The ask was a contact list. The problem was the whole workflow.

My role

I led the team, planned the user interviews, ran cross-functional workshops with compliance, risk and credit teams to test product hypotheses, and pitched the restructure that set the product up to grow.

01 / The ask

A contact list, to save advisors time

Before a client call, advisors pulled client information from 26 systems, one piece at a time. Time lost to admin was driving turnover. The brief asked for a consolidated view: in other words, a contact list.

02 / The reframe

The problems ran through every step, not just the list

Eight months of research uncovered issues across the whole workflow. Picture messaging an old friend on Facebook, but first checking your high-school diary, then the Yellow Pages, then Google. All this before even sending a poke. So we designed past the list.

03 / The pivot

In the pandemic, we opened the doors before the research

Focus shifted fast to risk mitigation. Adjudication, treasury and risk teams all had a part to play, so we let them in to speed up help for business owners. The cost was real: no content built for those roles, and a page full of alerts on emergency loans, overdue balances and special measures. Our first adjudicator interview showed they didn't need the client list at all.

04 / The fix

From a lawn full of furniture to a decorated home

After six months of building what we called a sticker album, more stakeholders wanted to integrate. We stopped and spent a few months on structure, through an object-oriented UX exercise with the broader team. I pitched it as moving from features scattered on a lawn to a home where everything has its place. It surfaced overlap nobody had considered.

Outcome

Users passed 3,500, and the roles started working together

The tool launched in July 2020, reached 2,000 users in its first month and grew past 3,500 as the pivot brought in new roles, with repeat use as its success signal. The bigger win was unplanned: one shared client overview streamlined how adjudicators and advisors worked together, and improved processes between several internal roles.

What I took from it

Structure first, then open the doors

Adding user types without research leaves them with nothing built for them. And designing for scale starts with an information architecture that can carry content as the product grows.