Partner portal

AppSumo built a thriving marketplace for B2C customers ("Sumo-lings"), but partners—the entrepreneurs and vendors fueling that marketplace—were stuck in the shadows. They could only access revenue data through a hidden link. There was no central place to manage listings, respond to feedback, understand their performance, or run campaigns. Partners felt neglected, and AppSumo was missing the chance to empower the creators at the heart of their business model.

Company: AppSumo

Role: Lead Product Designer

Partners: Founder, Product management, Engineering, Partner success

Discovery

Internal confusion

I conducted 10-15 in-depth interviews with existing partners, ranging from solopreneurs to larger teams. The conversations revealed that partners didn't just need data; they needed to feel like partners. 

Common frustrations

• Visibility. Partners had no way to understand how their products performed. Revenue data existed but was hidden and incomplete.
• Workflow friction. There was no single place to manage their presence on AppSumo. 
• Isolation from AppSumo. Partners rarely heard from the company beyond transactional emails.

Design

The portal's IA reflects what partners told us they needed:

• Dashboard for at-a-glance health
• Products to manage their catalog and statuses
• Analytics to understand what's working
• Billing for financial clarity, and
• Help resources to level up their performance

I wanted to maintain AppSumo's unserious, fun personality of fun icons, playful illustrations, bright greens, but also build enough credibility for business users to trust it. The solution was consistency.