Website UX design
Map stakeholder-specific user journeys, structure information architectures for technically complex products, and validate flows through usability testing before a single line of code is written.
What if Design offers UX research, strategy, and design for climate and deep-tech startups building technically complex software products. We help product teams identify onboarding friction, clarify flows for non-technical enterprise buyers, and build design systems that scale with the product without requiring constant design intervention.
From initial user research through developer-ready handoff, these services are built for technical products serving enterprise buyers, utility partners, and procurement teams who need clarity before they commit.
Map stakeholder-specific user journeys, structure information architectures for technically complex products, and validate flows through usability testing before a single line of code is written.
Build scalable component libraries and design systems that your development team can maintain and extend independently, keeping consistency across a growing product without constant design intervention.
Run research sprints to identify where buyers stall in your product flow, build testable prototypes to validate the fix, and iterate before handing off to development so rework stays minimal.
Design interaction patterns that give users clear feedback at every step, particularly in complex multi-step workflows where confusion leads to drop-off, support tickets, or stalled enterprise evaluations.
Design pages that communicate technical value clearly enough for enterprise buyers to understand your product before the first sales call, reducing the qualification burden on your team.
Design websites that create distinct paths for different buyer types: enterprise procurement teams, technical evaluators, and executive sponsors all need different things from the same URL.
Climate and deep-tech products carry a particular UX challenge: they're technically sophisticated, often used by buyers who are not deeply technical, and sold in long sales cycles where every friction point delays the deal. A buyer who can't navigate your carbon accounting dashboard in a pilot session, or a utility partner who gets lost in your grid analytics tool during evaluation, is a deal that stalls quietly. We run structured research sprints to identify where users stall, build testable prototypes to validate improvements before development begins, and deliver design systems your engineering team can maintain independently. What if Design has worked with climate and energy startups from seed through Series B, including teams building carbon accounting software, grid analytics platforms, and clean energy infrastructure tools. Our UX work focuses on two critical moments: what happens between a prospect's first click and their decision to move forward, and what happens between a new user's signup and their first moment of real value.
Climate and deep-tech startups that improved product adoption, shortened enterprise sales cycles, and reduced onboarding friction through focused UX strategy and design.
"Working with What if Design has been transformative: faster feature rollouts, reduced development costs, and a much better user experience. They quickly understood our vision and offered proactive ideas."
"They very quickly understood the kind of messaging that was important to us and how to translate that into a compelling visual experience. I can't recommend them enough!"
"The extremely high quality of outputs with fast turnaround times and availability of team at short notice has been perfect for our requirements."
"Working with What if Design has been transformative: faster feature rollouts, reduced development costs, and a much better user experience. They quickly understood our vision and offered proactive ideas."
"They very quickly understood the kind of messaging that was important to us and how to translate that into a compelling visual experience. I can't recommend them enough!"
"The extremely high quality of outputs with fast turnaround times and availability of team at short notice has been perfect for our requirements."
"Working with What if Design has been transformative: faster feature rollouts, reduced development costs, and a much better user experience. They quickly understood our vision and offered proactive ideas."
"They very quickly understood the kind of messaging that was important to us and how to translate that into a compelling visual experience. I can't recommend them enough!"
"The extremely high quality of outputs with fast turnaround times and availability of team at short notice has been perfect for our requirements."
UX research and strategy built specifically for the complexity of climate and energy software products.
Because we work exclusively in climate and deep tech, we skip the sector education phase that slows most agencies down. We understand how your buyers think, what your sales cycle looks like, and what kinds of UX friction are specific to complex technical products. Full UX projects typically complete in four weeks or less.
For startups not yet ready to build an in-house UX team, What if Design provides senior-level research, strategy, and design as a single engagement without the overhead of a full-time headcount or the unpredictability of a large agency retainer.
We run usability testing, user interviews, and stakeholder research to understand how your actual buyers and end users navigate your product, not how you expect them to. This reduces costly rework after launch and gives your product team a clear picture of where to invest next.
We work with US-based teams through structured remote collaboration: async design reviews, weekly sprints, and developer handoff documentation precise enough that nothing gets lost between design and build.
Co-founders with backgrounds in architecture and operations, focused on helping climate and deep-tech startups close the gap between technical depth and user-ready products.
Co-founder
Before co-founding What if Design in 2020, Akhila spent years designing LEED-certified buildings and leading urban interventions valued at over $100 million. Her architectural background brings systems thinking to digital product work: the same discipline required to design a building for multiple user types across complex regulatory environments applies directly to designing software for climate and deep-tech companies navigating enterprise procurement, technical evaluators, and executive sponsors simultaneously. Akhila leads UX strategy and stakeholder alignment workshops, and oversees the development of scalable design systems built for teams that need to maintain and extend them without constant design intervention.
Co-founder
Tejas co-founded What if Design in 2020 after driving business expansion for OYO across three countries and designing training programs that upskilled over 1,700 professionals across India. That experience in scaling operations gave him a precise understanding of how product experience decisions affect business outcomes: conversion rates, support costs, onboarding speed, and sales cycle length. He leads client engagements for climate and deep-tech startups, translating business requirements into UX briefs and making sure every design decision connects to something that moves a number the founding team actually cares about.
A UX design consultant works with product and technical teams to identify where user experience is creating friction, slowing adoption, or losing buyers before the demo. For climate and deep-tech companies specifically, this often means translating technically complex products into experiences that non-technical buyers, enterprise procurement teams, or utility partners can navigate without hand-holding. The work typically spans user research, flow mapping, wireframing, prototype testing, and design system development, all tied to measurable product and sales outcomes.
Tell us where your product experience is creating friction. Whether it's onboarding that's slowing enterprise pilots or flows buyers can't navigate without hand-holding, we'll identify the gaps and prioritize what to fix first.
Tell us where your product is creating friction. Whether it's onboarding that's slowing enterprise pilots, flows that buyers can't navigate without a demo call, or a product experience that hasn't kept pace with your feature development, we'll identify the gaps and show you what to fix first.
For immediate assistance, feel free to give us a direct call at You can also send us a quick email at team@whatifdesign.in
For immediate assistance, feel free to give us a direct call at You can also send us a quick email at team@whatifdesign.in