Databricks wants to improve the first-run experience for new workspace users in the Databricks workspace, especially data analysts and data engineers who struggle to move from account creation to completing their first meaningful task. You are the UX/UI Designer leading execution for a redesign of the onboarding journey across workspace entry, guided setup, and first-task completion. The project team includes 1 product manager, 1 UX researcher, 2 product designers (including you), 4 engineers, and 1 data analyst.
The VP of Product has asked for a launch-ready redesign in 10 weeks because onboarding completion has dropped from 62% to 49% over the last two quarters, and sales is hearing consistent feedback that Databricks feels powerful but hard to get started with.
The PM wants a scoped launch that improves activation quickly. Engineering wants to avoid major front-end rework in the Databricks workspace shell. Research wants enough time for 12 customer interviews and usability testing before design lock. The Growth team wants instrumentation added so they can measure activation funnel changes after launch.
You have a design budget of $35,000 for research incentives and external recruiting. The team has 10 weeks total, with engineering only available for implementation starting in Week 5. You can support at most 3 major user journey changes in the first release. The redesign must work for AWS and Azure-hosted Databricks workspaces, and all final high-fidelity prototypes must be delivered in Figma by the end of Week 6.