Strategic Planning & Consensus Suite
Architecting a "One State" Financial Sandbox for a Multi-Billion Dollar Retail Ecosystem
NDA Notice: This project was completed under a non-disclosure agreement. All names have been removed and data sanitized; however, the core architectural challenges and logic remain intact.
Executive Summary
The Problem
A "Broken Handshake" between teams trapped in offline silos, dangerously compressing the 3-week strategic decision window.
The Solution
An end-to-end workflow and "Scenario Sandbox" that replaced manual reconciliation with system-driven audit trails.
Key Outcome
Established the organization's first unified version history; slashed rework cycles by stabilizing the data foundation.
My Role & Team
Role: Lead Product Designer
Scope: System architecture, UX, data modeling, validation logic
Team: Product, Engineering, Finance, Commercial Ops
Platform Type: Enterprise financial planning system
Platform Overview
What is this suite?
It’s a Scenario Sandbox where the organization bridges Sales promo intent with Financial reality.
The Business Mandate
For years, the organization relied on a chaotic web of Excel sheets and emails, creating siloed teams and constant rework. Our mandate was to move to a "One State": a shared, scalable system with built-in guardrails and a traceable version history.
Discovery — Identifying the "Broken Handshake"
I synthesized 20+ interviews and workflow walkthroughs to move past "feature requests" and identify the structural barriers to collaboration.
The Root Cause: Data Sovereignty vs. Agility
Strict security policies prohibited public cloud tools, forcing teams into "Offline Silos." Creators and Validators were stuck manually reconciling local spreadsheets via email.
The Business Impact
The Rework Loop: Manual reconciliation pushed alignment past the 3-week deadline.
Compressed Decisions: Delays dangerously narrowed the window for leadership’s strategic choices.
The Mission: Reclaim time by building a secure "Scenario Sandbox" for real-time collaboration without compromising data integrity.
The Strategy: Architecting the Handshake
To solve for the compressed 3-week window, I mapped the User Journey to move beyond "digitizing an Excel sheet." I focused on architecting a predictable lifecycle where a plan moves from Draft →Submitted → Validated.
I pinpointed three critical "Handshake" moments:
Aligning uplift assumptions with forecasts.
Verifying URM (Unit, Revenue, and Margin) metrics.
Calculating P&L impact
The Strategic Choice
With these friction points identified, I collaborated with my PM on a Three-Phase Roadmap.
This case study deep-dives into Milestone 1: establishing the platform's core modeling foundation.
From Flow to Feature
To translate that flow into a reality, I defined four core functional areas designed to address the specific goals of each workflow segment.
Execution: "Density is a Feature"
In expert-user environments, "simplicity" can be a liability. I leaned into Expert Density, using logic to manage cognitive load rather than stripping away data.
The Price Impact Workspace (The Core Engine)
The Conflict: Creators need daily-level details for modeling; Validators need weekly rollups for verification.
The Solution: Progressive Disclosure. I highlighted weekly forecasts for both personas while tucking daily details and "DG Deltas" into secondary and tertiary layers.
Data Integrity: The Promo Card Schema
Upstream systems prioritize flexibility, which often results in fragmented data. I designed a Standardized Promo Card Schema to unify this data into a single header, allowing Creators to decide in seconds if a promo is worth modeling.
Validation: The Logic Pivot
To truly stress-test the system, I worked with Engineering to build a functional prototype with real data. Observing users handle actual tasks led to two critical senior-level pivots:
The Forecast Selector: We moved this from the Scenario level to the Plan level. This forced all scenarios to use the same forecast version, eliminating manual cross-checking.
Date Anchors: Instead of over-engineering an event system, I integrated "Date Ranges" into headers. This simple anchor provided essential holiday context and increased user confidence without adding system bloat.
Outcomes: Speaking the Same Language
