Financial Services Client

2. Bonus Allocation Tool

Defining Requirements

My first project involved a full redesign of the Bonus Allocation tool used across the branch network. The original tool only supported single-manager branches, forcing shared branches run by teams of multiple managers (~15% of locations) to calculate bonus allocations manually. This required both a visual refresh and feature enhancements.

I ran three preliminary workshops with consumer group and product stakeholders to analyze the features of the current UI. We collaborated to identify and refine essential functionality, discuss future business objectives, and translate this information into clear front-end requirements. Please note that at this point in time, the client did not have a ticketing configured for the UX team, so changes were logged manually; I created a Jira System to address this.

Design Inspiration

For inspiration on the redesign and feature enhancements, I examined budget-management and points-tracking interfaces and identified a key pattern: users rely on a prominent “remaining” indicator to judge capacity and avoid over-commitment. I posited that this would reduce cognitive load and help managers make faster, more efficient allocation decisions.

Iterative Wireframing

I began with rapid wireframes that made the smallest possible front-end changes required to support bonus allocation in shared-branch contexts, prioritizing minimal engineering lift. I surfaced these MVP concepts to consumer-group and product stakeholders early to capture immediate feedback and confirm the approach met requirements. Once approved, I iterated toward a more user-friendly visual redesign that naturally integrated the new feature enhancements.

Stakeholder Reviews & User Research Feedback

I began presenting updated designs to consumer group and product stakeholders on a weekly basis to maintain alignment and surface rapid feedback, which I logged and iterated on.

Additionally, I partnered with the UX Research team to run a study on the existing Bonus Allocation tool to identify task-level pain points. I then worked with our product team to translate those insights into UX requirements and incorporated them into the wireframes,

Prototyping

After several rounds of reviews, I prototyped the final designs and began meeting with the Engineering teams to release plan for the build in a later quarter. You may view the prototype in Figma or reference the High Fidelity Mockups above for all screens.

4. Financial Forecasting

Converting Financial Model to UI

The Financial Forecasting tool enabled branch managers to create multiple potential scenario plans by adjusting variables like projected gross revenue, staffing levels, and compensation assumptions. Each scenario then generated real-time, line-by-line impacts to branch managers’ expenses and on the branch P&L, so managers could compare outcomes.

Leveraging my accounting background, I analyzed the intricacies the finance model (pictured and redacted above) to surface the key variables that drive Branch Manager cost responsibility in a simple, user-friendly modal.

User Testing in Pendo

To validate that managers could successfully build scenarios and interpret their financial impact, I partnered with product stakeholders and the UX Research team to design targeted usability tests. I configured the required screens and event tracking in Pendo so we could run offline (moderated and unmoderated) sessions while still capturing quantitative data — task completion, time on task, error rates, and navigation paths. The combined qualitative sessions and Pendo analytics let us quickly identify misunderstandings and prioritize UI fixes that directly improved scenario creation and result comprehension.