Redefining Global Financial Workflows for a Data Information Leader
Replaced high-friction legacy mainframes with modern, responsive interfaces
Eliminated “data black holes” that were causing massive duplicated effort
Unlocked new revenue streams within 6 months of the first launch
Challenge
A global financial information company was working on outdated mainframe systems, leading to niche job purposes and specialised knowledge required to complete tasks. Slow technology and the lack of any intuitive interfaces left users struggling to achieve the best results they could.
The biggest risk was the “data black holes.” Due to the volume of incoming data and the clunky systems, information was frequently overlooked or totally lost. This resulted in unnecessary manual effort to rectify frequent issues. It wasn’t just an efficiency problem; it was a revenue problem. Every time data went missing, it required massive effort to fix. The organization was a global leader in data insights, but their internal tools were a constant point of failure for their own employees.
Process
I worked directly with users through a series of custom workshops to map out the current pain points, mapping out stakeholders, touch-points, and journeys. It quickly became clear that the scale of the problem was too massive for a single fix, so I worked with the business to break the organization into three core workstreams. This allowed us to focus our energy where the friction was highest.
I worked closely with users in each stream to understand their goals and system functionality. This led to ideation and initial rounds of feedback before moving into lo-fi wireframes. Constant testing with users ensured we were moving in the right direction. By the time we reached hi-fi designs, I was acting as a bridge to development, handing off concepts that were not only human-centred but specifically engineered to scale as data volume continued to grow. This required adapting my process for each new set of users as we moved from one area of the business to the next.
RESULT
- Modernised the entire workflow with responsive interfaces that finally brought the organization up to modern standards.
- Killed the “black holes,” giving users 1-click visibility into their data so nothing gets lost in the shuffle.
- Streamlined the effort, cutting out the duplicated work that had been a drain on the business for years.
- Moved to production in 6 months, allowing the organization to finally scale the new revenue streams they’d been trying to build.