SUSTAINABILITY PLATFORM
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting had evolved into a complex, fragmented landscape of overlapping requirements, creating significant business risk and operational inefficiency. Organizations faced an "alphabet soup" of regulatory frameworks with no standardized approach for compliance. Workiva identified this emerging market need and formed a growth initiative to develop a solution capable of navigating this complexity while leveraging core technology strengths.
Challenge
As the Principal UXD for Growth on this initiative, I was tasked with creating an intuitive experience that could:
Untangle the complexity of overlapping global regulatory requirements
Provide a scalable data collection system spanning diverse organizational structures
Integrate seamlessly with Workiva's existing reporting ecosystem
Support rapid international-market entry with a compelling, iterative product roadmap
Strategic Approach
I led design strategy for a modular platform composed of four interconnected applications, each solving a critical piece of the ESG puzzle while functioning as a cohesive system:
Explorer: Knowledge Graph for Regulatory Navigation
Core Innovation: Transforming disconnected compliance frameworks into an interconnected knowledge system
Challenge: Organizations struggled to understand which requirements applied to them across dozens of frameworks and thousands of individual data points
Solution: Designed a graph-database powered research tool that normalized diverse frameworks into a consistent interface
Key Design Elements:
Wiki-style navigation system for intuitive exploration across framework relationships
"You may also care about" recommendation engine revealing opportunistic disclosure connections
Visual relationship mapping to identify overlaps and efficiencies across frameworks
Integrated bookmarking and selection tools to curate org-specific requirement sets
Seamless handoff to Program for converting requirements into actionable metrics
Program: Data Collection Hub
Core Innovation: Structuring complex, multi-dimensional data collection while maintaining organizational simplicity
Challenge: ESG data spans financial, narrative, and operational metrics across business units, regions, and time periods
Solution: Created a flexible data architecture with an intuitive outline-style management interface
Key Design Elements:
Metric typing system supporting diverse data formats (financial, energy, volume, narrative, etc.)
Revolutionary smart-table UX allowing dynamic dimensionalization of metrics
Automated linking between metrics and framework requirements
Visual categorization system for organizing metrics into intuitive groupings
Integrated data transformation tools for calculation and aggregation
Collection Portal: Global Data Aggregation
Core Innovation: Simplifying enterprise-wide data gathering through targeted micro-experiences
Challenge: ESG reporting requires input from hundreds of stakeholders across global organizations
Solution: Designed a lightweight standalone application for frictionless data submission
Key Design Elements:
Direct-link access bypassing enterprise login requirements
Context-aware forms adapting to data type and collection requirements
Integrated communication channels between data requestors and providers
Automated workflows for approval routing and chained collections
Embedded framework reference panel providing regulatory context for requests
Compliance Wizard: Strategic Coverage Planning
Core Innovation: Transforming regulatory compliance from reactive to proactive planning
Challenge: Organizations struggled to systematically assess their readiness for specific frameworks
Solution: Created a guided workflow for framework assessment and gap analysis
Key Design Elements:
Step-by-step selection interface for framework requirements
Visual stoplight reporting highlighting coverage gaps
Automated metric generation to close identified gaps
Action planning interface with templated implementation steps
Integration with task management for execution tracking
Leadership & Execution
This initiative represented a startup within Workiva, requiring entrepreneurial leadership beyond typical design responsibilities:
Team Growth: Expanded from solo designer to directing three full growth product teams
Design Leadership: Mentored graduate interns and junior designers while establishing collaborative processes
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partnered directly with Product Director, Development Architects, and organizational leadership
Rapid Prototyping: Created high-fidelity interactive prototypes to validate concepts with customers and stakeholders
Visual Communication: Developed comprehensive design documentation to align cross-functional teams
Iterative Development: Maintained design vision through multiple release cycles and evolving market requirements
Technical Complexity
The platform required innovative solutions to numerous technical challenges:
Graph Database Integration: Collaborated with engineering to architect relationship models for framework interconnections
Dynamic Form Generation: Designed system for automatically rendering appropriate input controls based on metric types
Dimensional Data Modeling: Created intuitive interfaces for complex multi-dimensional data structures
Cross-Application Communication: Designed seamless workflows across four distinct but interconnected applications
Enterprise Security Model: Integrated with Workiva's permission system while supporting external user access
Scalable Performance: Ensured responsive experience despite massive underlying data relationships
Business Impact
This initiative delivered extraordinary results within its first year:
$20M+ Annual Revenue: Exceeded first-year targets and established new growth pillar
Market Leadership: Positioned Workiva as an innovator in the ESG reporting space
Customer Acquisition: Attracted new enterprise clients beyond traditional financial reporting base
Platform Extensibility: Established architecture for expansion into additional regulatory domains
Organizational Capability: Demonstrated Workiva's ability to rapidly enter emerging markets
