Lux Finance CRM Redesign
Turning wasted hours into €1M+ annual value.
In April 2024, I joined a leading Luxembourg boutique tax and finance firm (100–500 employees) as the sole product designer.
The company relied on an intranet-based CRM to manage clients, events, and pitches.
Over fifteen months, I partnered with a PO, a PM, and four engineers to rebuild the firm’s most critical internal tool.
This is the story of how a failing tool became a competitive advantage.
My mission:
Rescue a legacy intranet CRM that senior partners had abandoned in favor of Excel.
my role
Lead Product Designer (sole)
Timeline
April 2024 – July 2025
WHAT I DID
Product design
Heuristic UX audit
Interactive prototyping
User research & testing
Impact
The redesign delivered not only usability and speed, but also measurable financial returns:
20
%
Faster workflows across the CRM
€1
M+
Annual value created from reclaimed partner hours
90
%
Adoption: partners abandoned Excel and fully embraced the CRM
A tool meant to empower was slowing everyone down
The CRM was supposed to manage clients, events, and pitches. the firm’s core business operations. Instead, it was the weakest link.
The symptoms
- Creating a contact took 15+ minutes
- Partners abandoned the CRM entirely and used Excel
- Collaboration collapsed into silos, risking compliance breaches
- Support tickets piled up, frustrating assistants and IT alike
The problem
This wasn’t a missing feature issue. The CRM failed because it ignored a critical truth: when your users bill hundreds per hour, wasted time is wasted money.
Designing for people who bill by the minute
Through interviews with partners and assistants, I discovered the underlying frustration:
Excel wasn’t better, it was simply faster. Partners valued speed, clarity, and control over everything else.
Persona distilled
A senior partner, managing multimillion portfolios, billing €300–500/hr, with no tolerance for tools that add friction.
Mapping the work
I broke down core flows, contact creation, pitch logging, event tracking, to pinpoint bottlenecks.
The goal wasn’t new features, but stripping away complexity until each flow fit the way people actually worked.
Key design moves
Contact creation:
Progressive disclosure (essentials first, advanced fields later), inline duplicate detection, autosave + undo/redo for confidence.
Lists as action hubs:
Filters, inline edits, and bulk actions, “one screen, one decision.”
Context at speed:
Sidepanels surfacing addresses, pitches, and offer details instantly, without extra navigation.
Error prevention by default:
Inline validation, sensible defaults, consistent empty/error/loading states.
Building a foundation that scaled
Great flows need a foundation. Without consistency, speed gains disappear.
The design system
I built a Tailwind-backed design system covering:
- Tokens for color, spacing, typography, modal sizes
- Atoms → molecules → templates → pages
- Documentation with anatomy, usage notes, and anti-patterns
Why it mattered
- Developers had a shared language: fewer ambiguities, faster handoff
- Pixel-perfect implementation became the default
- Design debt was avoided from day one
The system was as much about consistency and governance as aesthetics.
Time is the ultimate currency
Designing for high-skilled professionals is about time economics.
Every wasted click is a hidden tax. Every second of friction is money lost.
By embedding clarity, simplicity, and reliability, the CRM became the path of least resistance. Partners didn’t need training or persuasion, they simply chose the CRM because it was finally faster than Excel.
Favorite Quote
“This is the first time I’ve actually enjoyed using the CRM. It works with me, not against me.” — Tax Assistant
selected works 23'-25'
