smart sequences
June-August 2024 (and on/off through December 2025)
Redesigning 13 email templates for automated campaign flows with smart re-engagement logic to secure an immediate 74% customer response rate
project CONTEXT
Our automated email sequence for dealerships were getting put into carbuyers' Promotions inbox rather than their Primary inbox due to the email's content and design.
We redesigned 13 email templates to bypass the Promotions inbox, and adjusted our sequence logic to send the next best action for the customer to reengage in their carbuying journey.
My role
Lead Designer, Maestro communications platform — the longest-tenured designer on the product through four product-manager transitions.
Snapshot
Platform & Content-Adjacent UX · Legal/compliance partnership, content strategy, SMS expansion · 2024 Q3 Ignition Award
Discover
After being in a standards/operations role for two years, I onboarded quickly onto this product team by setting up intentional 1:1s — 8 platform designers on day one, 11 more in the following weeks — each aimed at closing a specific knowledge gap rather than general networking. Since our product’s problem was around our marketing emails landing in the wrong inbox, I audited my personal inbox behavior for a month, screenshotting real marketing emails to reverse-engineer what got messages into Gmail’s "Priority" inbox versus "Promotions."
Define
Partnered with a Brand copywriter in daily huddles, co-writing copy and design in lockstep rather than designing first and requesting copy after. Scoped the highest-priority redesign — transactional "Priority One" emails — around one clear question: how do we get these out of Promotions and into Priority? We connected with our Brand Marketing team to see how they structure their email and learned email best practices with them as well.
Develop
Modernized the design for 13 email templates, while keeping in mind the criteria for landing in the right inbox and that dealers would be able to add their branding to these templates in the future. Took all 13 redesigned templates through a joint legal, compliance, and brand approval workshop before build. Built directly in the team's internal template editor, flagging where custom code (SVG icons) was needed for engineering handoff.
Deliver
All 13 Priority One email designs were finalized and moved into production ahead of NADA (the National Automobile Dealers Association's annual conference) — engineered specifically to shift dealer emails out of Promotions and into Priority inboxes. Presented the Maestro platform strategy at a Navigator Platform design review and won a 2024 Q3 Ignition Award for the work.
After Priority 1 emails were completed, I worked on another product before returning to this team. Extended the platform into SMS for the first time — previously email-only — running a dedicated workshop specifically on SMS message wording. Later designed the appointment-reminder flow and a new verify-email template, and audited another designer’s set of email templates to keep visual patterns consistent across the growing automated flows.
Impact
This logic-driven outreach protects car buyers from email fatigue by automatically pausing automated drip sequences the moment they reply, transitioning them into an engaged customer experience. By respecting buyer behavior, the system achieved a 74% initial engagement rate while keeping dealers out of spam folders and firmly inside the primary inbox.
2024 Q3 Ignition Award · 13 email templates shipped · channels extended from email-only to email + SMS · retained as sole institutional memory for the product across four Product Manager handoffs
"I’ve had the pleasure of working with Linh-Hoa on Maestro, and I’ve been consistently impressed by her talent, creativity, and collaborative approach.
She has an exceptional ability to turn complex problems into intuitive, user-centered experiences while balancing both user needs and business goals. Her thoughtful design contributions played a key role in improving engagement across Maestro, helping us deliver features that drove a 34% increase in customer engagement and supported the platform’s growth to 900+ dealerships.
Linh-Hoa is an outstanding partner who collaborates seamlessly across product and engineering, asks the right questions, and consistently elevates the quality of every solution. I truly enjoyed working with her and would highly recommend her to any team looking for a talented designer and exceptional collaborator."
-Aishani Rana, Manager, Product Management at Capital One
