn't understand what the system was doing, why it was asking certain questions, or whether it was actually helping. That insight completely changed the direction.

Trust matters more than accuracy.

Every dead end reduced confidence in self-service, increasing live support volume and operational costs.

Invisible Progress

Users couldn't tell whether diagnostics were actually running, creating uncertainty during long wait states.

Technical Guidance

Help content was inconsistent, highly technical, and difficult to discover, making self-service unreliable.

Research Findings

03

THE CHALLENGE

Customers didn't abandon troubleshooting because recommendations were inaccurate.


They abandoned it because they couldn't understand what the system was doing, why it was asking certain questions, or whether it was actually helping. That insight completely changed the direction.

Trust matters more than accuracy.

Every dead end reduced confidence in self-service, increasing live support volume and operational costs.

Invisible Progress

Users couldn't tell whether diagnostics were actually running, creating uncertainty during long wait states.

Technical Guidance

Help content was inconsistent, highly technical, and difficult to discover, making self-service unreliable.

Bento Box

Carousel Prominence

Deal Propensity + Merchandising

03

THE CHALLENGE

Customers didn't abandon troubleshooting because recommendations were inaccurate.


They abandoned it because they couldn't understand what the system was doing, why it was asking certain questions, or whether it was actually helping. That insight completely changed the direction.

Trust matters more than accuracy.

Every dead end reduced confidence in self-service, increasing live support volume and operational costs.

Invisible Progress

Users couldn't tell whether diagnostics were actually running, creating uncertainty during long wait states.

Technical Guidance

Help content was inconsistent, highly technical, and difficult to discover, making self-service unreliable.

Bento Box

Carousel Prominence

Deal Propensity + Merchandising

03

THE CHALLENGE

Customers didn't abandon troubleshooting because recommendations were inaccurate.


They abandoned it because they couldn't understand what the system was doing, why it was asking certain questions, or whether it was actually helping. That insight completely changed the direction.

Trust matters more than accuracy.

Every dead end reduced confidence in self-service, increasing live support volume and operational costs.

Invisible Progress

Users couldn't tell whether diagnostics were actually running, creating uncertainty during long wait states.

Technical Guidance

Help content was inconsistent, highly technical, and difficult to discover, making self-service unreliable.

Research Findings

Project Overview

Approach & Research

Challenge

Execution

Results

Reflection

04

THE PIVOT

I Stopped Designing solely AI.

I Started Designing Trust.

Research revealed that the real challenge wasn't AI capability - it was a lack of trust in the self-service experience.

New Design Framework

That shift repositioned AI from the centerpiece of the experience to one component within a broader support ecosystem.

04

THE PIVOT

I Stopped Designing solely AI.

I Started Designing Trust.

Research revealed that the real challenge wasn't AI capability - it was a lack of trust in the self-service experience.

Instead of asking,

How might AI improve troubleshooting?

I asked,

How might AI help customers feel confident enough in the experience to solve problems themselves?

That shift repositioned AI from the centerpiece of the experience to one component within a broader support ecosystem.

04

THE PIVOT

I Stopped Designing solely AI.

I Started Designing Trust.

Research revealed that the real challenge wasn't AI capability - it was a lack of trust in the self-service experience.

New Design Framework

That shift repositioned AI from the centerpiece of the experience to one component within a broader support ecosystem.

05

EXECUTION

Phase 1: Foundation

Designing a Framework for Trust

Instead of iterating on a single interface, I explored multiple concepts that worked together to build confidence throughout the troubleshooting journey.

Visibility

Making system activity understandable through progress indicators, wait states, and feedback loops.

Do

Show clear progress and what's happening

DoN'T

Avoid indefinite waiting

Knowledge in Context

Surfacing relevant documentation inside the troubleshooting journey instead of sending users to a separate knowledge base.

Do

Deliver the right help, in the flow

DoN'T

Avoid context switching

Knowledge in Context

Surfacing relevant documentation inside the troubleshooting journey instead of sending users to a separate knowledge base.

Do

Provide relevant, transparent guidance

DoN'T

Avoid generic, low-value suggestions

AI-Assisted Guidance

Providing intelligent recommendations with reasoning and next steps that feel actionable and trustworthy.



Do

Pass context and history to the agent

DoN'T

Avoid starting over

Trust at Every Step

Building confidence through clarity, consistency, and transparency at every moment of the journey.

Do

Pass context and history to the agent

DoN'T

Avoid starting over

05

EXECUTION

Phase 1: Foundation

Designing a Framework for Trust

Instead of iterating on a single interface, I explored multiple concepts that worked together to build confidence throughout the troubleshooting journey.

Visibility

Making system activity understandable through progress indicators, wait states, and feedback loops.

Knowledge in Context

Surfacing relevant documentation inside the troubleshooting journey instead of sending users to a separate knowledge base.

AI-Assisted Guidance

Providing intelligent recommendations with reasoning and next steps that feel actionable and trustworthy.



Winning Variant

A

Featured-first hierarchy

Prioritized high-value offers with clearer hierarchy and deal summaries to improve first-glance comprehension.

B

Discovery-led browsing

Prioritized horizontal exploration and exploratory interaction patterns.

C

High-density comparison

Increased browsing breadth through a denser scanning (double column) layout.

D

Hybrid discovery system

Combined carousel exploration with higher-density browsing behavior.

05

EXECUTION

Phase 1: Foundation

Designing a Framework for Trust

Instead of iterating on a single interface, I explored multiple concepts that worked together to build confidence throughout the troubleshooting journey.

Visibility

Making system activity understandable through progress indicators, wait states, and feedback loops.

Do

Show clear progress and what's happening

DoN'T

Avoid indefinite waiting

Knowledge in Context

Surfacing relevant documentation inside the troubleshooting journey instead of sending users to a separate knowledge base.

Do

Deliver the right help, in the flow

DoN'T

Avoid context switching

Knowledge in Context

Surfacing relevant documentation inside the troubleshooting journey instead of sending users to a separate knowledge base.

Do

Provide relevant, transparent guidance

DoN'T

Avoid generic, low-value suggestions

AI-Assisted Guidance

Providing intelligent recommendations with reasoning and next steps that feel actionable and trustworthy.



Do

Pass context and history to the agent

DoN'T

Avoid starting over

Trust at Every Step

Building confidence through clarity, consistency, and transparency at every moment of the journey.

Do

Pass context and history to the agent

DoN'T

Avoid starting over

06

RESULTS

Building the Foundation for AI-Assisted Support

The project evolved beyond improving a single troubleshooting flow.

It established reusable interaction patterns that informed AT&T Business's emerging Incident Management ecosystem within ServiceNow.

Before

After

Reduction in unnecessary live support escalation escalations.


Potential annual savings of $1.2M - $2.4M at enterprise scale

Reduction in unnecessary live support escalation escalations.


Potential annual savings of $1.2M - $2.4M at enterprise scale

Reduction in unnecessary live support escalation escalations.


Potential annual savings of $1.2M - $2.4M at enterprise scale

Reduction in unnecessary live support escalation escalations.


Potential annual savings of $1.2M - $2.4M at enterprise scale

Reduction in unnecessary live support escalation escalations.


Potential annual savings of $1.2M - $2.4M at enterprise scale

Impact beyond Phase 1

The experiment established an experimentation framework the team could build on. Each following phase introduced one new behavioral hypothesis while preserving what had already been validated.

07

WHAT'S NEXT

A Foundation for Future AI Experiences

The framework was intentionally designed to evolve alongside AT&T Business's growing AI capabilities.

Future opportunities included:

  • Personalized troubleshooting experiences

  • AI-powered knowledge retrieval

  • Predictive issue detection

  • Smarter customer-to-agent handoffs

  • Expansion across additional ServiceNow products

Because the foundation emphasized reusable patterns over point solutions, new capabilities could be introduced without redesigning the entire experience.

Phase 1 -> Done

Phase 3

Phase 4

Phase 5

08
REFLECTION

AI doesn't inherently create trust. Good experiences do.

This project changed the way I think about AI in product design.

The biggest challenge wasn't making AI smarter.

It was understanding where AI added value, and where thoughtful interaction design, clear communication, and human-centered content mattered more.

By designing AI as a guide rather than the destination, we created a framework that customers could understand, teams could scale, and future products could build upon.

THINGS I BELIEVE NOW
02
APPROACH & USER RESEARCH

The team's initial hypothesis was that improving AI and diagnostic capabilities would increase self-service adoption.


Before fully incorporating AI though, I wanted to understand why customers weren't using self-service.

Everything competes equally for attention.

Users must open each builder to understand what’s included

Pricing lacks hierarchy; no anchor for value comparison

02

Tap to open deal

02

Back and forth

repeatedly

What’s

included?

Is this actually

a better deal?

How does it compare?

?

Users had to open multiple builders just to answer simple questions.

Research Methods

  • Customer interviews

  • Internal agent interviews

  • Journey mapping

  • Technical documentation audits

INITIAL HYPOTHESIS

Body

03
THE CHALLENGE

Customers didn't abandon troubleshooting because recommendations were inaccurate.


They abandoned it because they couldn't understand what the system was doing, why it was asking certain questions, or whether it was actually helping. That insight completely changed the direction.

Trust matters more than accuracy.

Every dead end reduced confidence in self-service, increasing live support volume and operational costs.

The concepts generated excitement but not measurable learning.

Each redesign introduced too many variants to test.

Impossible to isolate what actually drives results.

THE REFRAME

Body


Large Hero

Bento

Carousel

Deal Propensity

04
THE PIVOT

I Stopped Designing solely AI.

I Started Designing Trust.

Research revealed that the real challenge wasn't AI capability - it was a lack of trust in the self-service experience.

Instead of asking,

How might AI improve troubleshooting?

I asked,

How might AI help customers feel confident enough in the experience to solve problems themselves?

That shift repositioned AI from the centerpiece of the experience to one component within a broader support ecosystem.

Title


05
EXECUTION
Phase 1: Foundation

Designing a Framework for Trust

Instead of iterating on a single interface, I explored multiple concepts that worked together to build confidence throughout the troubleshooting journey.

Winning Variant

A

Featured-first hierarchy

Prioritized high-value offers with clearer hierarchy and deal summaries to improve first-glance comprehension.

B

Discovery-led browsing

Prioritized horizontal exploration and exploratory interaction patterns.

C

High-density comparison

Increased browsing breadth through a denser scanning (double column) layout.

D

Hybrid discovery system

Combined carousel exploration with higher-density browsing behavior.

Visibility

Making system activity understandable through progress indicators, wait states, and feedback loops.

Knowledge in Context

Surfacing relevant documentation inside the troubleshooting journey instead of sending users to a separate knowledge base.

AI-Assisted Guidance

Providing intelligent recommendations with reasoning and next steps that feel actionable and trustworthy.



A Foundation for Future AI Experiences

The framework was intentionally designed to evolve alongside AT&T Business's growing AI capabilities.

Future opportunities included:

  • Personalized troubleshooting experiences

  • AI-powered knowledge retrieval

  • Predictive issue detection

  • Smarter customer-to-agent handoffs

  • Expansion across additional ServiceNow products

Because the foundation emphasized reusable patterns over point solutions, new capabilities could be introduced without redesigning the entire experience.

Winning Variant

A

Featured-first hierarchy

Prioritized high-value offers with clearer hierarchy and deal summaries to improve first-glance comprehension.

B

Discovery-led browsing

Prioritized horizontal exploration and exploratory interaction patterns.

C

High-density comparison

Increased browsing breadth through a denser scanning (double column) layout.

D

Hybrid discovery system

Combined carousel exploration with higher-density browsing behavior.

Visibility

Making system activity understandable through progress indicators, wait states, and feedback loops.

Knowledge in Context

Surfacing relevant documentation inside the troubleshooting journey instead of sending users to a separate knowledge base.

AI-Assisted Guidance

Providing intelligent recommendations with reasoning and next steps that feel actionable and trustworthy.



07
WHAT'S NEXT

Reduction in unnecessary live support escalation escalations.


Potential annual savings of $1.2M - $2.4M at enterprise scale

Reduction in diagnostic time


Faster issue resolution and less customer friction

Increase in customer confidence


Based on early usability testing and sentiment data

Building the Foundation for AI-Assisted Support

The project evolved beyond improving a single troubleshooting flow.

It established reusable interaction patterns that informed AT&T Business's emerging Incident Management ecosystem within ServiceNow.

06
PHASE 1 RESULTS

Title

Key Insights

AI doesn't inherently create trust. Good experiences do.

This project changed the way I think about AI in product design.

The biggest challenge wasn't making AI smarter.

It was understanding where AI added value, and where thoughtful interaction design, clear communication, and human-centered content mattered more.

By designing AI as a guide rather than the destination, we created a framework that customers could understand, teams could scale, and future products could build upon.

THINGS I BELIEVE NOW
08
REFLECTION
02
APPROACH & USER RESEARCH

The team's initial hypothesis was that improving AI and diagnostic capabilities would increase self-service adoption.


Before fully incorporating AI though, I wanted to understand why customers weren't using self-service.

Everything competes equally for attention.

Users must open each builder to understand what’s included

Pricing lacks hierarchy; no anchor for value comparison

02

Tap to open deal

02

Back and forth

repeatedly

What’s

included?

Is this actually

a better deal?

How does it compare?

?

Users had to open multiple builders just to answer simple questions.

Research Methods

  • Customer interviews

  • Internal agent interviews

  • Journey mapping

  • Technical documentation audits

INITIAL HYPOTHESIS

Body

03
THE CHALLENGE

Customers didn't abandon troubleshooting because recommendations were inaccurate.


They abandoned it because they couldn't understand what the system was doing, why it was asking certain questions, or whether it was actually helping. That insight completely changed the direction.

Trust matters more than accuracy.

Every dead end reduced confidence in self-service, increasing live support volume and operational costs.

The concepts generated excitement but not measurable learning.

Each redesign introduced too many variants to test.

Impossible to isolate what actually drives results.

THE REFRAME

Body


Large Hero

Bento

Carousel

Deal Propensity

04
THE PIVOT

I Stopped Designing solely AI.

I Started Designing Trust.

Research revealed that the real challenge wasn't AI capability - it was a lack of trust in the self-service experience.

Instead of asking,

How might AI improve troubleshooting?

I asked,

How might AI help customers feel confident enough in the experience to solve problems themselves?

That shift repositioned AI from the centerpiece of the experience to one component within a broader support ecosystem.

Title


05
EXECUTION
Phase 1: Foundation

Designing a Framework for Trust

Instead of iterating on a single interface, I explored multiple concepts that worked together to build confidence throughout the troubleshooting journey.

Winning Variant

A

Featured-first hierarchy

Prioritized high-value offers with clearer hierarchy and deal summaries to improve first-glance comprehension.

B

Discovery-led browsing

Prioritized horizontal exploration and exploratory interaction patterns.

C

High-density comparison

Increased browsing breadth through a denser scanning (double column) layout.

D

Hybrid discovery system

Combined carousel exploration with higher-density browsing behavior.

Visibility

Making system activity understandable through progress indicators, wait states, and feedback loops.

Knowledge in Context

Surfacing relevant documentation inside the troubleshooting journey instead of sending users to a separate knowledge base.

AI-Assisted Guidance

Providing intelligent recommendations with reasoning and next steps that feel actionable and trustworthy.



A Foundation for Future AI Experiences

The framework was intentionally designed to evolve alongside AT&T Business's growing AI capabilities.

Future opportunities included:

  • Personalized troubleshooting experiences

  • AI-powered knowledge retrieval

  • Predictive issue detection

  • Smarter customer-to-agent handoffs

  • Expansion across additional ServiceNow products

Because the foundation emphasized reusable patterns over point solutions, new capabilities could be introduced without redesigning the entire experience.

Winning Variant

A

Featured-first hierarchy

Prioritized high-value offers with clearer hierarchy and deal summaries to improve first-glance comprehension.

B

Discovery-led browsing

Prioritized horizontal exploration and exploratory interaction patterns.

C

High-density comparison

Increased browsing breadth through a denser scanning (double column) layout.

D

Hybrid discovery system

Combined carousel exploration with higher-density browsing behavior.

Visibility

Making system activity understandable through progress indicators, wait states, and feedback loops.

Knowledge in Context

Surfacing relevant documentation inside the troubleshooting journey instead of sending users to a separate knowledge base.

AI-Assisted Guidance

Providing intelligent recommendations with reasoning and next steps that feel actionable and trustworthy.



07
WHAT'S NEXT

Reduction in unnecessary live support escalation escalations.


Potential annual savings of $1.2M - $2.4M at enterprise scale

Reduction in diagnostic time


Faster issue resolution and less customer friction

Increase in customer confidence


Based on early usability testing and sentiment data

Building the Foundation for AI-Assisted Support

The project evolved beyond improving a single troubleshooting flow.

It established reusable interaction patterns that informed AT&T Business's emerging Incident Management ecosystem within ServiceNow.

06
PHASE 1 RESULTS

Title

Key Insights

AI doesn't inherently create trust. Good experiences do.

This project changed the way I think about AI in product design.

The biggest challenge wasn't making AI smarter.

It was understanding where AI added value, and where thoughtful interaction design, clear communication, and human-centered content mattered more.

By designing AI as a guide rather than the destination, we created a framework that customers could understand, teams could scale, and future products could build upon.

THINGS I BELIEVE NOW
08
REFLECTION