Context (About Poster Maker):

The Core Problem:

How the problem emerged?

Creations wasn’t a wrong idea.

It was built as a place to surface useful utilities inside the Poster Maker app; resume tools, scanners, photo helpers. On paper, it made sense.

But as Poster Maker started moving towards AI-powered creation, Creations couldn’t scale with that vision.

Users came to Poster Maker with a clear intent - Browse, download, or share posters daily
Instead, they landed on a screen that felt promotional, unfamiliar, and disconnected from their workflow.

What started as a utility surface slowly became a bottleneck for: trust, discovery and, company’s AI roadmap

That’s when the cracks started showing up clearly.

Introducing studio (v1) : Moving from Creations to Studio

Direction for Studio:

What Improved With Studio ?

What Studio failed to solve?

After a few months, engagement reached a saturation point. This helped us see deeper issues that UI alone could not fix.

Studio v1 was good enough to fix discoverability…but not good enough to support a growing set of AI tools.

The product was shifting towards AI-driven creation,but the screen wasn’t ready to communicate that identity or scale with that direction.

As we started adding more AI tools (like Travel studio, Product Studio, including PosterX), Studio began showing stress:

This led to extended problem:

“How do we turn Studio into a clear, AI-first creation hub that users trust, understand, and pay for?”

Studio solved its job but revealed that the next job was much bigger.

Strategize & Designing AI Studio (v2)

Studio helped users discover tools, but it couldn’t support our growing direction toward AI-driven creation.

To fix the deeper issues, we needed to redesign not just the UI - but the identity, structure, pricing model, and workflow of the entire screen.

Key Trade-off Decisions

Every improvement came with constraints. Here’s what we chose to prioritize and what we consciously didn’t.

• Single shared currency vs per-tool pricing

  We chose: One shared currency (Koins) across all AI tools
  We gave up: Tool-level pricing optimisation and short-term revenue tuning

  Why ?
  Predictability and user confidence mattered more for long-term revenue growth than maximising short term revenue per action.
  Multiple prices created hesitation and fear of “wasting money,” which reduced experimentation. A single currency encouraged exploration, repeat usage, and ultimately higher lifetime value.

• Immediate feature exposure vs controlled adoption

  We chose: Gradual exposure of AI tools
  We gave up: Pushing every new AI tool aggressively to all users

  Why ?
  Aggressive promotion could have increased short-term CTR.
  We chose controlled exposure to avoid overwhelming users who came for simple poster workflows.

  This sacrifices growth spikes in favour of retention stability.

• Simplicity for users vs internal complexity

  We chose: Simple mental model for users
  We gave up: Simpler internal logic

  Why ?
  Koins, unified flows, and native AI tools increased internal complexity: Events tracking usage & Syncing balances. We accepted internal complexity so users didn’t have to think.

Let's see how we tackled studio's problems:

1. Integrated all AI tools natively inside the app

   The biggest drop-offs came from external web redirects. So we removed them completely.

   

2. Gave AI tools a clear identity

   AI tools looked identical to non-AI tools in Studio. Users couldn’t tell what was powered by AI, what was special, or where to start.

   

3. Introduced Koins: One simple system for all AI tools

   Users hesitated because each AI tool had its own price. We replaced this with a single, predictable currency: Koins

   

4. Structured Studio for Scale

   Earlier, Studio felt like a random directory. As more tools were added, the grid only became more overwhelming.

   

5. Communicated Value Upfront

   

Cross-functional Collaboration

This project required close collaboration across Product, Engineering, & Business to balance UX, AI feasibility, and Monetization

1️⃣ Product & Strategy (PM collaboration)

• Partnered with PM to align Studio with AI-first roadmap

• Helped define what should remain utility vs what should become AI-led

2️⃣ Engineering & Feasibility (Tech collaboration)

• Worked closely with engineers to move AI tools from web → native

• Balanced UX goals with AI latency, infra limits, and rollout speed

• Iterated layouts based on what could scale technically

3️⃣ Business & Monetization (Leadership collaboration)

• Collaborated with CEO to design Koins as a long-term revenue system

• Weighed short-term pricing optimisation against user confidence

• Used early data to validate monetization direction

How I used AI in this project

AI wasn’t just part of the product, I also used it as a tool to think, explore, and move faster during design

I used AI to:

• Explore early layout and hierarchy options for Studio without over-investing in visuals

• Refine copy and naming so AI-powered tools felt understandable, not intimidating

• Stress-test flows by simulating different user intents and edge cases

This helped me move faster in the thinking phase, not skip it.

All core decisions information architecture, pricing logic, tool grouping, and defaults were made manually. AI outputs were treated as drafts, never final answers.

I avoided using AI for: UX trade-offs, Monetization decisions, Final interaction patterns

Those required product context, user empathy, and business judgment.

Impact

1️⃣ Product impact (behavior-level)

• Studio became the primary entry point for AI tools

• Users explored multiple AI tools in a single session

• Drop-offs reduced after removing web redirects

• AI tools felt discoverable without being promotional

2️⃣ Business impact

• Paid trial conversions increased after introducing Koins

• Users were more willing to experiment with AI tools due to predictable pricing

• Koins created a clearer upgrade moment compared to per-tool pricing

Koins shifted monetization from “pay before you trust” to “pay after you see value”

3️⃣ Experience impact

• Reduced decision fatigue when choosing AI tools

• Clear separation between AI creation and utility tools

• Studio felt native and trustworthy instead of promotional

• Faster scanning and understanding on repeat visits

Learnings & Future Direction

What I Learned

● Visibility ≠ motivation

Placing tools at the top didn’t matter when users didn’t understand the value behind them.

● Clean UI builds trust, but trust alone doesn’t drive action

Studio v1 looked better, but deeper behavioural and pricing issues still held users back.

● Consistency matters more than complexity in pricing

Multiple pay-per-use models overwhelmed users; one simple coin system unlocked adoption.

● Users avoid anything that feels like “leaving the app”

Redirecting to web broke flow and trust immediately - native integration was non-negotiable.

● AI needs identity, not just placement

Badges, grouping, and structure helped users understand which tools were powered by AI and why they mattered.

● A screen can work… but still not be future-ready

Studio v1 succeeded in the moment but couldn’t scale with the company’s AI roadmap.

● The best solution comes after the first solution

Studio v1 wasn’t wrong - it helped us see the deeper problems we couldn’t see earlier.

Future Scope - where this is heading?

● One unified coin system across Kaagaz

Today: Kaagaz Coins (PDF app) + Koins (AI Studio).

Future: one currency for the entire ecosystem.

● A clearer identity for AI tools across the app

AI Studio becomes the centre for business creation, not just a tools list.

● AI Studio evolving into a standalone app

The long-term vision is a dedicated app that helps solopreneurs market and grow their businesses online using AI.

● A scalable framework for adding new AI tools

The new structure supports more tools without turning into a cluttered directory again.

● Stronger workflows for business growth, not just poster creation

AI Studio transitions from “tools” to “a daily workspace” for small business owners.