Crohn's & Colitis Foundation

Product Management Tool

An internal website for tracking and managing the product lifecycle for external clients, ensuring an intuitive interface through stakeholder collaboration and iterative design.

Overview

The Problem: A legacy culture of "Muscle Memory" (spreadsheets and handwritten notes) led to duplicate efforts and high cognitive load as the team scaled.

The Solution: An internal PM tool designed around the Mental Models of the existing manual workflow to ensure high adoption rates with zero downtime. Reduce project tracking errors and cognitive load for the internal team.

My Role: Solo UX Researcher & Designer.

Key Outcome (KPIs):
- Adoption Rate: Designed around existing mental models to ensure zero downtime during the transition.
- Error Reduction: Eliminated duplicate project entries by centralizing the "Project Request" flow.
- Efficiency: Reduced time spent on manual status "nudge" emails through automated notifications.

The Challenge

The Foundation’s manual project management process technically “worked,” but it created delays, scattered communication, and frequent errors as the team grew. Tracking projects became difficult, duplicates increased, and updates were often buried in emails or spreadsheets. The team needed a solution that felt familiar yet offered the clarity and speed their workflows lacked, so I set out to design a digital tool grounded in their existing mental models while improving efficiency and reducing cognitive load.

"We need something that works like our current system—but faster, smarter, and easier to use," emphasized one user during an initial stakeholder interview.

User Research Process

Research methods used: Stakeholder Interviews, Workflow Observation (Shadowing), and Affinity Mapping.

Why: I needed to validate if the "frustration" was with the process itself or just the tools. Shadowing allowed me to see the "invisible" work, like manual nudges, that users often forget to mention in interviews.

Key Insights:

Memory Dependency: Teams relied on memory and manual nudges to keep projects moving.
Tool-Switching: High "emotional friction" was caused by constantly toggling between spreadsheets and emails.
The "Non-Negotiable": Users needed the speed of a digital tool without losing the "spreadsheet-style logic" they trusted.

Ideation & Mental Models

I mapped the Manual Task Flow to identify exactly where the "tracking gaps" occurred (e.g., the transition between "Project Approved" and "Sample Availability").

Narrowing Down: I prioritized features that solved the "Transparency" gap, specifically focusing on a Kanban Board and Color-Coded Status Tags. Tools: AI-assisted transcript synthesis (for sentiment trends), Figma for prototyping, and AI-generated accessible color palettes.

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AI Integration

Interview Analysis: I used AI to synthesize transcripts from 5 stakeholder interviews, identifying recurring 'Sentiment' trends that pointed toward 'Transparency' as the #1 emotional need.

Design System Generation: To compensate for my visual design gaps, I used AI to generate a Color-Blind Friendly palette for the status tags (New, In Review, Approved). This ensured the 'Color-Coding' was functional and accessible, not just decorative.

User Persona

Design Approach

Through interviews with project managers, researchers, and department leads, I uncovered their workflows, frustrations, and the emotional strain caused by the manual system. After synthesizing insights through affinity mapping, three core needs emerged:

Clarity around real‑time project progress
Transparency into responsibilities and status
Efficiency through automation to reduce manual work

Turning Insights into Design Principles

Intuitiveness through familiarity

Maintain structural elements from the existing workflow (like tables and status labels) so users wouldn’t need to relearn everything from scratch.

Efficiency through Automation

Introduce automated notifications and update systems to remove repetitive manual steps.

Visibility & Transparency

Build dashboards and views that clearly reflected real-time project statuses, owners, and required actions—no more guessing games.

Sustainable UX Design

Prioritize a clean, efficient interface that minimized cognitive load and was sustainable across devices (low energy use, high navigability).

UI Design

Homepage/Dashboard

Offers a high-level snapshot of all active projects, color-coded by status. Users can filter by priority or team, and see milestones at a glance.

Project Request Page

Allows users to quickly submit new project requests by filling out a familiar, spreadsheet-style form.

Project Overview Status

A Kanban board method to track projects. Enables users to edit, track, and view project details in real time, reducing the need to toggle between tools or rely on email updates.

User Feedback

Positive regarding familiarity, but users were concerned about "missing" the manual control of their old spreadsheets. Changes Made: I kept the "spreadsheet-style" form for project requests to lower the barrier to entry while automating the backend data entry. Client Feedback: Stakeholders emphasized the need for a "Color-Blind Friendly" system; I iterated on the status tags (New, In Review, Approved) to ensure they were accessible and functional, not just decorative.

Skills Demonstrated

UX Research: Stakeholder Interviewing, Shadowing, Affinity Mapping, Sentiment Analysis.
Product Strategy: KPI Definition, Workflow Optimization, AI Integration.
UI Design: Accessible Color Theory, Dashboard Design, Kanban Systems.

Next Steps:

1. Feature Expansion: Automated Reporting: Based on early feedback, the next iteration will include a "One-Click Report" feature that automatically generates stakeholder updates, further reducing the need for manual email threads.

2. Advanced Accessibility Audit: While the initial version utilized an AI-generated color-blind friendly palette for status tags, I want to conduct a full WCAG 2.1 compliance audit to ensure the tool remains inclusive as the foundation grows.

3. User Onboarding Flow: I would like to design a brief, interactive "Walkthrough" for new hires to further reduce the reliance on "muscle memory" and ensure the tool is self-explanatory for future team members.