Prosights Excel Add-in
Sole designer at an AI B2B startup, rethinking how finance teams work in Excel
Prosights is a B2B AI startup helping financial analysts cut hours of repetitive work in Excel. As the company pivoted from a web interface to a Microsoft Excel Add‑in, I redesigned core workflows and introduced a branded Excel AI Chat experience.
My Role
Sole designer
Skills
Product Design
Motion Design
Design System
Prototyping
Timeline
Jun-Jul 2025
Team
1 Product Manager, 2 Engineers, 1 Designer (me)
Context
Why move from web to Excel Add-in?
ProSights started as a web-based platform where analysts could upload files like PDFs or PNGs, extract tables, and generate charts. These outputs were downloaded and then opened in Excel for further work.
Feedback from users revealed 2 big opportunities:
1. Remove friction — Let analysts run extractions and create charts without leaving Excel.
2. Unlock advanced capabilities — Enable an AI “agent” inside Excel that can read cell values, understand formulas, and act directly on the spreadsheet’s live context.
The Excel Add-in pivot was the answer: keep analysts in their core workspace while giving them AI-powered tools that feel native to Excel.
Overall Challenge
When I joined as the sole designer, the pivot was already in motion. The team worked in a fast AI-first culture, where the Co-founder and frontend engineer often prototyped with AI tools before handing them to me to adapt for real-world usability.
My role was to refine these prototypes into cohesive, brand-aligned, and Excel-native experiences. I pinpointed the underlying usability issues, and redesigned flows to fit Excel’s environment and analysts’ mental models.
Constraints
• Excel Add-in’s limited vertical pane
• Partially built flows already in progress
• Tight iteration timelines
My work naturally split into two phases:
Design Goals & Success Metrics
Goals
• Adapt core web flows to Excel’s Add-in pane without losing usability.
• Ensure consistent responsive behavior across varying pane widths.
• Strengthen brand recognition in the new AI Chat experience.
• Maintain fast iteration cycles without slowing development.
Success Metrics
• Usability score >80 from analyst feedback
• Strong retention rates across core & AI features
• No broken layouts at minimum pane width (320px)
• AI Chat interactions feel distinctively “ProSights,” not generic
Phase 1: Transitioning from Web to Add-in
Redesign navigation and the flagship flow for Excel’s constraints.
Navigation Redesign
When I joined, the navigation design had gone through multiple quick iterations but still felt confusing and not well-suited for the Excel Add-in environment. The latest prototype I received lacked a clear information architecture, didn’t prioritize key actions, and took up more space than necessary in Excel’s narrow vertical pane. I explored several layouts to keep the left navigation as narrow as possible while still making it easy to discover and use.
The solution we implemented used:
• A default narrow bar with only icon buttons.
• Opening the Chat item triggered the chat page and a secondary panel for Chat History, displayed right beside the narrow bar.
• Navigation order and grouping were adjusted to reflect usage priority.
During exploration, I also proposed organizing Chat History by Excel file, making it easier to find past conversations. This wasn’t developed in the release but was documented for future opportunities.
Add-in Navigation
Extract Table Flow Redesign
Extract Table is Prosights’ flagship feature, allowing analysts to pull structured data from PDFs/PNGs directly into Excel. The flow was functional, but the team asked me to address specific usability issues for the Add-in environment.
Key improvements included:
• Clarified upload behavior by removing drag-and-drop cues and simplifying upload options.
• Improved selection clarity with distinct “Select All” and “Clear” states, and brand-aligned page selection styling.
• Streamlined processing feedback using clearer progress indicators, responsive icons, and color-coded status states.
• Reduced false affordances by replacing clickable-looking page cards with a clean, vertical list and subtle loading animations.
• Made downloads unambiguous in Extraction History with clear Excel icons and removal of misleading file type names.
01. Select Document (static)
02. Select Pages from Selected File
03. Extracting Pages/Processing…
04. View/Extraction History
Impact
• Made navigation compact and discoverable, ensuring it works seamlessly within Excel’s constrained task pane.
• Transformed the Extract Table flow into a faster, clearer experience, with visuals aligned to Prosights’ brand identity—strengthening trust and usability.
• Established the first Add-in–specific design patterns, creating a scalable UI framework that became the baseline for all future features.
Phase 2: Introducing the Excel AI Chat Experience
Refine AI Chat flow and loading experience to maintain user engagement.
Designing for Trust and Retention in AI Interactions
With Phase 1’s Add-in foundations in place, the next challenge was launching Prosights’ AI Chat Assistant — a context-aware tool that could act directly on live spreadsheet data.
The functionality was promising, but two risks stood out:
1. Perceived slowness — AI responses took several seconds, risking user drop-off.
2. Brand disconnect — The generic interface made the product feel like a commodity, not a differentiated Prosights tool.
Key improvements included:
• Built Prosights’ first Add-in design system, defining a consistent visual language and interaction patterns to unify the UI and scale for future features. This also included establishing the foundational chat layout.
• Designed a custom AI loading animation, a morphing mathematical symbol tied to analysts’ core work to keep users engaged during wait states. I sketched concepts, iterated with Claude and Cursor for prompt-engineering, and delivered a working code snippet, which significantly reduced development time.
Refining the Build Formula Flow
Within AI Chat, the Build Formula action was a high-value capability the team wanted to highlight. Rather than working from an existing prototype, I was given only the process description: scanning → executing → executed.
I designed the flow from the ground up with three priorities:
• Continuous feedback — Clear step indicators to reduce uncertainty.
• Cognitive load reduction — Structured outputs for quick scanning and comprehension.
• Responsive resilience — Layouts that preserved clarity in Excel’s narrow pane without overwhelming the vertical space.
The result was a reliable, professional interaction that supported trust in AI-generated results — a critical factor for adoption in financial workflows.
01. Scanning → 02. Executing → 03. Executed
Impact
• Made the AI Chat Assistant instantly recognizable and tied to Prosights’ brand.
• Reduced perceived wait time with an engaging, brand-aligned animation — delivered alongside working code, speeding development.
• Designed the Build Formula flow for clarity, trust, and responsiveness from the first iteration.
• Established design system patterns now underpinning all future AI Add-in experiences.
What I learned
Working as the only designer on a team like Prosights, where AI was aggressively integrated into the workflow, was tough at first. The pace felt overwhelming, with new ideas being developed or directions shifting almost every week. Seeing the engineers rapidly generate designs with AI sometimes made me question whether my role was even necessary.
But by proactively identifying usability issues, communicating them, and showing how design could fix them, I grew a lot as a designer. I also leaned into AI myself, sketching, iterating, and even bringing working code snippets alongside my designs. This experience not only helped me grow as a designer, but also gave me confidence that I can thrive in fast-moving, AI-driven product environments.
I’m looking for new opportunities where I can learn, grow, and work alongside thoughtful people. If you’re interested, or just curious to hear more about this project, I’d love to chat! :)
