Introduction
This case study breaks down the full redesign of Atoz Services’ internal CRM — a tool critical to managing clients, projects, and compliance. The goal wasn’t just to refresh the UI, but to rethink the entire experience. We transformed a slow, frustrating system into a streamlined, trustworthy platform that improved daily workflows, data quality, and team alignment.
The Story: A CRM So Complex, Even Experts Got Lost
At Atoz, tax professionals worked under tight deadlines, and their main tool was getting in the way. The internal CRM was meant to support everything from client management to project tracking, but years of quick fixes and urgent updates had made it hard to use and even harder to trust.
Key pain points:
Search was slow and unreliable, wasting 10–15 minutes per complex task
Documents were hard to find, often buried under inconsistent categories
Users resorted to sticky notes, spreadsheets, or asking around
The overall feeling?
"I only use it because I have to."
My job was to lead the design transformation, to restore trust, reduce friction, and help teams work faster and smarter.
My Role & Leadership
As the only product designer on the project, I owned the entire design process from start to finish. This wasn’t just about visuals, it was about solving deep UX problems, aligning stakeholders, and working closely with engineering to ship real change.
What I did:
Set the Design Vision: Defined clear UX principles to guide the redesign across teams.
Led Stakeholder Collaboration: Worked directly with 3 backend developers, 1 PM, and stakeholders across departments, from assistants to partners. This meant gathering input, presenting ideas, and aligning on priorities.
Advocated for Users: Put user pain points at the center of every decision, even when it meant navigating legacy tech or business constraints.
We worked in sprints and shipped iteratively, balancing bold changes with what was technically feasible in a complex legacy system.
Understanding the Problem
The CRM wasn’t just hard to use — it created real business problems that affected performance, accuracy, and team morale.
Wasted Time: Users spent up to 30% of their task time trying to navigate the system instead of doing actual work.
Data Issues: Inconsistent inputs and reliance on spreadsheets led to errors, missing information, and compliance risks.
Low Adoption & Trust: Many users avoided the CRM altogether. Support saw around 55 tickets/month just for basic usability issues.
These problems hurt productivity, increased operational costs, and slowed down the firm’s ability to scale. It was more than a UX issue — it was a business liability.
Key Challenges & Constraints
Designing the solution meant navigating several layers of complexity:
Different User Needs: Partners wanted high-level insights. Assistants needed detailed task tools. We had to design a system that worked well for both.
Legacy Tech Stack: Outdated architecture (outdated libraries, old Java) limited what we could do in real time. For example, we couldn’t use live search, so we designed a solution around nightly indexing and smart filtering.
Urgent Rollout Needs: The team needed fixes fast. We focused on high-impact areas first and rolled out changes in phases.
Tangled Data: The relationships between clients, projects, teams, and documents were messy. We had to clean up the structure to make things easier to find and understand.
Improve, Not Replace: We couldn’t start from scratch. The redesign had to work within the existing system and make smart, sustainable improvements.
Understanding the Problem
The CRM wasn’t just hard to use — it created real business problems that affected performance, accuracy, and team morale.
Wasted Time: Users spent up to 30% of their task time trying to navigate the system instead of doing actual work.
Data Issues: Inconsistent inputs and reliance on spreadsheets led to errors, missing information, and compliance risks.
Low Adoption & Trust: Many users avoided the CRM altogether. Support saw around 55 tickets/month just for basic usability issues.
These problems hurt productivity, increased operational costs, and slowed down the firm’s ability to scale. It was more than a UX issue — it was a business liability.
Key Challenges & Constraints
Designing the solution meant navigating several layers of complexity:
Different User Needs: Partners wanted high-level insights. Assistants needed detailed task tools. We had to design a system that worked well for both.
Legacy Tech Stack: Outdated architecture (outdated libraries, old Java) limited what we could do in real time. For example, we couldn’t use live search, so we designed a solution around nightly indexing and smart filtering.
Urgent Rollout Needs: The team needed fixes fast. We focused on high-impact areas first and rolled out changes in phases.
Tangled Data: The relationships between clients, projects, teams, and documents were messy. We had to clean up the structure to make things easier to find and understand.
Improve, Not Replace: We couldn’t start from scratch. The redesign had to work within the existing system and make smart, sustainable improvements.
Understanding the Problem
The CRM wasn’t just hard to use — it created real business problems that affected performance, accuracy, and team morale.
Wasted Time: Users spent up to 30% of their task time trying to navigate the system instead of doing actual work.
Data Issues: Inconsistent inputs and reliance on spreadsheets led to errors, missing information, and compliance risks.
Low Adoption & Trust: Many users avoided the CRM altogether. Support saw around 55 tickets/month just for basic usability issues.
These problems hurt productivity, increased operational costs, and slowed down the firm’s ability to scale. It was more than a UX issue — it was a business liability.
Key Challenges & Constraints
Designing the solution meant navigating several layers of complexity:
Different User Needs: Partners wanted high-level insights. Assistants needed detailed task tools. We had to design a system that worked well for both.
Legacy Tech Stack: Outdated architecture (outdated libraries, old Java) limited what we could do in real time. For example, we couldn’t use live search, so we designed a solution around nightly indexing and smart filtering.
Urgent Rollout Needs: The team needed fixes fast. We focused on high-impact areas first and rolled out changes in phases.
Tangled Data: The relationships between clients, projects, teams, and documents were messy. We had to clean up the structure to make things easier to find and understand.
Improve, Not Replace: We couldn’t start from scratch. The redesign had to work within the existing system and make smart, sustainable improvements.
Research & Discovery: Grounding Design in Reality
To truly fix the CRM, I needed to understand how it broke down in real life — not just in theory. I used several research methods to uncover the full picture, combining direct feedback, behavioral observation, and system-level analysis.
It Started With Listening
I began with 10+ in-depth stakeholder interviews, one-hour sessions with tax advisors, assistants, project managers, and operations leads. I asked open-ended questions, watched how they navigated the system, and followed up on pain points. These sessions revealed:
"I spend more time figuring out how to do something than actually doing it."
Confusion over where to find key actions or data
Reliance on memory and guesswork for completing tasks
Making Sense of the Chaos
After gathering raw notes, I ran an affinity mapping workshop to surface patterns. The themes that stood out:
Cluttered Navigation — users didn’t know where to go next
Inconsistent Data Input — lots of errors and double entry
Lack of System Feedback — no confirmation, no clarity, no trust These themes became the foundation for the first round of design hypotheses.
A Deep UX Audit to Connect the Dots
Next, I ran a heuristic evaluation using Nielsen’s 10 usability principles. I focused on key flows: contact creation, search, dashboards, task updates. I found 20+ critical issues like:
Ambiguous navigation labels
Inconsistent component behavior
Redundant or broken flows Each problem was documented with screenshots, severity ratings, and ideas for improvement — helping us prioritize what to fix first.
Watching the Real Struggles
Observing users in action revealed the gap between intent and reality. I shadowed 5 team members during their day-to-day work. I saw:
Post-it notes with CRM shortcuts
Handwritten task lists
Workarounds in Excel and email These weren't just edge cases — they were daily habits. The system wasn’t helping people work; it was forcing them to create parallel ones.
Zooming Out with Data
To back up what we heard and saw, I teamed up with the internal support team to review CRM-related tickets. On average, 55 tickets/month were logged — most about usability. Common threads included:
"I can’t find my client’s file"
"The filters don’t work as expected"
"I’m not sure if my updates saved" These pain points directly matched the patterns from interviews and audit findings.
Even the Training Told a Story
I reviewed internal guides, training documents, and onboarding materials. What I found: pages of workaround tips, outdated screenshots, and instructions that contradicted the actual UI. These weren’t just bad docs — they were signs of a broken product experience.
The Moment It Clicked
After all that, one insight became crystal clear:
The CRM wasn’t just broken. It was actively avoided.
That changed everything. From then on, every design decision aimed to rebuild trust — through clearer interfaces, smarter feedback, and fewer workarounds. We weren’t just fixing usability. We were repairing a relationship.
Research & Discovery: Grounding Design in Reality
To truly fix the CRM, I needed to understand how it broke down in real life — not just in theory. I used several research methods to uncover the full picture, combining direct feedback, behavioral observation, and system-level analysis.
It Started With Listening
I began with 10+ in-depth stakeholder interviews, one-hour sessions with tax advisors, assistants, project managers, and operations leads. I asked open-ended questions, watched how they navigated the system, and followed up on pain points. These sessions revealed:
"I spend more time figuring out how to do something than actually doing it."
Confusion over where to find key actions or data
Reliance on memory and guesswork for completing tasks
Making Sense of the Chaos
After gathering raw notes, I ran an affinity mapping workshop to surface patterns. The themes that stood out:
Cluttered Navigation — users didn’t know where to go next
Inconsistent Data Input — lots of errors and double entry
Lack of System Feedback — no confirmation, no clarity, no trust These themes became the foundation for the first round of design hypotheses.
A Deep UX Audit to Connect the Dots
Next, I ran a heuristic evaluation using Nielsen’s 10 usability principles. I focused on key flows: contact creation, search, dashboards, task updates. I found 20+ critical issues like:
Ambiguous navigation labels
Inconsistent component behavior
Redundant or broken flows Each problem was documented with screenshots, severity ratings, and ideas for improvement — helping us prioritize what to fix first.
Watching the Real Struggles
Observing users in action revealed the gap between intent and reality. I shadowed 5 team members during their day-to-day work. I saw:
Post-it notes with CRM shortcuts
Handwritten task lists
Workarounds in Excel and email These weren't just edge cases — they were daily habits. The system wasn’t helping people work; it was forcing them to create parallel ones.
Zooming Out with Data
To back up what we heard and saw, I teamed up with the internal support team to review CRM-related tickets. On average, 55 tickets/month were logged — most about usability. Common threads included:
"I can’t find my client’s file"
"The filters don’t work as expected"
"I’m not sure if my updates saved" These pain points directly matched the patterns from interviews and audit findings.
Even the Training Told a Story
I reviewed internal guides, training documents, and onboarding materials. What I found: pages of workaround tips, outdated screenshots, and instructions that contradicted the actual UI. These weren’t just bad docs — they were signs of a broken product experience.
The Moment It Clicked
After all that, one insight became crystal clear:
The CRM wasn’t just broken. It was actively avoided.
That changed everything. From then on, every design decision aimed to rebuild trust — through clearer interfaces, smarter feedback, and fewer workarounds. We weren’t just fixing usability. We were repairing a relationship.
Research & Discovery: Grounding Design in Reality
To truly fix the CRM, I needed to understand how it broke down in real life — not just in theory. I used several research methods to uncover the full picture, combining direct feedback, behavioral observation, and system-level analysis.
It Started With Listening
I began with 10+ in-depth stakeholder interviews, one-hour sessions with tax advisors, assistants, project managers, and operations leads. I asked open-ended questions, watched how they navigated the system, and followed up on pain points. These sessions revealed:
"I spend more time figuring out how to do something than actually doing it."
Confusion over where to find key actions or data
Reliance on memory and guesswork for completing tasks
Making Sense of the Chaos
After gathering raw notes, I ran an affinity mapping workshop to surface patterns. The themes that stood out:
Cluttered Navigation — users didn’t know where to go next
Inconsistent Data Input — lots of errors and double entry
Lack of System Feedback — no confirmation, no clarity, no trust These themes became the foundation for the first round of design hypotheses.
A Deep UX Audit to Connect the Dots
Next, I ran a heuristic evaluation using Nielsen’s 10 usability principles. I focused on key flows: contact creation, search, dashboards, task updates. I found 20+ critical issues like:
Ambiguous navigation labels
Inconsistent component behavior
Redundant or broken flows Each problem was documented with screenshots, severity ratings, and ideas for improvement — helping us prioritize what to fix first.
Watching the Real Struggles
Observing users in action revealed the gap between intent and reality. I shadowed 5 team members during their day-to-day work. I saw:
Post-it notes with CRM shortcuts
Handwritten task lists
Workarounds in Excel and email These weren't just edge cases — they were daily habits. The system wasn’t helping people work; it was forcing them to create parallel ones.
Zooming Out with Data
To back up what we heard and saw, I teamed up with the internal support team to review CRM-related tickets. On average, 55 tickets/month were logged — most about usability. Common threads included:
"I can’t find my client’s file"
"The filters don’t work as expected"
"I’m not sure if my updates saved" These pain points directly matched the patterns from interviews and audit findings.
Even the Training Told a Story
I reviewed internal guides, training documents, and onboarding materials. What I found: pages of workaround tips, outdated screenshots, and instructions that contradicted the actual UI. These weren’t just bad docs — they were signs of a broken product experience.
The Moment It Clicked
After all that, one insight became crystal clear:
The CRM wasn’t just broken. It was actively avoided.
That changed everything. From then on, every design decision aimed to rebuild trust — through clearer interfaces, smarter feedback, and fewer workarounds. We weren’t just fixing usability. We were repairing a relationship.
Design Process: From Messy to Modular
With a clear understanding of user pain points and technical constraints, the design phase began — and it had to be lean, collaborative, and deeply iterative. Here’s how the redesign took shape, step by step.
Discovery Turned into Direction
Armed with insights from research, I mapped out the highest-friction areas in the existing CRM: search, navigation, contact creation, and dashboards. These weren’t just frustrating — they were costing time and trust. This foundation helped us prioritize what to tackle first.
Rapid Wireframes: Sketching Simplicity
I started with low-fidelity wireframes in Figma to explore new flows. The goal wasn’t to reinvent everything — it was to cut clutter, reduce steps, and make core actions easier to access.
Examples:
Reimagined the contact creation flow to eliminate unnecessary fields and reduce scrolling.
Simplified navigation by grouping related tasks instead of scattering them across levels.
These wireframes became the blueprint for early feedback with stakeholders.
Prototyping & UI Design: From Structure to Style
Once the wireframes were validated, I shifted to high-fidelity mockups and interactive prototypes. I introduced a clean, modern visual language grounded in clarity and consistency. But visuals weren’t the only focus.
Building the Design System
I created a reusable component library (React + Sass using BEM), including:
Buttons, inputs, table layouts, and notification banners
Defined tokenized styles for typography, colors, and spacing
This wasn’t just about consistency — it significantly sped up dev handoff and ensured the platform could scale cleanly in the future.
b. Restructuring Information Architecture
Navigation was one of the most painful parts of the old CRM. We replaced the overwhelming multi-level menu with a role-based system that showed users only what they needed.
Alternatives like mega-menus were explored, but ultimately rejected due to the varying permissions and complexity of user roles. Our final structure helped reduce cognitive load and made it easier to find high-priority tasks.
Working Side-by-Side with Developers
Because of legacy system constraints (e.g., older Java stack with Struts), not every idea could be implemented as-is. So instead of throwing over Figma files, I embedded directly in the dev workflow:
Held daily syncs to stay aligned on feasibility
Co-designed solutions when limitations came up
Example: Real-time search wasn’t technically possible, so we introduced nightly indexing + pre-defined filter chips for faster results
This tight loop between design and engineering helped us move faster, smarter, and more pragmatically.
Usability Testing: Validating in the Real World
With working prototypes, we ran moderated usability sessions with actual tax professionals. We observed how they navigated redesigned flows, listened to their feedback, and measured success via:
Time on task
Completion rates
Error recovery
This led to immediate improvements — for instance, reorganizing the task list layout in the dashboard and rewording button labels to make actions more predictable. Feedback confirmed the new navigation felt intuitive and tasks were easier to complete without extra help.
Before & After: From Clutter to Clarity
[Insert Before/After Screenshot: Old Dashboard vs. New]
Before
Crowded tables with inconsistent layouts
Key data buried under multiple tabs
Vague action buttons with unclear outcomes
After
Clean, role-specific dashboards showing upcoming tasks, deadlines, and client statuses
Visual hierarchy that surfaces what matters most
Clear, prominent entry points for frequent actions like “Add New Client” and “View Open Tasks”
[Insert Before/After Screenshot: Search & Contact Creation]
Before
Forms were long, messy, and prone to errors
Search was slow and returned too many irrelevant results
Users often abandoned search to look manually
After
Clean, structured forms with input masks and helpful defaults
Streamlined search with faster results and useful filters
Reduced steps and cognitive effort for frequent lookup tasks
Design Process: From Messy to Modular
With a clear understanding of user pain points and technical constraints, the design phase began — and it had to be lean, collaborative, and deeply iterative. Here’s how the redesign took shape, step by step.
Discovery Turned into Direction
Armed with insights from research, I mapped out the highest-friction areas in the existing CRM: search, navigation, contact creation, and dashboards. These weren’t just frustrating — they were costing time and trust. This foundation helped us prioritize what to tackle first.
Rapid Wireframes: Sketching Simplicity
I started with low-fidelity wireframes in Figma to explore new flows. The goal wasn’t to reinvent everything — it was to cut clutter, reduce steps, and make core actions easier to access.
Examples:
Reimagined the contact creation flow to eliminate unnecessary fields and reduce scrolling.
Simplified navigation by grouping related tasks instead of scattering them across levels.
These wireframes became the blueprint for early feedback with stakeholders.
Prototyping & UI Design: From Structure to Style
Once the wireframes were validated, I shifted to high-fidelity mockups and interactive prototypes. I introduced a clean, modern visual language grounded in clarity and consistency. But visuals weren’t the only focus.
Building the Design System
I created a reusable component library (React + Sass using BEM), including:
Buttons, inputs, table layouts, and notification banners
Defined tokenized styles for typography, colors, and spacing
This wasn’t just about consistency — it significantly sped up dev handoff and ensured the platform could scale cleanly in the future.
b. Restructuring Information Architecture
Navigation was one of the most painful parts of the old CRM. We replaced the overwhelming multi-level menu with a role-based system that showed users only what they needed.
Alternatives like mega-menus were explored, but ultimately rejected due to the varying permissions and complexity of user roles. Our final structure helped reduce cognitive load and made it easier to find high-priority tasks.
Working Side-by-Side with Developers
Because of legacy system constraints (e.g., older Java stack with Struts), not every idea could be implemented as-is. So instead of throwing over Figma files, I embedded directly in the dev workflow:
Held daily syncs to stay aligned on feasibility
Co-designed solutions when limitations came up
Example: Real-time search wasn’t technically possible, so we introduced nightly indexing + pre-defined filter chips for faster results
This tight loop between design and engineering helped us move faster, smarter, and more pragmatically.
Usability Testing: Validating in the Real World
With working prototypes, we ran moderated usability sessions with actual tax professionals. We observed how they navigated redesigned flows, listened to their feedback, and measured success via:
Time on task
Completion rates
Error recovery
This led to immediate improvements — for instance, reorganizing the task list layout in the dashboard and rewording button labels to make actions more predictable. Feedback confirmed the new navigation felt intuitive and tasks were easier to complete without extra help.
Before & After: From Clutter to Clarity
[Insert Before/After Screenshot: Old Dashboard vs. New]
Before
Crowded tables with inconsistent layouts
Key data buried under multiple tabs
Vague action buttons with unclear outcomes
After
Clean, role-specific dashboards showing upcoming tasks, deadlines, and client statuses
Visual hierarchy that surfaces what matters most
Clear, prominent entry points for frequent actions like “Add New Client” and “View Open Tasks”
[Insert Before/After Screenshot: Search & Contact Creation]
Before
Forms were long, messy, and prone to errors
Search was slow and returned too many irrelevant results
Users often abandoned search to look manually
After
Clean, structured forms with input masks and helpful defaults
Streamlined search with faster results and useful filters
Reduced steps and cognitive effort for frequent lookup tasks
Design Process: From Messy to Modular
With a clear understanding of user pain points and technical constraints, the design phase began — and it had to be lean, collaborative, and deeply iterative. Here’s how the redesign took shape, step by step.
Discovery Turned into Direction
Armed with insights from research, I mapped out the highest-friction areas in the existing CRM: search, navigation, contact creation, and dashboards. These weren’t just frustrating — they were costing time and trust. This foundation helped us prioritize what to tackle first.
Rapid Wireframes: Sketching Simplicity
I started with low-fidelity wireframes in Figma to explore new flows. The goal wasn’t to reinvent everything — it was to cut clutter, reduce steps, and make core actions easier to access.
Examples:
Reimagined the contact creation flow to eliminate unnecessary fields and reduce scrolling.
Simplified navigation by grouping related tasks instead of scattering them across levels.
These wireframes became the blueprint for early feedback with stakeholders.
Prototyping & UI Design: From Structure to Style
Once the wireframes were validated, I shifted to high-fidelity mockups and interactive prototypes. I introduced a clean, modern visual language grounded in clarity and consistency. But visuals weren’t the only focus.
Building the Design System
I created a reusable component library (React + Sass using BEM), including:
Buttons, inputs, table layouts, and notification banners
Defined tokenized styles for typography, colors, and spacing
This wasn’t just about consistency — it significantly sped up dev handoff and ensured the platform could scale cleanly in the future.
b. Restructuring Information Architecture
Navigation was one of the most painful parts of the old CRM. We replaced the overwhelming multi-level menu with a role-based system that showed users only what they needed.
Alternatives like mega-menus were explored, but ultimately rejected due to the varying permissions and complexity of user roles. Our final structure helped reduce cognitive load and made it easier to find high-priority tasks.
Working Side-by-Side with Developers
Because of legacy system constraints (e.g., older Java stack with Struts), not every idea could be implemented as-is. So instead of throwing over Figma files, I embedded directly in the dev workflow:
Held daily syncs to stay aligned on feasibility
Co-designed solutions when limitations came up
Example: Real-time search wasn’t technically possible, so we introduced nightly indexing + pre-defined filter chips for faster results
This tight loop between design and engineering helped us move faster, smarter, and more pragmatically.
Usability Testing: Validating in the Real World
With working prototypes, we ran moderated usability sessions with actual tax professionals. We observed how they navigated redesigned flows, listened to their feedback, and measured success via:
Time on task
Completion rates
Error recovery
This led to immediate improvements — for instance, reorganizing the task list layout in the dashboard and rewording button labels to make actions more predictable. Feedback confirmed the new navigation felt intuitive and tasks were easier to complete without extra help.
Before & After: From Clutter to Clarity
[Insert Before/After Screenshot: Old Dashboard vs. New]
Before
Crowded tables with inconsistent layouts
Key data buried under multiple tabs
Vague action buttons with unclear outcomes
After
Clean, role-specific dashboards showing upcoming tasks, deadlines, and client statuses
Visual hierarchy that surfaces what matters most
Clear, prominent entry points for frequent actions like “Add New Client” and “View Open Tasks”
[Insert Before/After Screenshot: Search & Contact Creation]
Before
Forms were long, messy, and prone to errors
Search was slow and returned too many irrelevant results
Users often abandoned search to look manually
After
Clean, structured forms with input masks and helpful defaults
Streamlined search with faster results and useful filters
Reduced steps and cognitive effort for frequent lookup tasks
Outcome & Impact: Real Results Across the Board
The redesigned CRM didn’t just look better — it worked better, across every metric that mattered. Through usability testing, user feedback, internal analytics, and support data, we tracked measurable improvements in speed, accuracy, satisfaction, and efficiency.
Faster Workflows = More Time Saved
+30% faster task completion
Search and updates that used to take minutes were reduced to seconds
Time to complete standard tasks dropped from 120s → 84s
~2 hours saved per user, per week, based on internal estimates
Especially in client onboarding, task handoff, and document lookup
Fewer Errors, Better Data Quality
–20% fewer data entry mistakes, thanks to smarter forms and clearer field logic
–40% reduction in incomplete client records, flagged during the first 3 months post-launch
Users reported feeling “more confident” entering data without needing manual checks
Higher Trust, Higher Satisfaction
User satisfaction score jumped from 2.1 → 4.3 (internal survey)
Support ticket volume dropped 45% overall — especially:
Navigation-related issues: –60%
Data entry errors: –30%
Spreadsheet workarounds down by 35%, indicating stronger adoption and trust
“This is the first time I’ve actually enjoyed using the CRM. It finally works with me, not against me.”
— Tax Assistant, Atoz Services
Faster Dev Cycles, Better Scalability
Our new component library helped developers ship new features 15–20% faster
Design consistency made future QA and maintenance easier
The system is now flexible enough to support new modules without full redesigns
Smarter Onboarding for New Hires
CRM onboarding time dropped by 1.5 days
New staff reported feeling “more confident” in navigating the system within their first week
Want a short version of this for your case study preview or a graphic layout suggestion to visualize these stats?
Outcome & Impact: Real Results Across the Board
The redesigned CRM didn’t just look better — it worked better, across every metric that mattered. Through usability testing, user feedback, internal analytics, and support data, we tracked measurable improvements in speed, accuracy, satisfaction, and efficiency.
Faster Workflows = More Time Saved
+30% faster task completion
Search and updates that used to take minutes were reduced to seconds
Time to complete standard tasks dropped from 120s → 84s
~2 hours saved per user, per week, based on internal estimates
Especially in client onboarding, task handoff, and document lookup
Fewer Errors, Better Data Quality
–20% fewer data entry mistakes, thanks to smarter forms and clearer field logic
–40% reduction in incomplete client records, flagged during the first 3 months post-launch
Users reported feeling “more confident” entering data without needing manual checks
Higher Trust, Higher Satisfaction
User satisfaction score jumped from 2.1 → 4.3 (internal survey)
Support ticket volume dropped 45% overall — especially:
Navigation-related issues: –60%
Data entry errors: –30%
Spreadsheet workarounds down by 35%, indicating stronger adoption and trust
“This is the first time I’ve actually enjoyed using the CRM. It finally works with me, not against me.”
— Tax Assistant, Atoz Services
Faster Dev Cycles, Better Scalability
Our new component library helped developers ship new features 15–20% faster
Design consistency made future QA and maintenance easier
The system is now flexible enough to support new modules without full redesigns
Smarter Onboarding for New Hires
CRM onboarding time dropped by 1.5 days
New staff reported feeling “more confident” in navigating the system within their first week
Want a short version of this for your case study preview or a graphic layout suggestion to visualize these stats?
Outcome & Impact: Real Results Across the Board
The redesigned CRM didn’t just look better — it worked better, across every metric that mattered. Through usability testing, user feedback, internal analytics, and support data, we tracked measurable improvements in speed, accuracy, satisfaction, and efficiency.
Faster Workflows = More Time Saved
+30% faster task completion
Search and updates that used to take minutes were reduced to seconds
Time to complete standard tasks dropped from 120s → 84s
~2 hours saved per user, per week, based on internal estimates
Especially in client onboarding, task handoff, and document lookup
Fewer Errors, Better Data Quality
–20% fewer data entry mistakes, thanks to smarter forms and clearer field logic
–40% reduction in incomplete client records, flagged during the first 3 months post-launch
Users reported feeling “more confident” entering data without needing manual checks
Higher Trust, Higher Satisfaction
User satisfaction score jumped from 2.1 → 4.3 (internal survey)
Support ticket volume dropped 45% overall — especially:
Navigation-related issues: –60%
Data entry errors: –30%
Spreadsheet workarounds down by 35%, indicating stronger adoption and trust
“This is the first time I’ve actually enjoyed using the CRM. It finally works with me, not against me.”
— Tax Assistant, Atoz Services
Faster Dev Cycles, Better Scalability
Our new component library helped developers ship new features 15–20% faster
Design consistency made future QA and maintenance easier
The system is now flexible enough to support new modules without full redesigns
Smarter Onboarding for New Hires
CRM onboarding time dropped by 1.5 days
New staff reported feeling “more confident” in navigating the system within their first week
Want a short version of this for your case study preview or a graphic layout suggestion to visualize these stats?
Final Thoughts: More Than Just a Redesign
This project was never just about fixing screens — it was about fixing trust.
The old CRM had become a blocker, not a tool. By listening closely to users, aligning with developers, and making smart, scalable design decisions, we transformed it into a system that people rely on — and actually like using.
It reminded me that the best design work happens where empathy meets pragmatism. Every improvement — from cleaner navigation to faster search — was grounded in the real needs of real users working under real pressure.
As the sole designer on this complex, year-long project, I wore many hats: researcher, systems thinker, design advocate, and collaborator. And in the end, we didn’t just deliver a better product — we helped the business move faster, with more confidence and less friction.
What I’d Do Differently Next Time
Every project is a learning opportunity — and this one taught me plenty.
Bring users into testing sooner. We validated prototypes mid-process, but getting more feedback earlier might’ve helped avoid a few pivots.
Push harder for technical flexibility. Some legacy constraints slowed us down. Next time, I’d involve engineering in ideation earlier to explore more creative workarounds.
Track usage analytics post-launch. We saw support tickets drop and heard great feedback — but integrating usage data sooner would’ve helped measure adoption more precisely.
Favorite User Quote
You can feature this in a bold callout block or as a sticky testimonial in the final screen:
“This is the first time I’ve actually enjoyed using the CRM. It finally works with me, not against me.”
— Tax Assistant, Atoz Services
Final Thoughts: More Than Just a Redesign
This project was never just about fixing screens — it was about fixing trust.
The old CRM had become a blocker, not a tool. By listening closely to users, aligning with developers, and making smart, scalable design decisions, we transformed it into a system that people rely on — and actually like using.
It reminded me that the best design work happens where empathy meets pragmatism. Every improvement — from cleaner navigation to faster search — was grounded in the real needs of real users working under real pressure.
As the sole designer on this complex, year-long project, I wore many hats: researcher, systems thinker, design advocate, and collaborator. And in the end, we didn’t just deliver a better product — we helped the business move faster, with more confidence and less friction.
What I’d Do Differently Next Time
Every project is a learning opportunity — and this one taught me plenty.
Bring users into testing sooner. We validated prototypes mid-process, but getting more feedback earlier might’ve helped avoid a few pivots.
Push harder for technical flexibility. Some legacy constraints slowed us down. Next time, I’d involve engineering in ideation earlier to explore more creative workarounds.
Track usage analytics post-launch. We saw support tickets drop and heard great feedback — but integrating usage data sooner would’ve helped measure adoption more precisely.
Favorite User Quote
You can feature this in a bold callout block or as a sticky testimonial in the final screen:
“This is the first time I’ve actually enjoyed using the CRM. It finally works with me, not against me.”
— Tax Assistant, Atoz Services
Final Thoughts: More Than Just a Redesign
This project was never just about fixing screens — it was about fixing trust.
The old CRM had become a blocker, not a tool. By listening closely to users, aligning with developers, and making smart, scalable design decisions, we transformed it into a system that people rely on — and actually like using.
It reminded me that the best design work happens where empathy meets pragmatism. Every improvement — from cleaner navigation to faster search — was grounded in the real needs of real users working under real pressure.
As the sole designer on this complex, year-long project, I wore many hats: researcher, systems thinker, design advocate, and collaborator. And in the end, we didn’t just deliver a better product — we helped the business move faster, with more confidence and less friction.
What I’d Do Differently Next Time
Every project is a learning opportunity — and this one taught me plenty.
Bring users into testing sooner. We validated prototypes mid-process, but getting more feedback earlier might’ve helped avoid a few pivots.
Push harder for technical flexibility. Some legacy constraints slowed us down. Next time, I’d involve engineering in ideation earlier to explore more creative workarounds.
Track usage analytics post-launch. We saw support tickets drop and heard great feedback — but integrating usage data sooner would’ve helped measure adoption more precisely.
Favorite User Quote
You can feature this in a bold callout block or as a sticky testimonial in the final screen:
“This is the first time I’ve actually enjoyed using the CRM. It finally works with me, not against me.”
— Tax Assistant, Atoz Services
Other projects
Let’s Work Together
I’m currently open to full-time remote product design roles. If you’re building something meaningful and need clarity, scalability, and great UX — let’s talk.
Let’s Work Together
I’m currently open to full-time remote product design roles. If you’re building something meaningful and need clarity, scalability, and great UX — let’s talk.