Spark

90% faster campaign & deliverable request creation

Pill Labels
Product Strategy Stakeholder Alignment Proof of Concept (POC) Prompt Engineering Iterative UI/UX Product Design & Requirements User Validation Go-to-Market & Launch Strategy

end-to-end campaign requests — built in minutes.

Objective

We set out to eliminate the friction between campaign intent and campaign creation to ultimately streamline onboarding, reduce setup time, and help both new and existing users reach value faster through a more intuitive, guided creation experience

Within Design Pickle’s existing project and request structure, users were spending unnecessary time defining deliverables, attaching assets, and specifying details for every design.

Spark shifts this model by introducing AI directly into the creation layer — enabling users to describe what they’re launching and instantly receive a fully structured project with prefilled deliverables, formats, sizes, and applied brand assets.

Problem

Creating a single design request takes roughly 7 minutes, and a typical campaign requires 8–12 requests, requiring 60–90 minutes of setup before design work can even began.

Across a year, small businesses and agencies spend ~28 hours simply creating briefs — not including revisions or approvals. This setup burden slows momentum and creates drop-off in early lifecycle stages, making it harder for users to confidently launch multi-asset campaigns.

Spark reduces setup time by 90%, transforming a 28-hour annual burden into less than 3 hours and enabling users to begin meaningful creative work within minutes.

2.8 hrs/yr

spend creating design requests with Spark

28 hrs/yr

current spend creating design requests

90%

time savings

Research & Insights

Analysis revealed a strong correlation between project engagement and long-term retention. Users who created more projects demonstrated higher value realization, stronger outcomes, and increased platform stickiness.

Customers with 6–10 projects showed the highest engagement — driving 2× higher invoice values and 30% active retention.

Project engagement isn’t just activity — it’s the strongest predictor of lifetime value.

↑+159%

MRR

↑+7pt

retention

Streamlining how projects are created would directly improve how long users stay, how much they use the platform, and how quickly they reach their first value moment.

Solution

Leveraging the strong adoption of Projects, we designed Spark as an AI-powered extension of the creation flow — enhancing the experience for new and existing users alike.

Spark automates the most time-consuming parts of campaign setup:

  1. What are you working on? (intent)

  2. Deliverable details (structure)

  3. Branding & specifications (application)

1. What are you working on?

Screenshot of 'What are you working on' a UI that enables a user to select from pre-defined design requests.

2. Deliverable details

Screenshot of a presentation slide titled 'Here are the deliverables you'll need for your product launch,' showing a list that includes 'Business Cards' with an image of business cards and a label 'Trademarked Logo' indicating the visual identity as a custom illustration.

3. Branding & Specifications

Diagram showing a brand asset kit with color options, asset images, size options, typography directions, and file formats for JPG, PNG, InDesign, AI, and MP4.

By generating complete, prefilled project structures, Spark removes redundant downstream workflows and reduces the cognitive load of planning multi-asset campaigns.

To reinforce this, we introduced:

  • Project Summary — a clear, high-level view of every deliverable

  • Brief Completeness — instant visibility into missing details before creation

These updates transformed campaign setup from a chore into momentum, enabling users to launch faster and with greater clarity. By reducing friction and reinforcing the value of Projects, Spark strengthens engagement across the lifecycle — driving higher retention, improved LTV, and more consistent usage across teams.