One Command Center for All Configuration
An enterprise-grade platform that gave business and data teams direct access to configuration settings — unlocking unlocking speed, trust, and efficiency.
One-for-All
A unified dashboard where business users can discover, filter, and manage all configurations without technical assistance.
Test Before Launch
Introduced a safe sandbox where users can simulate new optimization strategies before committing to production.
Guided Rule Creation
A step-by-step rule builder that breaks complex configuration updates into intuitive fields, reducing user errors.
Track Audit Trails
Maintain full accountability with timestamped audit trails, allowing users to trace edits, compare versions, and quickly revert.
Role
Senior UX Designer
Timeline
June - Sept 2024
Team
Product Manager,
Business Analyst, and
Data Engineer
Impact Stats
📈 +45% adoption
💸 $180K saved
The Spark — Why this project mattered.
Every week, business teams submitted dozens of tickets to update simple system configurations — whether adjusting pricing thresholds or modifying routing rules. Each change required engineers to manually edit backend code, resulting in slow loops, dependency overhead, and risky deployments due to lack of transparency.
Project Goal
How might we enable business teams to update system configurations independently, reducing dependency on engineering and improving turnaround times?
Business Goals
A full switch from dev-managed to user-managed configurations for selected use cases.
50% reduction in turnaround time
Save costs associated with engineering bandwidth and operational errors
Increase configuration transparency and auditability
Increase adoption among business and data teamsthrough a user-friendly interface
Discovery — Listening to the People Behind.
To truly understand what was needed, I conducted deep-dive interviews with six business operations users and two data analysts. I also shadowed their work sessions, mapping out pain points as they navigated Jira tickets, Confluence documents, and Microsoft Teams to coordinate configuration changes.
Major Pain Points
Over-reliance on Engineers
Business teams were submitting 20+ configuration change requests each month.
Fear of Breaking Live Systems
Users hesitated to make changes due to the risk of disrupting live systems.
Lack of Visibility and Traceability
No way to see what's live, who changed what, or why — which led to mistrust.
Frequent Back-and-Forth
Frequent back-and-forth between teams led to slow, fragmented workflows.
Operational Inefficiencies & Risk of Delays
Errors in configuration changes led to operational setbacks — shipment delays, inefficient routing, and mismatched business rules.
User Journey —
Diving into the Process
Business/Data teams want to update logic or parameters (e.g., pricing thresholds, routing rules) to reflect operational or strategic shifts.
Design Outcome
The final solution included a one-for-all configurations management tool that allows simulation workflow, a guided config creation tool, and change history logs — all built with modular enterprise components.
Simulate and Validate Configurations Before Launch
A safe sandbox for users to simulate optimization strategies before committing to production, minimizing business risk while encouraging innovation.
Track Audit Trails for Accountability
Maintained full accountability with timestamped audit trails, allowing users to trace edits, compare versions, and quickly revert changes if needed.
Post MVP — Insights & Iteration
We discovered that many business associates needed more than just a UI to manage configurations—they also needed the ability to create new configuration rules themselves. To address this, we introduced a visual rule builder that enables users to interact with the database through intuitive UI components like buttons, form fields, and condition blocks — eliminating the need to write SQL. This empowered non-technical users to confidently create, test, and launch rules independently, accelerating workflows and reducing dependency on engineering.
Build Rules with Confidence, Not Complexity
Designed a step-by-step rule expressions builder that breaks complex configuration creation into intuitive fields, reducing user errors and boosting completion rates by 30%.
Outcomes —
Impact that Mattered
In the last 12 months, Config Center has unlocked $45M in AOP (against a plan of $25M). Currently, it helps Walmart Freight Planner to generate loads for 75% of total US inbound market.
Within the first 3 months of the launch
$6.5M
Operational cost savings through reduced manual handoffs and faster deployment cycles
80%
Drop in support tickets
related to config changes, leading to self-service configuration
3 days
Config turnaround time reduced from 3 days to
4 hours
76%
Decrease in configuration errors - safe, auditable changes
83%
Increase in platform adoption rate post-launch
What's Next? — Growth and Insights
This project taught me the value of designing for trust, not just functionality. I’d involve business and data analysts earlier to co-define system terminology and ensure shared understanding. I’d also advocate for real-time analytics dashboards to monitor usage patterns and inform future design iterations with data-driven insights.
