The Problem
A cybersecurity company thought they needed a design system update. They were about to redesign page-by-page, which would have missed the fundamental issue: their application lacked a core conceptual foundation for the domain they wanted to serve.

What We Did
Through ethnographic user research and stakeholder interviews, we identified how users actually work, what the business was trying to achieve, and where the system’s information architecture fell short. We created structural design specifications that established the conceptual foundation for the entire application.

The Outcome
The product team could design with confidence, working on individual features while keeping the whole system coherent. Instead of incremental updates that wouldn’t solve the core problem, they had a scaffold for foundational change. The specifications continue to align product teams around the high-level vision of what needs to be built.

The Problem
An international retailer had acquired dozens of companies over the years, creating a fragmented customer experience. Customers couldn’t do basic tasks like ordering consumables for their capital purchases in one place. Critical product information and educational content existed but were disconnected. Internal teams were too busy firefighting to think strategically about integration.

What We Did
Through SME interviews and customer research, we mapped the extent of fragmentation across properties and data sources. We created a northstar paradigm showing how everything should fit together to serve diverse customer needs—from consumables to capital purchases to educational content.

The Outcome
The executive sponsor could communicate a clear vision and align teams around the work. Technical teams understood the full scope and could confidently triage solutions holistically instead of just reacting to the loudest problem. Internal teams had a foundation to investigate technical solutions that could enable the future vision.

The Problem
A title company was losing business because they couldn’t process fast enough. Employees used half a dozen disconnected systems to process titles, causing burnout, and making training painfully slow. Communication and coordination across internal and external parties was a constant struggle.

What We Did
We mapped current workflows and interviewed people across the entire process—internal and external—to understand what doing the work well actually meant. We identified optimization opportunities and architected a refined set of workflows and an information architecture that would allow everything to happen in a single place that made sense to people.

The Outcome
Leadership had a clear vision of the holistic system they needed to build. The information architecture became the north-star for building an in-house solution that would replace the disparate tools. The current state documentation was so clear that it became their training material for new hires while the new system was being built—an unintended testament to how well we captured how the work actually got done.

The Problem
A credit card processor’s 20-year-old customer service platform had grown organically into something fragile and inadequate. It dictated how the service organization operated and created bottlenecks. A previous attempt to reskin the application was abandoned halfway through due to the complexity and deep re-architecture needed.

What We Did
Over a year, we created an accurate picture of their current systems, identified key bottlenecks, and designed an integrated data and workflow management system. We worked with the customer service manager to articulate a new service strategy—one where the processes and the technology people used worked together to enable holistic customer service.

The Outcome
Routine tasks that took 5 minutes on the phone could be accomplished in under a minute. The paradigms and structural designs continued to inform how products were built across the organization. The customer service SME used the experience and guidance provided to launch her career in technology systems integration.