My time at Tugboat Logic | Data Risk & Compliance Software
Helping IT professionals identify where their company's data is at risk : Data visualization & Executive reporting
Design problem
IT professionals need to keep track of what data is at risk not only for compliance purposes but also to resolve risk. Ensuring compliance with cybersecurity and information regulations has become increasingly complex and critical for businesses, placing significant responsibility on IT security managers. These professionals often face the challenge of managing vast amounts of data manually.
Project outcome
• Customer could identify and remediate risk with their data faster
•Contributed to design system a resuable dashboard pattern
• Successfully introduced Agile methodology to low UX maturity team
•Customer could report insights to executives with ease
Timeline
6 weeks
My role
Lead designer working along side Product Manager and Engineer
We had 6 weeks to make it easier for IT Risk professionals to identify what company data was at risk, where it was and report on it.
Final design
Before: endless lists, no guidance
No visualization, endless lists with thousand items
After: insights and guided pathways
About the team
Joining a low UX maturity team responsible for a highly complex product
Historically Engineering focused team
When I joined the team, it was historically engineering focused and team had no experience working with a UX designer or in an agile framework.
Introducing Agile methodology
We used the 6 weeks to introduce agile methodology to the team to reach team objectives in tight timelines for the scope of the feature.
Cross-collaboration to solve customer problems
Facilitating design workshops and collaborating with greater project team to develop and execute a design solutions that addressed all challenges
Uncovering the root problem
"Hey UX, I need you to design an export feature..."
It was common on this team for Product manager to provide a pre-baked solution for designers to execute. This is typical in companies with low UX experience or maturity.
With a mix of curiosity and diplomacy, instead of designing the pre-baked solution I leaned in and asked if I could dig into the customer problem. I championed the value of user research to transform and assumption into an opportunity wanting to make sure we were solving the right customer problem.
Talking to customers before solutioning
Getting team buy in to the power of user interviews
Excerpt from discovery interview script I prepared for the call.
When I joined the team, leadership was adamant we needed to create a PDF that was exportable and It managers could hand to their executives. Cue my inner UX alarm bell. I wanted to talk to IT managers first before proceeding because sometimes, the solution can add more value if we know the root problem and goal of what they are trying to do. It was new for this team to talk to customers before building, so I led the way with designing the interview script taking into consideration their feedback.
Ah-ha moments
Discovery Interviews
Ready with a set of carefully prepared questions, I spoke with an IT manager—ideally, I’d have liked to talk to 5–10+, but for this team, even one was a solid start. That conversation quickly illuminated two key pain points, IT managers were struggling with, that they needed to visualize their progress to show to their boss.
Quotes and identified problems from the discovery interviews
Making sense of complexity
Finding product solutions within constraints
To bridge the gap from idea to execution, I mapped the initial solution into a framework to better understand how technical constraints, legal requirements and business systems would come together and affect the implementation of the design solution.
I started to visually map out a design strategy for all the elements that needed to be in a viable and loveable user experience.
Mapping out what elements need to be in the experience to help IT managers with the goal to help prioritize use cases.
Experience Mapping as a team communication tool
Quotes and identified problems from the discovery interviews
Completed early stage system mapping to ensure all user scenarios were accounted for in our agile sprint. This includes designing for various permissions, empty states and actions needed to be taken.
Workback schedules for new Agile teams
Since this project team was new to agile and UX collaboration, I designed a workback schedule to make it clear what UX is working on and how we could work together to make a stronger product (reviews, research etc.)
Crafting a viable solution requires constant communication early and often
Once I had initial designs in hand, I teamed up with my engineering and business counterparts to scope a solution that fit our timelines. It wasn’t just about delivering on time—it was about making sure the solution was viable and valuable.
Tradeoffs and UX backlogs
Negotiating tradeoffs to get the designs release ready
One of the toughest collaboration challenges in any project? Balancing UX, development complexity, and tight timelines. The secret? Teamwork. By identifying potential issues early and staying open to alternatives, we found a way to deliver without sacrificing the user experience. This collaboration was especially critical knowing that these designs would feed into our design system, supporting multiple designers and project teams.
Crafting a user-first solution
Informed design decisions can come from flexibility and focus
The best design outcomes don’t come from rigid plans or perfect roadmaps, they come from a balance of flexibility and focus. Flexibility lets you adapt when surprises inevitably pop up (and they always do). Focus keeps you anchored to the user’s needs and the project’s goals. It’s not about bending over backward or holding your ground at all costs; it’s about knowing when to pivot, when to push, and when to pull the team together to find a better path forward.
Beautiful designs come from a series of compromises
Working with Engineering, we found a data visualization API that could allow them to build fast without compromising the quality of information in the dashboard and maintained the ability to customize titles and pathways so user could make sense of the data and go take action.
Outcome
UX Accomplishments
Uncovered root problem to the current experience
In organizations with lower design maturity and limited experience with UX collaboration, the most impactful conversations often happen at the start of a project. These early discussions are critical for aligning the team and clearly defining the problem we’re aiming to solve.
Introducing Agile methodology
We used the 6 weeks to introduce agile methodology to the team to reach team objectives in tight timelines for the scope of the feature.
Contributing to the design system
Facilitating design workshops and collaborating with greater project team to develop and execute a design solutions that addressed all challenges
Design mentorship
Paying it forward: helping junior designers with their data visualization products
The real bonus of this project? Mentoring junior designers on the team. Once the new design components were ready, I had the chance to guide them on how to adapt these elements into their own dashboard designs. We worked through their use cases, exploring how the components could be tailored to maintain a seamless user experience across initiatives. Watching them connect the dots and build confidence in their skills was incredibly rewarding—not just for them, but for the team as a whole. Stronger designers mean stronger designs, and seeing their growth was the cherry on top of an already fulfilling project.
Reflection
Taking it from usable to a loveable product
While we made great strides with limited resources—one interview, a heuristic evaluation, and some competitive research—it was just the tip of the iceberg. For a team with low UX maturity, this was a solid start, but if we wanted to take the product from viable to truly lovable, more research would’ve been invaluable (the standard I hold for all projects). Talking to more users, conducting usability testing, and digging deeper into real-world pain points would have given us richer insights to make more informed design decisions. I wish we didn’t descope a presentation mode to meet timelines but hindsight is 20/20. This project was a great reminder that research isn’t just a luxury—it’s the foundation of exceptional design.
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