1
The brief was deceptively simple. Take an internal console shaped by database tables, and turn it into something seven different teams could trust. Ship the free tier by February 19th. Non-negotiable.
Feb 19
Hard MVP deadline
7
Internal user groups
0 -> RBAC
From open access to tiered
2
THE USABILITY AUDIT
I walked the console the way each team would — as a security lead, a content editor, an auditor, an ops manager. Same problem everywhere: the interface was built around the database, not the person using it.
Everyone sees everything
A marketing copywriter saw the same controls as IT. No separation of concern, no trust model.
Navigation by data model
Labels matched table names. Users had to translate their goal into schema before they could act.
Top tasks buried
The flows each team used most lived three or four clicks deep, behind engineer-written labels.
A growing interface tax
Every new feature was bolted on top — and routed back to engineering as another support ticket.
3
MAPPING MENTAL MODELS
Discovery interviews with every team lead — goals, friction, what "done" looked like — collapsed into seven cognitive archetypes. Each one became the seed of a role, a permission ceiling, and a point of view the dashboard could speak to.
The Vigilant Guardian
SECURITY, ADMIN, IT
The Objective Witness
GRC, LEGAL, AUDITORS
The Strategic Observer
BUSINESS & STAKEHOLDERS
4
THE DESIGN SOLUTIONS
AI didn't replace the work — it collapsed the cost of being wrong.
Navigation, data tables, and filters were AI-augmented so every weekly check-in had something tangible to stress-test. That pressure surfaced what no spec doc would: several top workflows were buried far too deep.
Iteration velocity vs. manual cycles
Weekly check-ins
Users shaping the work
Layered permissions — complex underneath, simple on the surface.
Each archetype carries both leadership and team-level responsibilities. The tiered model gives every action a clear owner, and scopes the dashboard to whoever is looking at it.
Inclusivity, not a checklist.
Built alongside the design system owner: color, focus order, motion, and content patterns reviewed together. WCAG 2.2 AA was met at launch, not patched in after.
5
RESULTS
Shipped on time
Launched on the deadline with no scope cuts to the core RBAC model.
Engineering unblocked
Department leads now self-serve — interface tickets stopped flowing back to engineering.
Foundation to build on
Finance, Ops, and future modules slot directly into the same permission system.
"Wow! This is exactly what we needed. It's much better to use."
— DEPARTMENT LEAD, POST- LAUNCH
6
REALITY CHECK
Every project has the version on the slides and the version that actually happened. Here's what shaped the work as much as the strategy did.
UX/UI/CRO audit and design solutions for SaaS, web apps, and early-stage startups — built around the people actually using it.
c
2026 SB - Product Design Strategist.
EMPATHETIC.
SYSTEMATIC.
OBSERVATIONAL.