Management dashboard.
Finding a problem transaction: 8 minutes to under 1.

I set out to build a financial management dashboard designed for professionals who oversee client accounts, such as operations teams at financial institutions or independent advisors.

Objectives

• Leverage our infrastructure to streamline workflows
• Help teams work faster while delivering excellent client service

Audience

Our users are finance and engineering pros who want:

• Clear visibility into client data
• The ability to take quick, effective actions

Problem

Design process

Research & Discovery

We started with feedback from early partners using the existing internal dashboard. To go deeper, we ran:

• 5 user interviews with external partners
• Team sessions with our internal Ops group

Key insights:

1. Users constantly switch between tools to complete a single task
2. Many workflows are still manual, tracked in Excel
3. Low visibility into user actions makes troubleshooting slow and frustrating

Brainstorm & Feature Planning

We used the Opportunity Solution Tree method to map outcomes → obstacles → solutions. This helped us:

• Define must-have features for the MVP
• Prioritize by feasibility and impact
• Structure the dashboard into clear, actionable sections

Collaboration with Engineering

Once we had a direction, I presented the vision to stakeholders and engineers. Some of the features users needed weren’t yet supported by Atomic’s internal API.

To move forward, we:

• Focused on high-impact, low-lift features first
• Postponed complex capabilities (e.g., session replays)
• Integrated external tools like Fullstory, Sentry, and Datadog as interim solutions
• Added deferred features to the API team’s roadmap

Testing & Iteration

We started testing internally to surface usability issues early. Then, we soft-launched to a group of existing users from the old dashboard.

• Observed real-world usage
• Collected feedback via Slack + analytics
• Iterated quickly to improve clarity and performance

Results

Priority tasks and overview on homepage

• Critical alerts + priority tasks front and center
• Persistent, high-contrast search bar for quick access by ID
• Favorites in the sidebar for faster task switching
• Navigation built for speed and repeat use

Comprehensive transactions view

• Unified view of all transactions across accounts and sub-accounts
• Filters by type, status, date
• Linked metadata (bank, asset, vendor) for faster investigation
• Same-day transactions grouped to reduce noise

Quickly navigate your clients

• Optimized for fast search and filtering
• Clear visual distinction between individuals vs. corporate entities
• Highlights clients needing attention

Drill down to a specific client situation

• End-to-end visibility into each client’s activity
• Easy access to onboarding, compliance, and financial insights
• Smooth transitions from summary → account → sleeve

Outcomes

Reduced tool overload

• Consolidated workflows into a single dashboard
• Decreased external tool usage by ~20%
• Partner support inquiries dropped from 10/day to 6/day

Embrace the limitations

• 1 month for design → 2 months for development
• Delivered a foundation that can scale with feedback + product evolution

Solve problems holistically

• Time to locate a problematic transaction dropped from ~8 mins → under 1 min
• Better alignment between UI, data, and backend capabilities

On a personal level, this project deepened my empathy for the people who work behind the scenes of complex financial operations. While sending money seems like a 30-second task for a regular bank user, there’s a huge amount of effort going on in the background. Designing this dashboard allowed me to ease the burden on those day-to-day tasks, making someone’s work life a bit simpler.

Ultimately, the purpose of designers, developers, and software builders is to create solutions that tackle real-world problems. I’m grateful for the opportunity to do work that has a meaningful impact on someone else’s daily life.