Papermill: When Good Design Meets Wrong Market.

"Papermill login screen on laptop showing Welcome back page with email and password fields, green sign-in button, and illustrated hands holding pencils on teal background
"Papermill login screen on laptop showing Welcome back page with email and password fields, green sign-in button, and illustrated hands holding pencils on teal background

Projects

Projects

Projects

Team

Product Designer + PM + 2 Engineers

Product Designer + PM +
2 Engineers

Timeline

6 months (Oct 2022 - Mar 2023)

4 months
(May - Aug 2025)

Scope

Product design, user research, design system, branding, landing page

Research that revealed the difference between users who like your product and users who'll pay for it.

We built document automation for students who said they needed it. My research proved they wouldn't pay for it – but discovered agencies would pay 10x more for the exact same solution. This pivot from B2C to B2B, driven by testing willingness to pay rather than just usability, saved 18+ months of building for the wrong market.

01

The Challenge

Students struggled with document formatting—broken references, inconsistent styling, time-consuming layout work. We set out to solve this with smart automation.

Hand-drawn diagram showing Papermill's target audience: business students in the middle of the spectrum between artists using Microsoft Word and nerds using technical tools
Hand-drawn diagram showing Papermill's target audience: business students in the middle of the spectrum between artists using Microsoft Word and nerds using technical tools
Hand-drawn diagram showing Papermill's target audience: business students in the middle of the spectrum between artists using Microsoft Word and nerds using technical tools

02

Research & Design Approach

Started with 6 in-depth interviews with business students to understand their workflows and pain points. Used Design Thinking framework to move from insights to solution.

Key insight from initial research:

Students wanted time-saving tools but were cost-conscious. Academic compliance mattered. They'd already invested time learning Word.

Value proposition canvas mapping Papermill's products and services to user gains, pains, and jobs-to-be-done
Value proposition canvas mapping Papermill's products and services to user gains, pains, and jobs-to-be-done
Value proposition canvas mapping Papermill's products and services to user gains, pains, and jobs-to-be-done

03

The Solution

What I Designed

Built a document editor focused on:

  • Clean, distraction-free interface

  • Smart referencing system (library + inline insertion)

  • Style templates based on university guidelines

  • Academic features (math, code, word counting)

Papermill tablet interface showing full editor with document navigation, placeholders panel, formatting tools, and live preview
Papermill tablet interface showing full editor with document navigation, placeholders panel, formatting tools, and live preview
Papermill tablet interface showing full editor with document navigation, placeholders panel, formatting tools, and live preview
Papermill mobile interface on iPhone showing document editing with formatting toolbar and text selection options
Papermill mobile interface on iPhone showing document editing with formatting toolbar and text selection options
Papermill design system components: text blocks, formatting toolbar, image handling states, table layouts, and mathematical equations
Papermill design system components: text blocks, formatting toolbar, image handling states, table layouts, and mathematical equations
Papermill design system components: text blocks, formatting toolbar, image handling states, table layouts, and mathematical equations
Papermill editing view with block-based content structure, image width controls, figure captions, and mathematical formula support
Papermill editing view with block-based content structure, image width controls, figure captions, and mathematical formula support
Papermill editing view with block-based content structure, image width controls, figure captions, and mathematical formula support
Papermill document editor showing preview mode with academic paper, university style templates, chapter navigation, and formatted introduction with 3D graph
Papermill document editor showing preview mode with academic paper, university style templates, chapter navigation, and formatted introduction with 3D graph
Papermill document editor showing preview mode with academic paper, university style templates, chapter navigation, and formatted introduction with 3D graph

Visual Direction

Tested two approaches with users. Students preferred the Formal direction—clean, trustworthy, professional.

Modern version of Papermill landing page - playful design with illustrations rejected by users who preferred formal, trustworthy appearance
Modern version of Papermill landing page - playful design with illustrations rejected by users who preferred formal, trustworthy appearance
Modern version of Papermill landing page - playful design with illustrations rejected by users who preferred formal, trustworthy appearance
Formal version of Papermill landing page - clean professional design with headline 'Papermill turns your writing into perfectly formatted documents' - user-preferred direction
Formal version of Papermill landing page - clean professional design with headline 'Papermill turns your writing into perfectly formatted documents' - user-preferred direction
Formal version of Papermill landing page - clean professional design with headline 'Papermill turns your writing into perfectly formatted documents' - user-preferred direction

04

Testing & Iterations

First iteration:

~15 bugs, referencing flow issues, responsiveness problems

~15 bugs, referencing flow issues, responsive-ness problems

Second iteration:

Down to 1 bug, 4/5 users completed tasks successfully, much improved usability

Usability testing tracking spreadsheet showing issues from 5 participants, with importance and hardness ratings, and action comments for each finding
Usability testing tracking spreadsheet showing issues from 5 participants, with importance and hardness ratings, and action comments for each finding
Usability testing tracking spreadsheet showing issues from 5 participants, with importance and hardness ratings, and action comments for each finding

05

The Discovery

Here's where it got interesting. While usability improved, user feedback revealed something unexpected:

Students:

"I personally haven't had any problems with assignments... I just turn [grammar checking] off and do manual proofreading."

They liked it. They wouldn't pay for it. I proposed testing with other segments. Ran the same prototype with B2B agencies:

Agencies:

"Everything is a bit of a battle to get into format... Our 35-page wildlife survey reports take 10 days to create."

06

The Insight

Through designing and testing, I'd built a product with:

✅ Good usability (80% task success)
✅ Professional interface
✅ Features solving real problems
❌ Users who wouldn't pay

The problem wasn't the design. It was the market.

Students tolerated manual work because time was cheaper than money.

Agencies couldn't tolerate it because time was money.

07

Impact

For the business:

  • Identified market mismatch after 6 months, before 18+ months of heavy development

  • Redirected strategy toward B2B (now foundation of current API business)

  • Research contributed to UK innovation grant

For my practice:

  • Learned that good usability doesn't equal product-market fit

  • Practiced testing for willingness to pay, not just task completion

  • Proved the value of testing broadly, not just validating assumptions