Set up SMS

A small addition to the Klaviyo home page that turned an empty "0" into a clear next step, and helped more users start texting their customers.

✦ Due to company policy, I'm unable to share most of my work at Klaviyo, so this page offers a broader overview of one of my projects!

ROLE

Product Designer

TEAM

PM + engineers

TOOLS

Figma

TIME CONSTRAINT

2 weeks

Overview

At Klaviyo, I worked on the Adoption team, where my focus was on growing SMS adoption. For this project, I designed a small intervention on the home dashboard to help users discover and start setting up SMS right where they already check how their marketing is performing. During my time at Klaviyo, it led to a 7% increase in SMS adoption.

THE PROBLEM

The home page showed users an empty channel and no way forward.

Klaviyo's home page breaks down performance by channel: campaigns, flows, email, and text message. For users who hadn't set up SMS, that last spot had nothing to show and nowhere to go. Getting started meant already knowing where SMS setup lived in the product.

As the only designer on the Adoption team, my work mostly focused on ways to grow SMS adoption. The dashboard on the home page was a natural place to start because every user sees it, and it already showed SMS as an empty channel.

The Intervention

THE SOLUTION

One link, right where the question comes up.

I added a "Set up text messaging for free" call to action directly inside the Text message column of the attribution breakdown, so the empty state became an invitation instead of a dead end.

Klaviyo home page with a Set up text messaging for free link in the Text message column

The entry point to set up SMS

Klaviyo home page, shown on a new account.

Design Decisions

DECISIONS

Three choices that kept it small and useful

The home dashboard is a page users rely on every day, so every decision came down to adding something that would be helpful for users without getting in their way.

Meet users where they already look

The home page is the first thing users see. Placing the prompt inside the channel breakdown ties it to the exact moment a user notices SMS has no numbers.

Noticeable, but not flashy

Users come to Klaviyo’s home dashboard to check how their marketing is performing, so my design intervention had to be noticeable without feeling like an advertisement or pulling attention from their results. I made sure it aligned with our existing design system and felt integrated to the page, so it protects users’ trust and is still easy to spot.

Make it clear that setting up SMS is low stakes

Starting a new channel can feel risky or like a big commitment, so I wanted users to see right away that getting started is low-stakes. “Set up text messaging for free” tells users what the action is and that setup costs nothing, so it feels like a simple first step.

Impact

RESULTS

What happened after it shipped

+7%

SMS adoption increased by 7% during my time at Klaviyo. Since the entry point lives on the home dashboard, it reaches users right when they’re checking their results, which helped more Klaviyo users give SMS a try.

Takeaways

REFLECTING

What I Learned

This project taught me how not every high-impact design is a big redesign, especially when you're working within an existing product and design system. Finding the right moment and placing one clear action there can noticeably improve adoption. It also taught me to design for the empty state, since a zero shows an opportunity to guide someone, not just report an empty number. Overall, I loved my time at Klaviyo and grew a lot as a product designer. I'm grateful to have worked on a real product with a cross-functional team and to have contributed to features that shipped!

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