Internal Dashboard Redesign

Company Thermo Fisher Scientific
Product B2B - Internal CSR Request Management Tool
Role UX Designer & Team Lead
Team Product Manager, Engineering, Customer Service
Timeline 4 months

Focus Areas

• Internal tools UX

• Operational workflow design

• CSR productivity

• Request management visibility

Overview

Problem

WebReq supported a high-volume operational workflow for CSRs handling customer item requests. However, the tool was designed around individual ownership, while the actual work required team collaboration and flexibility.

Through stakeholder conversations and observation of real CSR workflows, several challenges emerged.

Key Issues

• CSRs could only view requests assigned to themselves

• No ability to add internal notes or contextual comments

• Requests could not easily be reassigned when coverage changed

• Limited visibility made it easy for requests to stall or fall through the cracks

Because these requests were tied directly to customer needs, delays or missed items could negatively impact both service quality and operational efficiency.

My Role

I led UX research and design efforts to improve the WebReq dashboard experience.

My responsibilities included:

• Observing CSR workflows in real operational contexts

• Conducting workflow walkthroughs using real requests

• Gathering usability feedback directly from users

• Identifying key workflow breakdowns

• Designing improvements to support team-based collaboration

• Partnering with development to ensure the solution fit existing operational systems

Process

Methods:

• Direct observation of CSRs using the existing system

• Workflow walkthroughs with real request scenarios

• Informal usability feedback gathered during live work sessions

Key insights:

• The system was designed for individual ownership, but the workflow required shared team coordination.

• Requests often moved between multiple team members depending on workload, expertise, or shift coverage, but the tool did not support this behavior.

Research & Discovery

Based on research insights, I defined several key goals for the redesign.

Primary Objectives

• Increase visibility of requests across the CSR team

• Support shared ownership and request reassignment

• Reduce manual tracking and follow-up work

• Fit naturally into existing CSR workflows

Rather than dramatically changing the system, the focus was on introducing targeted improvements that would support collaboration while minimizing disruption to daily work.

Design Goals

Registration Flow Redesign

The redesigned dashboard introduced several improvements to better support team workflows.

Design Solutions

Team-Wide Request Visibility
CSRs could now view all open and in-progress requests across the team, allowing them to quickly identify items needing attention.

Internal Comments
A new comment feature allowed users to add context, updates, or decisions directly within a request, reducing reliance on external communication channels.

Request Reassignment
Requests could be reassigned when coverage changed, enabling smoother handoffs between team members.

Improved Status Awareness
Clearer request status indicators helped prevent requests from stalling or being forgotten.

Together, these changes transformed the dashboard from an individual task tracker into a collaborative team workspace.

The redesigned dashboard improved both visibility and coordination within the CSR team.

Key Outcomes

• Improved awareness of open and in-progress requests

• Reduced risk of missed or forgotten items

• Greater confidence among CSRs when handing off requests

Operational Benefits

• Better team coordination

• Fewer manual workarounds

• A stronger foundation for future enhancements to the tool

These improvements helped ensure that customer requests could be managed more reliably across the team.

Results

Iteration & Next Steps

Following launch, continued observation of CSR workflows revealed an additional opportunity for improvement.

Phase 2 Opportunity

CSRs reported friction when searching for parts within the system. Finding the correct item often required multiple attempts due to inconsistent naming and search behavior.

The next phase of the project focuses on improving part search functionality to better support speed and accuracy in real-world CSR workflows.

Reflection

This project reinforced the importance of treating internal tools with the same design rigor as customer-facing products.

By grounding the work in real workflows and observing how teams actually used the system, we were able to uncover small but meaningful improvements that significantly improved operational visibility and collaboration.

Internal tools may be invisible to customers, but they play a critical role in enabling teams to deliver reliable service.

More

Projects I’ve led or contributed to, each focused on solving real product challenges through research, collaboration, and thoughtful design.

Improved product discoverability by exposing key navigation categories, leading to 42% user engagement with the new navigation and a 3.4% lift in conversion.

Global Header Redesign

Optimizing Account Registration

Improving onboarding workflows and increasing business registration conversion through research, design thinking workshops, and iterative UX improvements.