Content is slow to make
Teams struggle to write relevant, on-brand posts consistently — every post starts from a blank page.
LinkedIn for B2B teams, without the busywork — Insite Plus case study
Insite Plus is a concept for an AI social listening and publishing tool that helps European B2B companies create, schedule and measure LinkedIn content — and optimise the profiles behind it. It was a 2024 design assignment: I took it from research to high-fidelity UI on my own.
- CreateAI posts · Images · Preview
- Plan & measureSchedule · Analytics · Profile optimisation
85%B2B marketers who say LinkedIn delivers the best value (CMI, 2024)
51.9MLogged-in LinkedIn users a month in the EU (Jan–Jun 2024)
4Competitors audited feature by feature
4Core screens taken from paper to high fidelity
Where B2B brands actually grow
The brief
Design a social listening tool for B2B companies in Europe that want more from LinkedIn: content that’s easier to make, posts that go out at the right time, analytics that say what to do next, and profiles people actually find.
Why it matters
For B2B, LinkedIn is where decision-makers are. But teams juggle writing, scheduling and reporting across separate tools — and Europe isn’t one market: languages, local habits and GDPR all shape what works.
Four problems in one workflow
The brief named the pain clearly. Each one breaks a different step of a B2B team’s LinkedIn week.
Timing is guesswork
Posts go out when someone remembers, not when the audience is most likely to see them.
Analytics don’t lead anywhere
Engagement numbers arrive late and say what happened, not what to do next.
Profiles are an afterthought
Company and personal profiles shape reach on LinkedIn, yet tools rarely help optimise them.
One place for the whole week
Create, schedule, measure and optimise in one product, so nothing falls between tools.
AI that drafts, people who decide
Let AI write the first draft and suggest timing — the marketer stays in control of what goes live.
How the work ran
- Research
Market and competitors
Read the B2B and LinkedIn data, then audited Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Buffer and Agorapulse feature by feature.
- Define
People and problems
Wrote three proto-personas for real European markets and turned the brief into flows and an information architecture.
- Sketch
Paper, then grey boxes
Sketched the dashboard and post composer on paper, then built low-fidelity wireframes in Figma.
- Design
High-fidelity UI
Designed sign-up, log-in, the dashboard and the AI post composer in high fidelity, with a type and colour system.
Real data, not a hunch
Before designing anything, I checked the brief against public data. These charts use published sources from the same period as the assignment.
Which social platforms give B2B marketers the best value?
Share of 980 B2B marketers worldwide, surveyed June–August 2024. Respondents could pick more than one.
| Platform | Share of B2B marketers |
|---|---|
| 85% | |
| 28% | |
| YouTube | 22% |
| 21% | |
| X (Twitter) | 7% |
| TikTok | 3% |
Where LinkedIn’s EU users are
Average logged-in users per month, January–June 2024, in millions. EU total: 51.9M. The eight largest member states.
| Country | Logged-in users per month (millions) |
|---|---|
| France | 11.4M |
| Germany | 6.8M |
| Italy | 6.1M |
| Spain | 5.7M |
| Netherlands | 5.1M |
| Poland | 2.3M |
| Sweden | 2.1M |
| Belgium | 1.8M |
Where the gap was: my feature audit (mid-2024)
My own scoring from each product’s public features, 0–5. Insite Plus shows the design target, not a measured result.
- Insite Plus (design target)
- Best of Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Buffer & Agorapulse
| Capability | Insite Plus (design target) | Best of Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Buffer & Agorapulse |
|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn depth | 5 / 5 | 3 / 5 |
| AI content | 4 / 5 | 3 / 5 |
| Scheduling | 4 / 5 | 5 / 5 |
| Analytics | 4 / 5 | 5 / 5 |
| Profile optimisation | 5 / 5 | 1 / 5 |
| Ease of use | 4 / 5 | 5 / 5 |
AI writing was already table stakes
The original brief leaned on AI content generation as the differentiator. The research said otherwise — and changed where the product had to win.
Methods
- Desk research: B2B and LinkedIn market data
- Feature audit of Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Buffer and Agorapulse
- Proto-personas for France, Germany and Italy
- Planned next: online surveys, interviews and usability tests
Key insights
LinkedIn is the B2B channel
85% of B2B marketers say LinkedIn gives them the best value — three times the next platform. A LinkedIn-first tool is the right bet.
Everyone already had AI
Buffer launched its AI Assistant in February 2023 and Hootsuite its OwlyWriter AI in April 2023. AI drafting alone wouldn’t set Insite Plus apart.
Profiles were the empty space
None of the tools I audited helped optimise the LinkedIn profiles that drive reach. That became the feature to lead with.
Europe is many markets
France, Germany and Italy alone account for almost half of LinkedIn’s EU users — each with its own language and rhythm, all under GDPR.
Three people, three markets
Proto-personas built from the brief and the research, placed in three of LinkedIn’s largest EU markets. They’re assumptions to validate, not interview findings.
Anna Müller
Social Media Manager
- Age
- 32
- Location
- Berlin, Germany
- Company
- Mid-sized tech company
Goals
- Grow brand engagement on LinkedIn, X and Facebook
- Streamline content creation and scheduling
- Use analytics to improve campaigns
Pain points
- Writing content takes too long
- Hard to post at the best times
- Analytics with few actionable insights
Pierre Dubois
Digital Marketing Manager
- Age
- 45
- Location
- Paris, France
- Company
- Large financial institution
Goals
- Make content more relevant on LinkedIn and Instagram
- Coordinate and automate cross-platform campaigns
- Make corporate profiles more visible
Pain points
- Post performance varies across platforms
- Too many accounts to manage
- No built-in profile optimisation
Laura Rossi
Content Strategist
- Age
- 25
- Location
- Milan, Italy
- Company
- Small healthcare start-up
Goals
- Create content that reflects company values
- Schedule posts for maximum reach on LinkedIn and X
- Refine strategy from performance data
Pain points
- Manual content creation is labour-intensive
- No real-time engagement insights
- Hard to keep one brand voice everywhere
One designer, research to pixels
“Insite Plus was an assignment, so there was no team to lean on. I owned the research, the structure and every screen.”
- Market research with public data
- Competitor feature audit
- Proto-personas and problem framing
- User flows and information architecture
- Paper sketches and low-fidelity wireframes
- High-fidelity UI and a type system
- Stage
- Concept, design assignment
- Users
- B2B marketing teams in Europe
- Year
- 2024
- Team
- Me
- Tools
- Figma, FigJam
From sign-up to a scheduled post
The main path through the product, and the four flows that matter most.
- Sign up / Log in
- Dashboard
- Create post
- Schedule
- Analytics
- Profile optimisation
- Settings & integrations
- Log out
Dashboard
- Start
- The user lands on the dashboard.
- Actions
- Reviews overall metrics, upcoming posts and quick actions.
- Outcome
- Decides what to do next — create a post, check analytics or optimise a profile.
Create a post
- Start
- The user selects “Create post”.
- Actions
- Picks platforms, gets an AI draft and image, then edits it to fit.
- Outcome
- A post that’s ready to schedule.
Schedule
- Start
- The user selects “Schedule post”.
- Actions
- Picks a date and time on the calendar, or accepts an AI-recommended time.
- Outcome
- The post is scheduled.
Optimise a profile
- Start
- The user selects “Optimise profile”.
- Actions
- Gets personalised recommendations and SEO suggestions for the profile.
- Outcome
- A more visible profile that supports every post.
What lives where
The two screens that carry most of the product, broken into their parts before any pixels.
Dashboard
- Header
- Search
- Notifications
- Profile and settings
- Navigation
- Content
- Calendar
- Analytics
- Optimisation
- Overview
- Posts published
- Engagements
- Audience growth
- Performance
- Engagement over the last 30 days
- Top posts
- Audience by gender and location
- Scheduled posts
- Calendar
- Upcoming posts
- Create post
Create new post
- Platforms
- LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Instagram
- Media
- Upload an image
- Generate an image with AI
- Content
- Write, or generate with AI
- Word count (2,000 max)
- Preview
- Image and text as it will appear
- Timing
- Date
- Time and time zone
- Actions
- Reset
- Save as draft
- Publish
Thinking on paper
The fastest way to test a layout is a pen. These sketches set the structure for the dashboard and the post composer.
Structure before style
Grey boxes first: hierarchy, spacing and flow, with colour and imagery held back until the layout worked.
One screen for the whole week
A B2B marketer opens the tool to answer three questions: how are we doing, what’s going out next, and who are we reaching. The dashboard answers all three without a click.
The top band carries the headline numbers — posts published, engagements and audience growth, each against last month. Below, performance over time sits next to the calendar and upcoming posts, so results and plans are read together. The bottom row shows who the audience is and where they are.
The problem
- Writing, scheduling and reporting lived in separate tools.
- Numbers said what happened, not what to do.
- Plans and results were never on the same screen.
What I designed
- Headline metrics with month-on-month change.
- Performance beside the calendar and upcoming posts.
- Audience by gender and geography at a glance.
Why this, not thatI put the calendar beside the performance chart instead of on its own page. Marketers plan next week from how this week went — seeing both together makes that one decision, not two.
A blank page, never again
Creating a post happens in a focused pop-up over the dashboard. Pick the platforms, add an image — upload one or generate it with AI — then write, or let AI write the first draft.
A live preview on the right shows the post as it will appear, and the word counter keeps it within limits. Date and time sit at the bottom, so a post goes from idea to scheduled in one place. Save as draft is always there for posts that aren’t ready.
The problem
- Every post started from a blank page.
- No way to see a post as the audience would before it went out.
- Writing and scheduling happened in different places.
What I designed
- Platform choice, media and text in one composer.
- AI for both the image and the text — always editable.
- A live preview, a word counter and scheduling built in.
Why this, not thatI kept the AI buttons next to the inputs they fill, not in a separate “AI” tab. The AI should feel like a faster way to do the same task — the marketer stays in charge of the words.
A front door that feels human
A social tool is about people, so the first screens lead with them. Sign-up and log-in pair a warm photo with a short, friendly headline and a simple form.
Social log-in with Google, Facebook and Apple sits under the form for teams that want to skip passwords, and the sign-up asks only for what the product needs to get started.
The problem
- Long sign-up forms lose people before they start.
- Generic, cold first screens for a people-centred product.
What I designed
- Short forms with clear labels and required fields.
- Social log-in with Google, Facebook and Apple.
- A warm headline and photo that set the tone.
Why this, not thatI kept sign-up to one screen rather than a multi-step wizard. For a tool people try before they buy, every extra step before the dashboard is a reason to leave.
One typeface, many voices
A friendly geometric sans that stays readable in dense analytics and still has character in headlines.
Typeface
Plus Jakarta Sans
Open-source, geometric and highly legible at small sizes — with enough personality for a social product.
- Good Morning!
- Performance Metrics
- Create New Post
- Track & manage your social media progress here.
- Increased vs last month
Confident, social, calm
A deep purple carries the brand; the rest stays quiet so data and content lead.
- Colour
- A deep brand purple for navigation, highlights and primary actions, on light neutrals — with red, green and blue reserved for data and status.
- Typography
- Plus Jakarta Sans throughout, from 40px display greetings to 13px captions.
- Components
- Stat cards with month-on-month change, charts with tooltips, a calendar with post dots, pill navigation and a focused pop-up composer.
- Imagery
- Real, diverse people on the front door; product screens stay clean and data-first.
What made this hard
A crowded market
Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Buffer and Agorapulse already did a lot. The design had to find the gap, not repeat the leaders.
AI was everywhere
By 2024 every major tool could draft a caption. The AI had to feel useful in context, not like a feature checkbox.
Many markets, one product
Different languages, posting habits and time zones across Europe — all under GDPR.
Dense data, calm screens
A dashboard with six kinds of information still had to read in seconds.
No users to test with
As an assignment, there was no live audience. I leaned on public data and clearly marked assumptions.
Designing alone
Research, structure and UI all had to come from one person, so the process had to stay disciplined.
What Insite Plus taught me
Check the brief against data
The brief bet on AI content. The data showed AI was already everywhere — and pointed to profiles instead.
Name your assumptions
Proto-personas are useful as long as they’re labelled. The next step is always to test them with real people.
Sketch before you polish
The paper dashboard set a grid that survived to high fidelity almost unchanged.
Put AI where the work is
AI buttons beside the fields they fill feel like help. AI in its own corner feels like a demo.
A concept, not a launch.
But a well-researched one.
Insite Plus started as an assignment and became a lesson in letting research shape the product. Next, I’d validate the personas with interviews, test the composer with real B2B marketers, and design profile optimisation in full — the feature the research said nobody else had.