Life360: ADT GO
Sr. Product Designer & UX Manager • Sep 2016 – Jul 2018 • San Francisco, CA
The Challenge: Life360 partnered with ADT to integrate an emergency SOS safety system into the ADT Go app for millions of users. There was zero existing safety UX, complex onboarding integration across two platforms, numerous edge cases, strict HIPAA-level compliance, and an extremely aggressive 4-month timeline.
Results: SOS activations: +2.4M in first year. ADT average response time: 41 seconds (top 3% in industry). App Store safety rating: 4.9/5. User retention: +29% MoM. Shipped to 25 million users and featured in ADT’s 2019 Super Bowl commercial (seen by 98 million people)
Goal: Launch a reliable, high-trust SOS safety feature that ships to 100% of users, delivers sub-90-second panic-to-dispatch response, and meets strict safety, legal, and accessibility standards.
My Role: Design lead responsible for end-to-end UX, onboarding integration, feature design, and cross-company collaboration with ADT stakeholders. Reported to CPO while working with product, engineering, legal, and compliance teams.
Process: Conducted stakeholder workshops, user behavior research, and legal/compliance audits (HIPAA, COPPA). Created safety personas and detailed flow charts for complex integrations. Iterated from low- to high-fidelity designs in tight timelines. Built a Sketch pattern library (buttons, alerts, modals) for consistency.
Key Design Decisions: Onboarding integration: Combined Life360 and ADT flows to reduce friction while satisfying legal and technical requirements for millions of users. One-Tap SOS: Full-screen button with haptic feedback. 98.6% success rate in stress tests. Silent Mode + Auto-Dispatch: Location + voice sent to ADT without user input. 2.4M dispatches in first year. Established reusable design patterns: that ensured consistency and speed across iOS, Android, and web.
Take Aways: This project showed how human-centered design under pressure can create life-saving, inclusive emergency experiences that millions of people can trust in critical moments. By simplifying complex integrations, focusing on clarity, accessibility, and rapid iteration, we reduced barriers for users in high-stress situations.
One day I was pulled into a meeting. I was told Life360 was going to be partnering with ADT on a 10 million dollar project to leverage Life360's SOS feature and I was going to be the lead designer. I said, 'Ok cool, we got this.' It was a very aggressive timeline and the mood in the room seemed a bit doubtful that we could pull it off. There was no time to waste. We started designing wireframes on the integration flow between Life360's and ADT.
It was a very extensive and complex effort to figure out the best way to integrate Life360 and ADT users into a single onboarding experience and wireframe madness ensued. This is just a very small sample of the wireframes we went through to cover every user and edge case. Integration was no easy task. I still have nightmares about these flows.
We traveled to Florida to meet with the ADT team we were in a room with 20 ADT stakeholders and leaders. I was the only Life360 design representation. We spent two days locked in a room going over every detail and were finally able to finalize the flows. It was a great team effort and I was proud to be able to guide the way.
The main idea of this project was for ADT to leverage Life360's emergency SOS feature into their ADT Go product. The hardest part was integrating ADT users into a Life360 feature and all of the backend and legal ramifications that came with it. We added a completely new onboarding experience, a new SOS feature with a guided tutorial and a new settings section. The design had to be quick, clean and simple and align with both Life360 and ADT standards. There were a lot of trade offs but we made it happen.
After working with both the the Life360 and ADT teams we hit the EXTREMELY aggressive timeline and shipped this 10 million dollar project in under 4 months. Not only that, I learned late into the project that the timeline was so aggressive because ADT needed to ship a commercial for Super Bowl LLII in 2019. 98 million people saw our work in that commercial. I've learned in my career that no matter what we're going to get the job done. It may be hectic and crazy but we're going to get it done and it's always fun and rewarding in the end.
