The challenge: Paid Social users were entering the journey at the wrong place.

Thumbtack’s core journey was designed for high-intent users: Search → Compare → Service Provider → Request Estimate.

Paid Social users skipped discovery entirely. They clicked on curated ads and landed directly on a detailed evaluation page with little context, leading to high bounce rates.

The team’s initial approach focused on optimizing the existing SP page.

Everyone had ideas. Nobody knew which was worth building

Following a successful A/B test, the growth team wanted to take a bigger swing. Some believed richer imagery would better match the ad experience. Others preferred lower-cost improvements like reorganizing the existing SP page.

The problem wasn’t lack of ideas.

We lacked evidence about what Paid Social users actually needed.

Without that understanding, larger engineering investments were difficult to justify.

Build a shared understanding

Before choosing a solution, I wanted to understand the audience.

Rather than jumping into design, I synthesized historical experiments, trust research, and acquisition data.

I then facilitated a cross-functional workshop with Product, Growth, and Engineering to separate assumptions from validated insights.

One pattern became impossible to ignore.

Marketplace users built confidence before reaching the Service Provider page.

Paid Social users were expected to evaluate immediately. That insight became our shared mental model.

Journey diagnostic

One insight emerged from comparing different cohorts’ journey and needs: Search users built confidence before evaluating. Paid Social users were asked to evaluate immediately.

This became the team's shared mental model for the rest of the project.

Cross-functional workshop

I facilitated a workshop with Product, Growth, and Paid Social to organize ideas around user needs.

• Bridge the gap between the ad and landing experience.

• Build confidence in the platform and the pro.

• Reduce uncertainty before asking users to commit.

This shifted the conversation from

‘What should we build?’ → ‘What do users need before they’re ready?’

Start with reviews. Discover a bigger problem.

Rather than proposing a brand-new experience, we started with the highest-confidence hypothesis.

Research showed reviews were one of the strongest trust signals and already highly engaged on Service Pages. They also required minimal engineering effort, making them the fastest way to learn.

I explored several review-first concepts that surfaced social proof earlier in the page hierarchy.

During critique, however, the conversation shifted.

The question wasn't: “Should reviews move higher?"

It became: "Why are users evaluating a Service Provider page before they're ready?"

Reviews weren't the answer. They revealed we were solving the wrong problem.

Challenge the page. Redesign the journey.

If users arrived without marketplace context, improving the Service Provider page alone wouldn't solve the problem.

Instead, we expanded the project beyond the page itself and explored whether a lightweight landing experience could bridge the gap between the ad and the Service Provider experience.

This fundamentally changed the design challenge.

Instead of asking how to improve one page, we explored how users build confidence before evaluation.

That led to three research hypotheses. These weren’t just layouts; they were three different theories of user behavior.

Working closely with User Research, I translated each hypothesis into a high-fidelity prototype for moderated concept testing.

Instead of asking which page users preferred, we asked: Which approach makes first-time visitors feel ready to continue?

Testing the concepts side by side let us evaluate the underlying confidence-building strategy.

Turning Point: The biggest redesign wasn’t the best solution

The existing experience ultimately performed best overall.

That was an important outcome. Rather than validating a costly redesign, the study showed why the current experience worked—and where it fell short.

The research surfaced three principles for future investment:

• Lead with a single, obvious next step.

• Surface social proof earlier to build confidence.

• Avoid introducing multiple providers too early, which shifted users into browsing instead of hiring.