Transforming a Custom Tool into a Scalable Global Product

System Analysis // UX // UI

Summary

September - December 2024

Led the design audit and redesign of a custom-built solution for one client into a scalable tool for a Global Market. Collaborated with 1 designer on the Discovery phase, and executed on design delivery solo. 3 month process.

Context & Problem

The Continuous Professional Development (CPD) tool was originally built as a custom solution for a UK-based Financial Services Group. It allowed corporate learners and association members to track all of their professional learning in one place.

To expand its market reach, the business aimed to include CPD in the D2L for Associations package and sell it globally. However, this required converting it from a custom-built solution into a Brightspace Core tool that could serve a diverse customer base.

What I Did

The project began with an information-gathering phase to understand how CPD functioned, what challenges it faced, and what improvements were needed.

Stakeholder Collaboration

  • Interviewed internal subject matter experts who worked on the original customization to understand its design, workflows, and intended use.

  • Reviewed existing product walkthrough videos & competitor products

This allowed me to: Create workflow diagrams to visualize how CPD currently functioned to get a holistic understanding of the product & problems it solved for our corporate users.

Then, I collaborated on a Jobs-To-Be-Done (JTBD) analysis to define user needs across key personas:

  • Corporate Learners & Association Members – Need to track learning and meet compliance requirements.

  • Managers – Need oversight of team progress and compliance completion.

  • Admins – Need configuration control and reporting tools

This allowed me to: Identify gaps and usability issues with the existing workflow. I mapped our findings to the diagrams in Figma.

Gap Assessment & Prioritization

We evaluated CPD against Brightspace’s design system and identified areas where the UX needed improvement. Some examples:

  1. Labels were inconsistent across the tool and inconsistent with similar workflows elsewhere in Brightspace.

  2. Multiple, inconsistent workflows to “Add a Record” of learning, which was our users’ primary task.

  3. “Drafts” were hidden in a separate tab and difficult to find, causing users to start from scratch.

Next Steps:

  • Using my annotations (above) as a reference point, I worked with Product Management to determine which UX issues were most critical for general release, within a short development timeline (1.5 months).

  • I recommended that we made changes to key workflows that didn’t align with best practices or accessibility standards.

We prioritized a handful of improvements, such as consolidating the “Add a Record” workflow, as well as some interaction design patterns that were inaccessible (improper labelling, tab order, etc).

Result

By the end of the project, I successfully:

  • Defined clear personas and workflows to ensure the tool met the needs of corporate learners, association members, managers, and admins. This will help any future design efforts focus on consistent user needs

  • Identified and improved key workflows to be accessible and consistent with Brightspace’s design system

  • Adjusted the Information Architecture and sectioned information to make it easier to scan, moving key workflows above the fold

Ultimately, this redesign expanded D2L’s market reach, allowing global sales of the tool beyond the original UK client.

This transformation not only improved the tool’s usability but also positioned our team to increase market share by offering CPD to a broader customer base, while maintaining our quality UX and supporting user needs.

Reflections

This project reinforced the importance of scalability in product design. Custom solutions are tailored to a single client’s needs, but scalable product design requires a flexible approach that accommodates a broader user base.

I also learned firsthand how crucial cross-functional collaboration is in a redesign. Partnering with Product Management, Engineering, and subject matter experts helped fill knowledge gaps and balance both business goals and user needs.

Moving forward, I plan to apply these learnings by:

  • Engaging stakeholders early to understand business goals and user needs from the start.

  • Use modular design principles to ensure flexibility for different customer needs.