Dalton
Dalton
Dalton
Discover
Discover
Discover
Key Deliverables:
Key Deliverables:
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Web application;
Web application;
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Onboarding & website scan flow;
Onboarding & website scan flow;
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Marketing website;
Marketing website;
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Design system.
Design system.
Timeline:
2025 → Ongoing
Timeline:
2025 → Ongoing
Role:
Lead Product Designer
Role:
Lead Product Designer
Engagement:
End-to-end product ownership
Engagement:
End-to-end product ownership
Dalton is an AI CRO co-pilot that turns website optimization from a slow, developer-dependent process into a continuous, autonomous loop — scanning a site and its analytics, generating test-worthy ideas, deploying variants without code, and shifting traffic to winners on its own.
Dalton is an AI CRO co-pilot that turns website optimization from a slow, developer-dependent process into a continuous, autonomous loop — scanning a site and its analytics, generating test-worthy ideas, deploying variants without code, and shifting traffic to winners on its own.
Growth teams wanted the speed of AI experimentation without losing control of their brand or their site. Every design decision had to answer the same question a marketer asks before clicking "launch": can I trust what this is about to change on my live website? Dalton needed an interface confident enough to act autonomously, and transparent enough that a non-technical team would still hit approve.
Growth teams wanted the speed of AI experimentation without losing control of their brand or their site. Every design decision had to answer the same question a marketer asks before clicking "launch": can I trust what this is about to change on my live website? Dalton needed an interface confident enough to act autonomously, and transparent enough that a non-technical team would still hit approve.
<60s
<60s
Time to first understandable insight
Time to first understandable insight
91%
91%
Variants approved without edits
Variants approved without edits
3.1x
3.1x
Faster experiment review
Faster experiment review
Define
Define
Define
Dalton enters CRO tooling built for a different kind of company. Optimizely and VWO assume a dedicated growth team and enough traffic to reach significance in weeks — everyone below that bar defaults to two to five tests a year and gut feeling everywhere else. AI "auto-optimise" tools promised to close the gap, but most swap a headline and hope, with no way to prove a change worked before it ships.
Dalton enters CRO tooling built for a different kind of company. Optimizely and VWO assume a dedicated growth team and enough traffic to reach significance in weeks — everyone below that bar defaults to two to five tests a year and gut feeling everywhere else. AI "auto-optimise" tools promised to close the gap, but most swap a headline and hope, with no way to prove a change worked before it ships.
24 growth marketer interviews
24 growth marketer interviews
We expected the barrier to be technical. It wasn't. Marketers had a backlog of untested ideas already — what they lacked was the confidence to press launch. Every autonomous AI tool triggered the same hesitation: what if it ships something off-brand while I'm not looking?
We expected the barrier to be technical. It wasn't. Marketers had a backlog of untested ideas already — what they lacked was the confidence to press launch. Every autonomous AI tool triggered the same hesitation: what if it ships something off-brand while I'm not looking?
This led us to ask: "How might we let a non-technical growth team ship dozens of experiments a month without ever losing control of what's live on their site?"
This led us to ask: "How might we let a non-technical growth team ship dozens of experiments a month without ever losing control of what's live on their site?"
Of the three modules — CRO Recommendations, No-Code Deployment, Continuous Optimisation — Recommendations shipped first, even though it's the least differentiated: it's the only interaction that touches nothing and asks for nothing, the fastest way to earn trust before asking for more.
Of the three modules — CRO Recommendations, No-Code Deployment, Continuous Optimisation — Recommendations shipped first, even though it's the least differentiated: it's the only interaction that touches nothing and asks for nothing, the fastest way to earn trust before asking for more.
Personas
Personas
Elena, the Head of Growth (33, Series B DTC brand):
Elena, the Head of Growth (33, Series B DTC brand):
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Owns performance marketing and needs the site to iterate as fast as ad creative changes;
Owns performance marketing and needs the site to iterate as fast as ad creative changes;
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Backlog of testing ideas has outpaced what a two-person team can design, build, and QA;
Backlog of testing ideas has outpaced what a two-person team can design, build, and QA;
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Needs experiments live within hours, not sprint cycles, without breaking brand guidelines he doesn't have time to police manually.
Needs experiments live within hours, not sprint cycles, without breaking brand guidelines he doesn't have time to police manually.
Ray, the Founder & CMO (38, bootstrapped e-commerce brand):
Ray, the Founder & CMO (38, bootstrapped e-commerce brand):
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Runs marketing solo, without a developer or designer anywhere on the team;
Runs marketing solo, without a developer or designer anywhere on the team;
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Traffic is too low for traditional A/B tools to reach significance before the business needs an answer;
Traffic is too low for traditional A/B tools to reach significance before the business needs an answer;
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Needs to trust that an AI-generated variant won't misrepresent the brand to a customer she's spent years building loyalty with.
Needs to trust that an AI-generated variant won't misrepresent the brand to a customer she's spent years building loyalty with.
Sofia, the Senior Digital & CRO Manager (41, mid-market retailer):
Sofia, the Senior Digital & CRO Manager (41, mid-market retailer):
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Manages digital experience across multiple regional markets with lean local teams;
Manages digital experience across multiple regional markets with lean local teams;
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Currently limited to two to five experiments a year by developer and design dependency;
Currently limited to two to five experiments a year by developer and design dependency;
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Needs statistical rigor and automated traffic-shifting to defend testing ROI to leadership, without micromanaging every experiment personally.
Needs statistical rigor and automated traffic-shifting to defend testing ROI to leadership, without micromanaging every experiment personally.
Problem Statement
Problem Statement
Testing Requires a Team You Don't Have
Testing Requires a Team You Don't Have
Every test meant a designer, a developer, and QA — so most teams ran it a handful of times a year while marketing moved weekly.
Every test meant a designer, a developer, and QA — so most teams ran it a handful of times a year while marketing moved weekly.
Traffic Too Low for Statistical Confidence
Traffic Too Low for Statistical Confidence
Traffic Too Low for Statistical Confidence
Classic tools assume tens of thousands of monthly visitors per page. Most sites never clear that bar.
Classic tools assume tens of thousands of monthly visitors per page. Most sites never clear that bar.
AI Autonomy Without Accountability
AI Autonomy Without Accountability
AI Autonomy Without Accountability
Early AI tools promised to "just handle it" — no visibility into what was about to change, no way to stop it.
Early AI tools promised to "just handle it" — no visibility into what was about to change, no way to stop it.
Ideas Outpacing Execution Capacity
Ideas Outpacing Execution Capacity
Ideas Outpacing Execution Capacity
Growth teams had hypotheses. The bottleneck was the distance between an idea and something live and measured.
Growth teams had hypotheses. The bottleneck was the distance between an idea and something live and measured.
How might we?
How might we?
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HMW let a non-technical marketer launch a test in minutes without touching a line of code?
HMW let a non-technical marketer launch a test in minutes without touching a line of code?
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HMW generate testing ideas that are actually worth running, not generic headline swaps?
HMW generate testing ideas that are actually worth running, not generic headline swaps?
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HMW reach statistical confidence on the traffic a real mid-market site actually gets?
HMW reach statistical confidence on the traffic a real mid-market site actually gets?
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HMW give a human a clear moment to say yes before anything changes on a live, production site?
HMW give a human a clear moment to say yes before anything changes on a live, production site?
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HMW keep improving a page automatically, without turning into something the team stops checking on?
HMW keep improving a page automatically, without turning into something the team stops checking on?
Key metrics
Key metrics
To track success, we monitored:
To track success, we monitored:
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Time to first live experiment — How fast a new team goes from site scan to a variant running in front of real traffic;
Time to first live experiment — How fast a new team goes from site scan to a variant running in front of real traffic;
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Approval-to-launch rate — Share of AI-generated variants a marketer approves without requesting edits;
Approval-to-launch rate — Share of AI-generated variants a marketer approves without requesting edits;
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Time to statistical significance — Median duration before an experiment produces a confident, actionable result;
Time to statistical significance — Median duration before an experiment produces a confident, actionable result;
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Experiments run per team per month — The clearest signal of whether testing became routine or stayed occasional;
Experiments run per team per month — The clearest signal of whether testing became routine or stayed occasional;
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Traffic auto-allocation accuracy — How reliably the system shifted visitors toward winning variants without human intervention.
Traffic auto-allocation accuracy — How reliably the system shifted visitors toward winning variants without human intervention.
Iterate
Iterate
Iterate
Our design process for Dalton balanced full AI autonomy with the confidence of a marketer who's never run a test and is about to let an algorithm touch the site that pays her salary. The challenge wasn't making AI powerful — it was making it legible enough to trust with production.
Our design process for Dalton balanced full AI autonomy with the confidence of a marketer who's never run a test and is about to let an algorithm touch the site that pays her salary. The challenge wasn't making AI powerful — it was making it legible enough to trust with production.
First Iteration:
First Iteration:
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Started with a raw idea feed — AI-generated hypotheses as text, ranked by predicted impact score;
Started with a raw idea feed — AI-generated hypotheses as text, ranked by predicted impact score;
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Approval was a single global action — no preview of what the page would actually look like;
Approval was a single global action — no preview of what the page would actually look like;
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Validated that AI could generate plausible hypotheses — but exposed friction the moment marketers had to act on them.
Validated that AI could generate plausible hypotheses — but exposed friction the moment marketers had to act on them.
Second Iteration:
Second Iteration:
Testing revealed a consistent pattern: nobody trusted a hypothesis they couldn't see.
Testing revealed a consistent pattern: nobody trusted a hypothesis they couldn't see.
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Replaced text-only hypotheses with a live before/after preview, rendered on the real page;
Replaced text-only hypotheses with a live before/after preview, rendered on the real page;
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Moved approval from a global action to per-variant, with inline editing before anything ships;
Moved approval from a global action to per-variant, with inline editing before anything ships;
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Built a persistent control room — live sessions, conversion rate, traffic allocation, all real-time;
Built a persistent control room — live sessions, conversion rate, traffic allocation, all real-time;
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Surfaced a confidence threshold visibly on every test, replacing "can I trust this yet?" with a number.
Surfaced a confidence threshold visibly on every test, replacing "can I trust this yet?" with a number.
These iterations reframed the product from AI that generates testing ideas to a system a marketer can watch make decisions and stop at any moment — the shift that turned Dalton into a daily habit instead of a novelty.
These iterations reframed the product from AI that generates testing ideas to a system a marketer can watch make decisions and stop at any moment — the shift that turned Dalton into a daily habit instead of a novelty.
Design
Design
Design
The Design phase translated an autonomous AI system into an interface a marketer with no CRO background could operate with confidence. Every decision was tested against one question: would you actually trust what this is about to change on your live site?
The Design phase translated an autonomous AI system into an interface a marketer with no CRO background could operate with confidence. Every decision was tested against one question: would you actually trust what this is about to change on your live site?
Color Scheme & Visual Identity:
Color Scheme & Visual Identity:
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The primary surface splits deliberately — dark navigation rail for control, light card-based area for scanning;
The primary surface splits deliberately — dark navigation rail for control, light card-based area for scanning;
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Violet marks anything AI-touched; everything human-authored stays neutral, so the eye always knows who decided what;
Violet marks anything AI-touched; everything human-authored stays neutral, so the eye always knows who decided what;
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Uplift and status indicators use a restrained green/red system, reserved exclusively for performance data.
Uplift and status indicators use a restrained green/red system, reserved exclusively for performance data.
User Experience & Engagement:
User Experience & Engagement:
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Every hypothesis renders as a live, on-brand preview before approval — no descriptions to interpret;
Every hypothesis renders as a live, on-brand preview before approval — no descriptions to interpret;
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Approval happens per variant, with inline editing before anything reaches a visitor;
Approval happens per variant, with inline editing before anything reaches a visitor;
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A live control room keeps every launched experiment observable, start to resolution.
A live control room keeps every launched experiment observable, start to resolution.
Onboarding & Distribution:
Onboarding & Distribution:
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Onboarding centers on one milestone — install one script, and the first AI-generated insight about your own site appears in under a minute;
Onboarding centers on one milestone — install one script, and the first AI-generated insight about your own site appears in under a minute;
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Experiment cards are a single reusable pattern across the dashboard, onboarding scan results, and marketing site, so a prospect evaluating Dalton from an ad sees the same interface they'll actually use;
Experiment cards are a single reusable pattern across the dashboard, onboarding scan results, and marketing site, so a prospect evaluating Dalton from an ad sees the same interface they'll actually use;
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Platform-agnostic integration (Shopify, Webflow, WordPress, and a dozen others) is surfaced before signup — removing the biggest hesitation for a non-technical marketer: will this even work with what I already run?
Platform-agnostic integration (Shopify, Webflow, WordPress, and a dozen others) is surfaced before signup — removing the biggest hesitation for a non-technical marketer: will this even work with what I already run?
Measure & Test
Measure & Test
Measure & Test
Data Analysis & Testing Approach:
Data Analysis & Testing Approach:
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Instrumented every scan, edit, approval, and reallocation end-to-end via PostHog;
Instrumented every scan, edit, approval, and reallocation end-to-end via PostHog;
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Variants shown as live previews were approved without edits 2.4x more often than text-only hypotheses;
Variants shown as live previews were approved without edits 2.4x more often than text-only hypotheses;
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The moment of highest hesitation wasn't idea generation — it was the approval screen.
The moment of highest hesitation wasn't idea generation — it was the approval screen.
Enhancements Following GDPR & Compliance Readiness:
Enhancements Following GDPR & Compliance Readiness:
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As Dalton's script began running on EU production sites, consent-aware delivery, data residency, and a full change log were surfaced directly in the workspace — not buried in a signed DPA;
As Dalton's script began running on EU production sites, consent-aware delivery, data residency, and a full change log were surfaced directly in the workspace — not buried in a signed DPA;
As Dalton's script began running on EU production sites, consent-aware delivery, data residency, and a full change log were surfaced directly in the workspace — not buried in a signed DPA;
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Consent-aware variant delivery, so experiments respect a visitor's existing cookie preferences automatically;
Consent-aware variant delivery, so experiments respect a visitor's existing cookie preferences automatically;
Consent-aware variant delivery, so experiments respect a visitor's existing cookie preferences automatically;
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Data residency and hosting region exposed directly in workspace settings, not just in a signed agreement;
Data residency and hosting region exposed directly in workspace settings, not just in a signed agreement;
Data residency and hosting region exposed directly in workspace settings, not just in a signed agreement;
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A full change log surfaced inside every workspace, giving a customer's own compliance team an audit trail without needing to ask Dalton's;
A full change log surfaced inside every workspace, giving a customer's own compliance team an audit trail without needing to ask Dalton's;
A full change log surfaced inside every workspace, giving a customer's own compliance team an audit trail without needing to ask Dalton's;
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Instant pause and rollback controls made visible at the top level of every experiment, not buried two clicks deep.
Instant pause and rollback controls made visible at the top level of every experiment, not buried two clicks deep.
Instant pause and rollback controls made visible at the top level of every experiment, not buried two clicks deep.
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Compliance questions that once meant a round-trip through email were increasingly answered inside the product.
Compliance questions that once meant a round-trip through email were increasingly answered inside the product.
Compliance questions that once meant a round-trip through email were increasingly answered inside the product.
User Research & Iterative Refinements:
User Research & Iterative Refinements:
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Marketers didn't want less control — they wanted faster control: "I want to get through my review in ten seconds instead of ten minutes," one Head of Growth said;
Marketers didn't want less control — they wanted faster control: "I want to get through my review in ten seconds instead of ten minutes," one Head of Growth said;
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Microcopy now states consequence explicitly — "Launch to 100% of visitors," not a generic "Publish";
Microcopy now states consequence explicitly — "Launch to 100% of visitors," not a generic "Publish";
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Restructuring the first-review screen increased first-experiment completion by 19%.
Restructuring the first-review screen increased first-experiment completion by 19%.
Expanded Integrations & Industry Credibility:
Expanded Integrations & Industry Credibility:
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Platform logos (Shopify, Webflow, WordPress, and a dozen others) appear before signup;
Platform logos (Shopify, Webflow, WordPress, and a dozen others) appear before signup;
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Named client outcomes (Reima, Sunday, Aikido, Dexxter) anchor credibility across the site;
Named client outcomes (Reima, Sunday, Aikido, Dexxter) anchor credibility across the site;
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The onboarding scan itself is shareable — a marketer's first insight can go straight to a founder for buy-in.
The onboarding scan itself is shareable — a marketer's first insight can go straight to a founder for buy-in.
Impact
Impact
Impact
Dalton wasn't built from zero. Customers were already running experiments on production sites, and trust couldn't be interrupted. The job was to raise how much marketers trusted an AI system already touching their live websites.
Dalton wasn't built from zero. Customers were already running experiments on production sites, and trust couldn't be interrupted. The job was to raise how much marketers trusted an AI system already touching their live websites.
The metric that changed the sales conversation
The metric that changed the sales conversation
Approval-to-launch rate — the share of AI-generated variants shipped without a requested edit — became the number design was optimised around. It's the difference between a tool that suggests ideas and a tool a growth team actually runs on.
Approval-to-launch rate — the share of AI-generated variants shipped without a requested edit — became the number design was optimised around. It's the difference between a tool that suggests ideas and a tool a growth team actually runs on.
The behaviour marketers described unprompted
The behaviour marketers described unprompted
Founders started calling it "like having a CRO specialist overnight, and you just pick the winners in the morning" — without being asked. The design didn't invent that value proposition. It made one marketers were already living into something they could say out loud.
Founders started calling it "like having a CRO specialist overnight, and you just pick the winners in the morning" — without being asked. The design didn't invent that value proposition. It made one marketers were already living into something they could say out loud.
The signal from teams with no CRO background at all
The signal from teams with no CRO background at all
Multiple early customers found a winning variant within their first week — a result that traditionally needed a dedicated hire and months of setup.
Multiple early customers found a winning variant within their first week — a result that traditionally needed a dedicated hire and months of setup.
Built for teams that scale past their first experiment
Built for teams that scale past their first experiment
The real test wasn't the first approved variant — it was the tenth. Whether that habit holds at scale, across hundreds of workspaces, is the outcome still being measured.
The real test wasn't the first approved variant — it was the tenth. Whether that habit holds at scale, across hundreds of workspaces, is the outcome still being measured.
CRO tooling has split into two camps: powerful platforms that assume a team you don't have, and AI shortcuts that assume trust you haven't earned. Dalton sits between them — powerful enough to replace a specialist, transparent enough that replacing them never felt like a risk.
CRO tooling has split into two camps: powerful platforms that assume a team you don't have, and AI shortcuts that assume trust you haven't earned. Dalton sits between them — powerful enough to replace a specialist, transparent enough that replacing them never felt like a risk.
Copyright © 2026 Monochromatic Ltd. All rights reserved.
Workhub, 77 Lower Camden Street, Dublin, D02 XE80, Ireland
Copyright © 2026 Monochromatic Ltd. All rights reserved.
Workhub, 77 Lower Camden Street, Dublin, D02 XE80, Ireland
Copyright © 2026 Monochromatic Ltd. All rights reserved.
Workhub, 77 Lower Camden Street, Dublin, D02 XE80, Ireland