Varis Adminapp

B2B SaaS

I had the unique opportunity to design and build the Varis admin application from the ground up. I championed a user-centered process that included strategic architecture design and customer journey mapping, resulting in a scalable, intuitive platform for managing partner accounts and procurement marketplaces. My work not only solved a critical business need but also established a flexible design framework that now empowers other designers to build consistent, user-friendly experiences.

My Role

As the Senior Lead Product Designer, my involvement spanned from the earliest stages of the project through to its launch. My responsibilities included:

Leading and collaborating on system architecture design to ensure a scalable and robust foundation.
Facilitating customer journey mapping and extensive user research to inform the application's core functionality.
Guiding the team through strategic pivots and design decisions based on user feedback.
Overseeing the development of a flexible design framework for consistent future application development.

The Problem

Prior to the Varis admin application, there was no centralized system for employees to manage partner accounts and private procurement marketplaces. This created inefficiencies and bottlenecks, as different teams relied on a patchwork of manual processes and disparate tools. The challenge was to design and build a new, intuitive platform that would not only consolidate these functions but also provide a strong, user-friendly foundation that could evolve with the business.

At the same time, the admin application needed to be designed with extensibility in mind. Certain capabilities had to be exposed directly within the customer's buying experience so that when self-service was introduced, users could manage tasks seamlessly without navigating to a separate system. This required thinking beyond internal workflows and creating flexible components that could serve both administrators and end customers, ensuring consistency and efficiency across the entire procurement journey.

Key Pain Points:

Setup tasks scattered across different tools

No single source of truth for customer accounts and their marketplace settings

Managing shared catalogs required handling them as multiple suppliers instead of one

Customizable roles added complexity, slowing
down customer access problems troubleshooting

The Process & My Contribution

Discovery & Research

Research Asset

The project began with deep discovery, interviewing key stakeholders and employees to understand their workflows and pain points.

By creating comprehensive customer journey maps, we were able to visualize the "before" state and identify opportunities to streamline processes.

This foundational research was essential for designing a tool that truly met the needs of its users.

Methodology

Stakeholder interviews with internal users
Current state workflow analysis
Competitive analysis of admin tools
Technical constraints assessment

Strategy & Ideation

Strategy Asset

A substantial effort was invested in the system architecture design. I worked closely with engineering to conceptualize a system that was not only powerful and efficient but also inherently scalable. This early-stage strategic work allowed us to make critical pivots and design decisions that provided a strong foundation for the tool's eventual success.

Approach

Conceptualized a scalable system architecture in close collaboration with engineering
Championed a modular design approach to create a flexible framework
Drove design decisions that balanced power and intuitiveness for the administrative user.

Solution & Design

Solution Asset

The result was the Varis admin application: a clean, intuitive interface that empowers employees to manage partner accounts and marketplaces with ease. The application's design prioritized clarity, with streamlined workflows and clear navigation. The true success of the design, however, lies in its foundational framework. This flexible design system ensures that as new configuration and settings pages are built, they maintain a seamless and consistent experience for administrators.

Key Features

Unified account creation flows to streamline the onboarding process
Modular account architecture allowing for the seamless addition of new features and functionalities
Flexible, resource-based access control system, moving away from rigid roles to provide greater flexibility and simplify administrative management