Context
A powerful legacy tool that needed to become approachable for a new generation of users.
Content Services is a SaaS product that helps businesses securely manage content like documents, images, and audio files. It is the new experience of a legacy tool formerly called FileNet. As FileNet transitioned to SaaS, the product needed to become easier to learn, easier to navigate, and more approachable for a broader audience, while still supporting powerful admin workflows.
The challenge was clear: how do you simplify a complex legacy admin experience into a modern SaaS product within one year?
FileNet was successful, but the admin experience was complex and documentation-heavy. Admins had to jump across multiple interfaces to complete work, and terminology felt too technical for new and business-oriented users.
Kickoff
Starting with a 2-day Enterprise Design Thinking workshop.
Before any design work began, I led a 2-day Enterprise Design Thinking workshop with Product Management, Development, Research, Content Design, and my design team. The goal was to build shared understanding, surface assumptions, and align on what mattered most.
Hopes and Fears
As-Is Experience
Questions and Assumptions
User Needs
Big Ideas and Prioritization
To-Be Experience and Stages
Research
Understanding the admin before redesigning for them.
Our researcher conducted secondary research with 6 internal IBMers who worked directly with Content Services clients, followed by 1-hour interviews with 10 content administrators focused on their responsibilities, team structure, pain points, and needs.
Admins need help getting started. They did not want to depend on documentation to begin their work.
Multiple interfaces overwhelmed them. Sending admins to different UIs to complete their work caused confusion and errors.
Terminology was a barrier. Prospective users struggled to understand FileNet's technical language as the product shifted to business-oriented SaaS users.
Admins work in teams with different levels of expertise. The experience needed to support both new and experienced admins.
Contessa
The Content Services Administrator
An admin at a car insurance company who needs to set up the system so customer service can process auto claims. She manages metadata, secures content by role, and configures the desktop workspace for her team.
Design
Aligning the team around one end-to-end story.
During the kickoff workshop, I noticed we had no clear end-to-end user path tied to a real use case. I partnered with three product managers to craft a story around Contessa and her key use case. This gave the team a shared mental model to design and build against.
Onboarded the design team faster with a clear shared narrative
Built shared understanding across PM and engineering so everyone was building toward the same goal
Used to validate assumptions with real users in research sessions
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Manage content
Create metadata used to organize content — like labels that help sort and find documents.
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Secure content
Define roles and access tied to metadata so only the right people can see sensitive content.
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Configure desktops
Set up user desktop environments with the right tools, views, and access for each role.
Define roles and access tied to metadata so only the right people can see sensitive content.