A bit about me

I’m a Product Designer passionate about building awesome products. Currently based in Folsom, CA, after enjoying 17-18 wonderful years in San Diego. An avid motorcycle rider, runner, and proud Niner fan, I bring over 18 years of experience creating innovative UX-driven designs for large corporations and agile startups. My skills include building intuitive interfaces, integrating automation, creating refined design systems, and leveraging AI-driven workflows, thriving in collaborative environments to deliver user-centric designs that balance functionality and aesthetics.

Mosaic

Metric Builder

Redefining Custom Metric Creation for Enhanced Financial Insights

Project
Overview

As the lead product designer at Mosaic, a SaaS platform for advanced financial planning, I spearheaded Metric Builder, partnering with developing designers, engineering and project managers to craft an intuitive feature for users to create and customize metrics across product verticals such as dashboard, reports, and analysis. This 8-9 month phased project transformed from a niche tool for advanced users to a solution accessible to all skill levels.

Contributions: User research, persona definition, journey mapping, wireframes, high-fidelity mocks/prototypes, user testing and cross-functional collaboration with PMs, SMEs, and developers.

Key
Objectives

Streamline metric creation with Excel-like familiarity, support nesting and inline editing, and ensure seamless platform integration to drive user adoption and efficiency within Mosaic's workflows.

Enhance Usability

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Develop a visual, table-based UI to reduce creation time by enabling drag-and-drop and inline edits for all skill levels.

Boost Flexibility

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Allow non-destructive nesting of pre-built or custom metrics, addressing advanced needs without compromising originals.

Drive Adoption

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Integrate metrics seamlessly across platform verticals, minimizing silos, enhancing collaboration, and improving workflow efficiency.

Average time per metric

(skill-level / minutes)

18
Beginner
11
Intermediate
8
Advanced

Core
Challenges

Mosaic users struggled with rigid pre-built metrics, lacking flexibility for custom queries that aligned with diverse business needs. Advanced users sought query freedom, while beginners faced steep learning curves, leading to underutilization and support dependencies. Competitors offered similar tools but with clunky UI's, missing key opportunities for intuitive interactions. Mosaic’s Metric Builder feature aimed to reduce complexity and empower users of all skill types, while balancing power, performance and accessibility.

User
Insights

User interviews & CS support time on manual metrics shaped a visual UI for diverse personas. Wireframes guided it, prototypes validated, testing refined results.

Pain Points
1

Overwhelming Syntax
Editors

Users found code-like inputs intimidating, increasing cognitive load, with 80% of interviewees preferring visual, inline, and drag-and-drop UI.

2

Lack of Intuitive
Metric Tools

Novice users found existing tools cumbersome and not intuitive, favoring more visual editors over complex syntax, despite familiarity.

3

Destructive Metric
Modifications

Advanced users worried about changes impacting original metrics or reports, viewing it as a critical flaw in SaaS reliability.

4

Accessibility Hurdles

Feedback identified challenges for users across different experience levels, with approximately 45% highlighting the need for a more inclusive and user-friendly approach.

5

Integration Challenges

Metrics access was buried within data management settings, with inconsistent access across verticals (e.g., reporting, analysis), comprising a quarter of feedback on disjointed experiences.

These findings shaped our primary personas (e.g., "Novice Analyst" vs. "Advanced Strategist") and validated assumptions, ensuring designs addressed challenges like varying expertise levels

Personas

Novice Analyst (Beginner User)

Demographics: Early-career finance pro, 25-35, new to Mosaic, uses metrics for basic tasks.

Goals/Needs: Uses pre-built and custom metrics via an easy, intuitive UI to boost productivity and deliver tailored, polished data.

Pain Points: Confused by syntax, worries about data mistakes, and depends on support.

Behaviors: Favors drag-and-drop and inline edits, appreciates Excel and Google Sheets familiarity for smooth workflows.

Design Influence: Inspired visual interfaces and streamlined workflows for quick/robust metric creation.

Persona Beginner

Advanced Strategist (Advanced User)

Demographics: Seasoned analyst, 35-50, proficient Mosaic user, specializes in forecasting, budgeting, and risk assessment.

Goals/Needs: Build and save complex queries with syntax flexibility and the ability to nest out-of-the-box or previously created metrics within new ones for enhanced functionality.

Pain Points: Limited nesting options, inefficient workflows, and integration problems across other areas.

Behaviors: Relies on advanced controls, focuses on speed and precision.

Design Influence: Shaped inline editing, metric nesting capabilities, and non-destructive features.

Persona Advanced
Competitive Analysis

During the research phase

I evaluated key competitors in metric creation and manipulation for strategic finance within SaaS platforms, including Google Sheets, Excel, Tableau, and Looker. I was able to identify some critical gaps in flexibility and intuitiveness that we were hoping to address with Mosaic’s Metric Builder feature.

1

Market Dominance

Excel and Google Sheets held ~70% share for basic metric tasks in SMBs due to familiarity, but lacked advanced SaaS nesting (e.g., 60% of users reported inefficiencies in custom queries).

2

BI Tool Preferences

Looker was favored for small/mid-sized businesses due to affordability and accessibility, but users noted clunky UI for non-technical individuals and teams; Tableau excelled in data visualization but had higher costs and steeper learning curves.

3

SaaS Integration Gaps

SaaS Integration Gaps: Tools like Tableau and Looker offered real-time analytics but had limitations on custom metrics and nesting. Most BI tools emphasized spreadsheets for entry-level users, highlighting a need for a hybrid approach (Writing custom syntax for advanced users and a more visual UI for beginners.

4

User Feedback

User Feedback: Non-tech users preferred alternatives like Trevor.io for ad-hoc queries, citing Looker's complexity; cohort analysis often relied on Excel/Sheets due to BI tool barriers. Users noted having to use a variety of tools to accomplish their needs.

Image 1

Excel

Image 2

Databox

Image 3

Google Sheets

Image 4

Databox

Journey Flow

Identifying All Touch Points

I created a journey flow/decision tree for Metric Builder to map interactions across Mosaic's product areas like reporting, data management, and analytics, ensuring smooth integration of metric changes such as nesting. This guided my design choices for non-destructive edits and a consistent experience, while also identifying areas needing upgrades or scope adjustments to support the feature. It further enabled me to uncover micro-interactions like invalid formula handling or concurrent edits early, addressing these edge cases proactively prior to development.

Wireframes

Harnessing Wireframes for Early Validation

Wireframes were created to lay the foundation for the design process, enabling quick exploration of layouts and functionality while leveraging an existing, yet growing, library of high-fidelity wireframe components for efficiency. This approach helped to facilitate quick user tests and initial discovery confirmations, ensuring early validation of user flows and structural concepts, and aligning the team on a clear path before diving into detailed UI development.

Image 1

Custom metric creation entry point

Image 2

Drag & drop within the right panel

Image 3

Drag metrics directly into the formula bar

Image 4

Drag & drop directly into the canvas

Image 5

Recurring quarterly expense example

Image 6

Metric Catalog - create or modify metrics

Testing and Outcomes
1

Methods

Iterative user sessions with SMEs and beta clients (5-7 participants), plus production testing for UX/visual feedback.

2

Results

Strong user approval emerged, with clients loving the "refined yet familiar" UI that sped up metric creation. Support tickets dropped thanks to more self-service, while adoption grew post-launch, with excited feedback about greater metric control and real-time canvas previews.

3

Challenges Overcome

Users gained greater control and faster turnaround for creating or modifying custom metrics, reducing reliance on the support team, while empowering non-technical users.

Persona Beginner
Prototype

Create and configure - Prototype

As a user I want to create a metric that of amount sorted by date and show it display as a currency

  1. 1Select your revenue data set.
  2. 2Add a "Date" metric as a column.
  3. 3Add the value type "Amount".
  4. 4Configure the amount to display as currency.

Reflections &
Learnings

This project underscored the power of iterative, team-driven design, evolving a niche tool into an inclusive feature. By integrating FigJam brainstorming sessions with ongoing input from SMEs and eager Mosaic clients already using Mosaic's product, we refined the process, delivering a stronger, more intuitive UI that met diverse user needs effectively.

Timeline stretches from scope changes highlighted the need for improved planning with casual feedback, turning an advanced feature into a versatile tool for all. Moving ahead, I’d blend formal user research to predict adjustments and streamline efforts, as Metric Builder demonstrated collaboration sparking creative solutions for everyone.

Project
Success Metrics

The Metric Builder launch enhanced Mosaic's efficiency, with positive user feedback on task simplification and engagement. Post-launch data reflected strong adoption and satisfaction, improving FP&A workflows.

Adoption Growth

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Feature usage surged by 35% within three months of release, driven by seamless integration and reduced onboarding time for new clients.

Efficiency Gains

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Metric creation time fell from an average 12 minutes to under 5, with 80% of beta testers noting easier nesting and edits.

Support Reduction

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Helpdesk tickets related to metric queries fell by 45%, as self-service capabilities empowered users across skill levels.

Other Case Studies

Blending creativity with thoughtful execution, I craft intuitive designs through collaboration and innovation.

Design Systems, User Research, AI-Driven Design, UX Strategy, SaaS UX Design, Mobile Design, Brand Identity, Rapid Prototyping, Cross-Functional Leadership

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