SAHANA NARAYAN / PRODUCT RESEARCHER
Hi, I’m Sahana! I'm interested in bridging the gap between human behavior and technical systems. Studying Computational Cognitive Science taught me why users behave the way they do, while my computer science minor and hands-on experience at Slack taught me how to ship products that scale.
Graduating Winter 2027 · Seeking full-time Product Research (UXR) and Product Management roles
View my resume here. Scroll down to read about my projects in detail!
Slack
June 2026 – September 2026
Diary studies · Qualitative interviews · Synthesis · Product strategy
The problem
While a large enterprise user base concurrently used Slack and a major competing platform, internal teams lacked deep visibility into the daily reality of this multi-tool workflow. We needed to uncover task allocation, context-switching friction, and platform-specific value drivers to understand what would ultimately drive deeper engagement and preference toward Slack.
Research & discovery
To tackle this, I designed and deployed a week-long diary study tracking daily task switching across 18 enterprise and self-serve users. Building directly on those behavioral logs, I conducted 10 in-depth qualitative interviews, walking participants through their entries to unpack underlying pain points, workflows, and tool preferences. To keep participants visually engaged, I facilitated the interviews through co-creation sessions on FigJam.
Synthesis & analysis
Utilizing FigJam, I mapped cross-platform task breakdowns to evaluate where Slack excelled versus where it lost share to the competitor. The analysis also isolated key friction points around context-switching penalties and search fragmentation, highlighting specific AI workflow gaps where Slack could better support cross-tool tasks. Framing the analysis around perception, habit, and preference, I unpacked how conflicting user perceptions across the two platforms drove daily habits. I structured these insights into a compelling, narrative-driven slide deck highlighting the strategic perception shifts required to win user preference.
Final outcomes
I shared these findings through executive read-outs with my core stakeholders and research team, and presented across two cross-functional onsites to Product Managers, Engineers, and Designers. Ultimately, I translated these insights into actionable strategy, directly securing three prioritized feature initiatives on the Q3 product roadmap.
Golden 1
June 2025 – August 2025
Stakeholder interviews · Power BI · Qualitative analysis · Information design
The problem
Golden 1’s lending process involved multiple touchpoints, from in-branch interactions and online applications to post-application follow-ups. While the process was mostly functional, inconsistencies in information delivery and online interfaces created friction for both members and internal teams.
Research & discovery
I conducted and documented in-depth stakeholder interviews to assess the existing information architecture and gather requirements for a member-facing infographic within the lending process. Using that information, I built different user flows to map out specific experiences within lending. In parallel, I evaluated the current state of informational materials and performed a gap analysis to identify areas where clarity, hierarchy, and consistency could be improved across touchpoints. These activities helped ground the project in both member needs and internal constraints.
Data & synthesis
In my internal research of the different surveys related to the lending process, I encountered a big pain point—it was a painfully slow experience to go through thousands of members’ data, tracking the hundreds of surveys that go out every year. To better understand member experiences at scale, I created a centralized survey metrics repository in Power BI, consolidating completed surveys from 25,701 members in 2024 and 13,161 members in 2025. This dashboard enabled clearer visualization of trends and recurring pain points, making it easier for teams to interpret feedback and track changes over time. I also applied qualitative research methods including axial coding, tagging, and affinity mapping to analyze 250 responses from the digital account opening and lending processes, surfacing key themes related to clarity, trust, and process understanding.
Redesigning
Since I was researching different parts of the lending process, my manager pointed out to me that their informational materials regarding this process needed a redesign. Findings from the research directly informed this redesign of member-facing flyers, with a focus on improving information hierarchy, accessibility, and alignment with existing brand and compliance requirements. Rather than replacing existing design principles, I iterated on them using Figma to create more sustainable and scalable informational materials that better support members at key moments in the lending journey. During this redesign, I learnt how to collaborate with other departments involved in the loan process, ensuring information was communicated to their standards.
Final outcomes & impact
I had the opportunity to present my redesigns and overall suggested improvements on the lending application process to the VP of Member Experience. The prioritized improvements were expanding occupation options for members to apply for loans, streamlining the loan approval timeline, and adding benefits for pre-approval members. In regards to the redesigns, data collected at the end of Q4 showed that the call center data in relation to the lending process had a 17% decrease in calls, as a result of the improvements of the original informational materials.
Product @ Davis
April 2025 – June 2025
Product Ideation · Product Research · UX Design · Product Strategy
deClassify: connecting students through shared classes
Project overview
As part of the Davis Product Space Fellowship, I worked in a team of four to design a new product from the ground up in response to the prompt: How might we address a real problem faced by UC Davis students? Our goal was to identify a meaningful, unmet student need and translate research insights into a viable product concept.
Problem definition
UC Davis students often struggle to register for classes with friends or find familiar faces within their courses, leading to missed opportunities for social connection and collaboration. This challenge is especially pronounced in large STEM classes, where students can feel isolated despite shared academic experiences. We framed our problem as how to create a system that enables students to connect with classmates and build relationships earlier in the academic term.
Research & discovery
Across our team, we conducted 40 user interviews to understand students’ experiences with class registration, socialization, and collaboration. We found that 90% of STEM students we interviewed experienced difficulty forming connections within their classes, with this challenge evenly distributed across class years. Additionally, 81.2% of participants emphasized the importance of having friends in their classes, 52.4% reported not making a friend until midterms or later, and 58.6% expressed a desire for a centralized way to reach out to classmates. These findings highlighted a clear gap between students’ social needs and existing tools.
Three core pain points
Students undergo a chaotic and frustrating process to schedule classes with friends. Students experience difficulty finding study buddies in their classes. There is no centralized platform for Davis students to reach out to classmates.
Ideation & solution
Guided by research insights, we ideated deClassify, a social platform designed specifically for UC Davis students to connect through shared classes. The product allows students to plan and display their course schedules within their network, view lists of classmates to easily find study buddies both inside and outside their immediate circle, and engage in an all-in-one platform that supports connection within academic contexts.
Final design & prototyping
Design Interactive
September 2024 – December 2024
User Interviews · Competitive Analysis · User Flows · Figma Prototyping
Reimagining Craigslist for a modern mobile experience
Project overview
As part of the Davis Design Interactive Design Fellowship Challenge, I collaborated with a team of four designers in a sprint-style project to redesign the Craigslist mobile app. The goal was not to replace Craigslist’s original mission, but to explore how its core values of accessibility and community exchange could be preserved while improving usability within a modern mobile context.
Problem definition
Craigslist’s original design prioritizes simplicity and function, but its archaic interface and limited visual hierarchy create friction for modern users. Many users struggle to navigate beyond the search bar, and newer platforms offering similar services have gained popularity due to more intuitive and visually accessible interfaces. This led us to frame our problem as: How might we strengthen Craigslist’s original mission while modernizing the experience to be usable, accessible, and intuitive in today’s app landscape?
Research & discovery
Across our team, we conducted 30 student user interviews to understand how and why students use Craigslist, where they encounter friction, and what drives them toward alternative platforms. We observed participants navigating the app in real time and tested early design suggestions to gauge preferences. Our findings showed that 35.3% of participants had never used Craigslist and instead preferred Facebook Marketplace, 61.7% relied almost exclusively on the search bar rather than browsing categories, and 61.5% rated the overall ease of use as a 3 out of 5. These insights suggested that while Craigslist offers valuable services, its interface limits discoverability, accessibility, and engagement.
Competitive & opportunity analysis
Based on these findings, we analyzed competing platforms to understand how their interface patterns supported usability and trust. This helped us identify opportunities to improve visual hierarchy, reduce cognitive load, and make secondary features easier to discover without compromising Craigslist’s minimalist foundation. Accessibility and clarity emerged as key drivers for redesign decisions.
Designs & prototyping
Guided by research insights, we brainstormed and prioritized features that addressed core user pain points while aligning with Craigslist’s mission. These included endless scrolling to reduce friction, a more image-forward layout, visually distinct categories, in-app messaging with quick replies and attachment options, light and dark theme toggles to support user preferences, and a personalized home screen informed by previously viewed content. We iterated from low- to mid- to high-fidelity prototypes using Figma, developing wireframes and refined designs across five core pages: Home, Search, Post, Chat, and Profile. User flows were mapped to ensure navigation felt intuitive and consistent across the app. Our final designs emphasized improved discoverability, clearer information hierarchy, and increased accessibility, while remaining rooted in Craigslist’s original design principles. We presented our work to peers and mentors, articulating design decisions through a research-backed narrative.
