destiny 2.0 is an ai tool that helps users automate advertising on their products. the budgets feature helps them execute more nuanced ad strategies through guardrails and spend models.
Timeline
Dec 2024 - Jun 2025
Team
1 Designer
1 PM
9 Frontend Engineers
3 Backend Engineers
2 Data Scientists
CONTEXT
when destiny 1.0 launched, it was a black box to users. destiny 2.0 gives users more visibility and input.
Destiny 1.0 was one of Pattern's first AI tools. However, its launch saw low user trust, low adoption, and low retention. Users had limited input on how the AI functioned, and it often acted against their expected strategy.
Ad spend budgets are one of our users' main priorities. If unable to control how budget is spent, it becomes impossible to execute any strategies. Lack of budgeting control was one of Destiny 1.0's biggest adoption barriers.
PROBLEM
in destiny 1.0, users only have one input for ad spend: daily budget.
The only way users could interact with Destiny 1.0 was by inputting a daily budget. Users were constantly supervising and adjusting this input, especially for products with fluctuating demand.
For tentpole events like Prime Day and Black Friday, users would pull their products from Destiny 1.0 so that they could have more control. Rather than a transformative ad tool, Destiny 1.0 became a dumping ground for low-performing products with that required little to no supervision.
SOLUTION
a flexible ai budgeting tool that takes more user input and builds user trust.
WHICH LED TO…
46%
of all Pattern ad spend going through the Destiny 2.0 budgets feature
89%
of adoption within target user group
INTRODUCING
destiny 2.0 budgets
An AI budgeting feature in Destiny 2.0 that allows users to perform complex ad spend planning by setting spend parameters, modeling spend periods, and tracking performance.
ai spend modeling tool
pattern 2025
FEATURE OVERVIEW
create a flight plan
During special events, users will usually have an overarching budget that gets allocated across product groups. Destiny 2.0 will find the optimal way to spend the event budget in the set timeframe.
model spend
Previously, budget was spent linearly across each day. Now, users can dictate how to distribute the event budget across days. This helps account for tentpole events like Black Friday, that have peak days in, lead-in periods, and lead-out periods.
review daily spend
Users also have more visibility into how Destiny 2.0 plans to spend their budgets based on their set flight plans and models. This view helps power users gain more insight into how the system works, and catch potential errors.
track performance
Users also have full visibility into Destiny 2.0's performance for past flights. This helps them better understand the system's limitations and determine the appropriate budget adjustments needed going into the future.
EDGE CASES & ERROR HANDLING
brand and marketplace views
We had to account what the budget feature would look like if users had their filter set to "all brands". Similarly, our European users segment their brands by country marketplace.
overlapping flights
Although a rare use case, users might want to create flight plans that have overlapping dates such as different sales happening around the same time.
tiny flights
Also a rare use case, but a valid concern from devs was what to display if users created a single day flight? What about 30 back to back single day flights?
THE BACKUP PLAN
lean design
This feature would introduce a lot of new components into the design system, which required a heavy dev lift. As we approached our launch date, our dev team was worried they wouldn't have the frontend ready by then. I designed an alternative interface using existing components in the design system to have a lean backup design. Luckily, the team was able to finish on time before launch! :D
see ya next time :)
last updated august 2025