Elevating an internal cloud security tool into a market-ready product
Cloud Risk View, initially an internal tool for EY's security specialists, was struggling to gain external traction. After two years, the product had no external customers, test pilots, or revenue. The design lacked research and market alignment, resulting in a product that didn't resonate with target users.
Role
Product Design Lead
Year
2023
Team
Myself
4 PMs
50 Devs
10 QAs
Deliverables
Stakeholder Interviews
Competitive Analysis
Personas
Mockups
Prototypes
Executive Presentations
Final Specs
Asset Production
Lack of initial user research and market understanding made decision-making difficult
The product team was directionless, with high turnover and no cohesive vision. Developers were disengaged, and the product suffered from a lack of strategic planning. There were strong opinions from internal users as well as the consulting team. I was brought in to turn the product around within six months, aligning it with market needs and EY's new design system.
Conducted extensive market and user research to understand user needs, existing solutions, and gaps in the market.
Identified key personas, initially focusing on executive users who needed high-level data insights, then quickly following up with a new experience for their direct reports.
The product's existing design did not meet the needs of target users
Potential user and stakeholder interviews made it clear the product needed to take a different approach to be successful. I shared my findings with the leadership team and laid out a vision for the future. High levels of touch and collaboration lead to a strong rapport with many key figures across the product team.
Key Takeaways
Pass/Fail wasn’t a useful designation for conveying risk
Available charts did not provide insightful or actionable information
Incohesive visual design made the app feel unprofessional
Relevant information was buried several clicks away in a clunky UI
Issues identified by the tool had to be documented and resolved elsewhere
Frequently used reports and metrics were glaringly missing
A very static, solitary experience led to high bounce rates and abandonment
Developers were not using shared code across the app which hindered development and confused users
The product when I first arrived. I immediately stopped any unnecessary development to refocus the team's efforts on meaningful redesign.
Stop. Collaborate and listen
I’d learned everything I could in the allotted time but needed ongoing clarity. Given the tight deadline for this project, I did something I’ve never done before: design in public. I had a standing meeting every day for 3 weeks with key stakeholders to review and work through my concepts. Feedback shared would be incorporated the next day. And it actually worked!
Engaged the consulting team to ensure the product met market needs and could be effectively sold to external clients.
Prioritized delivering a minimum viable product (MVP) with essential features that could secure executive buy-in and additional funding.
Developed a seamless platform experience that catered to both internal and external users, stratified by user personas.
Focused on redesigning the product to align with EY's new design system, ensuring future-proofing and ease of updates.
A redesign was promised, and it was time to deliver
A redesign had been on the back burner for months before I arrived, and the larger team was growing restless. I synthesized everything I’d learned and built support for a shared vision of an MVP, then got to work on executing that vision.
Designed an intuitive, visually appealing dashboard that provided value to both executive and non-executive users.
Maintained a tight focus on delivering a product that met user needs, resisted feature bloat, and provided real value to its users.
Focused on redesigning the product to align with EY's new design system, ensuring future-proofing and ease of updates.
Successfully navigated internal struggles with the design system, ensuring the product was compliant and future-proof.
Developed a seamless platform experience that catered to internal and external users, stratified by user personas.
Leveraged progressive disclosure to streamline the user experience, balancing easy access to important information with reduced navigation complexity.
Impact and Conclusion
“Clay has recently joined the CRV team to lead the redesign and has done an outstanding job interpreting requirements from the Business Team into new designs. He has gone above and beyond in user and product research to understand the product’s desired outcome. Clay has been very patient during brainstorming sessions, which sometimes lead to adjustments in his initial design. He remains committed to CRV’s success, not shooting down any initial suggestions even if they require more work. The new CRV UX/UI design is awesome, thanks to Clay’s efforts!”
At the end of 6 months, I’d delivered a complete application redesign grounded in user feedback and built on a solid foundation of EY’s internal design system. Stakeholders were pleased and the team secured another year of funding.
“Clay led the development of the updated user interface for EY Cloud Risk View. He conducted regular working sessions with the team to obtain feedback and provided quick turnaround times to incorporate feedback. Overall, Clay provided high-quality work, incorporating iterative updates.”
“Clay’s designs have been commendable and equally liked by both the team and stakeholders.”