Building a Self-Service Data Platform for a Global Financial Instution
Reduced data verification cycles from weeks to minutes
Eliminated hundreds of manual data demand requests annually
Established a unified roadmap for global risk and finance data
Challenge
Data was a locked vault. For teams responsible for downstream regulatory reporting, the enterprise data warehouse was a “black box” where they couldn’t verify the quality or accuracy of data until it was too late. This wasn’t just a technical hurdle; it was a visibility bottleneck. The system pulled from hundreds of different source systems, but users had no way to verify if the data met their specific criteria before it was sent to downstream applications.
The process was broken by design. To check a single data point, users had to submit a manual “data demand” and wait several weeks for a response. If that data was found to be incorrect or missing—which happened often—they’d have to restart the entire cycle. This wasn’t just a technical hurdle; it was a systemic bottleneck. This request and wait culture paralysed downstream teams, increased the risk of reporting errors, and turned what should have been a simple validation into a multi-week project. The system assumed you were a Data Architect who already knew the schema, leaving everyone else in the dark.
Process
The strategy was all about shifting the pattern from manual request to instant validation. After kicking off the project with the wider product team, I began identifying who was actually using the system. We had the Architects (the owners) and the Investigators (the power users), but I discovered a new third persona: the Curious Explorer. These were the infrequent users who needed to understand data availability without being a database expert.
Using these personas, I ran user interviews to form a solid understanding of the goals and pain points. This led to “How Might We” statements and journey maps where I plotted the points where we could bypass the manual request team entirely and refine the process as a whole. I moved from lo-fi wireframes into validated hi-fi designs, ensuring that the engineering team had a blueprint for a system that could facilitate complex data analysis within minutes. This wasn’t just about a new UI; it was about demonstrating to the business that tech, business, and UX could collaborate to form more effective, insight-driven solutions. I focused on teaching by doing, walking stakeholders through the UX process as we went so they could see the value of an insight-driven roadmap firsthand.
RESULT
- Built a platform where users can verify data in minutes, not weeks, giving them the confidence to make reporting decisions at the speed of the business.
- Created a roadmap that actually stuck, helping the product team to understand and trust the UX process long after my part was done.
- Joined up a fragmented product team by demonstrating how tech, business, and UX can actually move in the same direction when the process is transparent.
- Proved the ROI of UX to a skeptical business, turning stand-ups and reviews into a showcase for how design solves multi-million dollar bottlenecks.
Lessons Learned
Provide Visibility – Throughout each stage of the process, ensure there is visibility of the project, whether this be through links to the deliverables, signposting to the files or regular playback sessions. This helps stakeholders to visibly see the progress and it helps the team easily find each others work
Teach by Doing – Sometimes the best way to show the value of a process is simply by doing it. No amount of talking or explaining can help show the benefit of using the full UX process. Walking others through this process as you go, combined with highlighting the deliverables and impact/results at the end will really make a difference for those unfamiliar or skeptical with our process
Communicate and Follow-Up – Throughout the project, make sure to keep lines of communication open constantly. This allows for the right work to be carried out and for effective follow-up to happen. Make sure to continually follow-up on work and progress as you go, this can help to keep the project on track, and more importantly moving in the right direction. Good follow-up is also useful when helping others to up-skill or those who require extra effort, it enables you to encourage them at each stage of the process