The challenge
One suite. Five different starting points.
I began as the sole designer for rate optimization. When five tools merged into one FinOps suite, many users still knew only their original tool. Our first design challenge was a shared dashboard that introduced the broader suite while keeping familiar work accessible.
The suite connected capacity planning, cost estimation, cost allocation, cost optimization, and rate optimization. I built a broader understanding of these capabilities while learning to collaborate with designers who had also owned separate tools.
Users & my role
FinOps analysts, finance, leadership, and other roles needed to understand their line of business from different perspectives. Within rate optimization, analysts reviewed costs, inventory, and cloud commitments to improve utilization and coverage.
I owned information architecture, visual design, decision coordination, and navigation research. I worked with Product and other designers on the shared experience.
Key decisions
Define a focused first release
Product and Design agreed the initial set of metrics. We used uniform dashboard items and placed persona filtering at the top. We omitted time-range filtering because the data combined historical and predictive views.
Test familiar tasks in unfamiliar navigation
In live, one-to-one Figma usability sessions, I asked users to reach a familiar deeper page from the new dashboard. Some struggled with updated or similar labels. I presented recommendations to leadership; we changed confusing labels while allowing room to learn new terminology through exploration.
Challenge fixed personas
The persona filter changed the category of data shown. I argued that users’ responsibilities overlap: someone in finance may also do operational work. I advocated views users could configure themselves, and raised the cost of asking them to relearn the experience if flexibility arrived later.
From advocacy to delivery
A deferred recommendation became a delivered feature.
The persona approach had been chosen before UX joined that decision. Product retained it for the initial scope and deferred customization. Months later, I revisited the need. Product agreed that a few personas could not capture the variation in responsibilities, and I drove customization through design, development, and production.
Defined by persona
Preset categories determined the data users saw.
Organized by the user
Create tabs, choose available data, name categories, and arrange the view.
I placed a plus control after the existing tabs to signal creating another view. Users choose from a predefined selection of data; custom widgets I prepared remain future work.
Outcome
More control over how work is organized.
User-defined tabs reached production. The delivered change lets users organize views around their responsibilities rather than rely only on fixed personas.
The project shows how I connect research, product decisions, and delivery—and return to an important user need when it falls outside the initial scope.
The Rate Optimization team received the 2023 Hasso Plattner Founders’ Award for Operational Excellence. I was its UX designer. This recognition relates to rate optimization, rather than the shared dashboard project.