Designing the Nervous Systems of Tomorrow
I’m Ellen Drewes, a systems-focused product designer who helps teams get unstuck, spot the real problems, and ship better work. I’ve led design across civic tech, AI, B2B SaaS, and experimental tools—often in high-stakes, high-complexity environments.
Whether rebuilding a platform that’s been in limbo for years or launching products used by millions, I bring clarity, range, and a bias toward what actually moves the needle.
Designing Coherence: Rebuilding the Heart of Quantcast
With the help of machine learning and AI, Quantcast had been at the forefront of audience analytics for over a decade. Its flagship product, Quantcast Measure, gave publishers deep, real-time access to their audiences. Its online ad targeting services were used by many of the world’s largest brands. But when it came time to build a self-serve platform for marketers, the challenge was fundamentally different.
Scope:
Full strategic and UX redesign of Quantcast’s ad platform for marketers, launching a self-serve experience built on AI and deep audience insights
Role and Team:
Role: Principal Product Designer
Years: 2018–2022
Team: Cross-functional with PMs, engineers, data scientists, legal, sales, and support.
Impact:
Platform launched in 2021 with strong adoption, a 44% increase in conversions, and a 50% reduction in campaign setup time compared to other DSPs. (Forrester TEI).
Privacy as a user problem: how I used lean processes to design one of the world’s top CMPs
I made something that interrupted over a billion user journeys and counting. Potential karma and UX principles aside, here’s why I’m proud of it.
Challenge:
Build a consent management platform from the ground up to help Quantcast’s customers comply with GDPR in less than 6 months.
My role:
As the sole designer on a small tiger team, I designed and iterated this product up to and beyond launch, working closely with users and developers.
Outcome:
After launch, Quantcast Choice quickly became one of the top-used CMPs on the market, generating profit and great reviews for Quantcast before being sold to inMobi in 2023.
Roadmapping the user journey: how I helped Amplitude get hyperfocused on the customer
Sometimes even the best backlogs can become so bloated that it’s hard to discern what will move the needle the most…but getting clarity about customer’s most pressing problems can be an energizing team sport.
Challenge:
Help a small full-stack product team get a full picture of their customer’s journeys…and teach them how to use these insights to plan real product roadmaps.
My role:
To help Amplitude’s experiment team prepare for a new designer, I planned and ran a series of workshops to map and synthesize everything we knew about our customer’s workflows.
Outcome:
Amplitude’s Experiment team gained new clarity on some of the product’s biggest friction points, opportunity gaps and places to focus. This directly informed yearly and quarterly planning.
Building the world map of human experiences: explorations in founding an empathy engine
Can a bootstrapped startup growing slowly become a force for good? With minimal spare time, money or coding skills, I decided to find out.
Challenge:
Create a way for people to share and read stories about their lives, through the lens of physical space.
My role:
I built, launched and developed this product as a solo founder.
Outcome:
Since soft-launching cornerstory.com at SXSW, I’ve been slowly building and developing this site in preperation for a larger launch in SF.
Transformation on a timeline: how I helped Prosper redesign their funnel, brand and process
As an early designer in an inflection moment of big change, I had to dive deep into my skillsket to make a fintech company’s big dreams come true…and the clock was ticking.
Challenge:
Optimize a sales funnel, fix a payment system, and redesign the entire product with a new brand.
My role:
As one of the first design hires, I spearheaded the redesign, funnel optimization and payment system projects.
Outcome:
Launched succesfully and on deadline, the redesigned site and product increased conversion and repayment metrics by large orders of magnitude.