Case: Cyber Security UX
Challenge
Forcepoint sought to transition from standalone point products to a unified, cloud-based SaaS platform, providing flexibility to the ever shifting market demands of cyber security.
Approach
As Principal UX Architect and later UX Director, I led the adoption of agile UX practices, ensuring the design strategy remained aligned with evolving platform goals and business priorities.
Discovery
Faced with fragmented legacy products, I initiated a discovery and rationalization effort to establish a unified design baseline, or at least, requirements based on current offerings.
Infrastructure Blueprint
I created a infrastructure map addressing both customer environments and Forcepoint’s internal operations.
Iterative Alignment
Through iterative workshop session, I aligned architectural changes, feature priorities, and revenue impact, collaborating closely with architects, product managers, developers, and executives.
Initial mapping of product and platform requirements.
Rationalized V1 product architecture/organization.
Developing Initial User Flows
- As feature priorities began to stabilize, I initiated the creation of initial user flows for core experiences.
- I crafted wireframes and prototypes to visualize the product experience. I established personas aligned with the various roles within the user flows.
Initial Wireframing
Highlighting the significance of early idea exemplification to foster consensus, the initial sketches were collaboratively developed with the product management team.
Conducting thorough research, insights were gathered from both existing and potential customers. Desk research was undertaken to analyze competitors and glean inspiration from various SaaS platforms.
Very rough initial wireframe for the "Dynamic Edge" product.
UI Design and Structure
The initial implementation of platform features took place in the "Dynamic Edge" V1 (rebranded multiple times).
UX leveraged the product as a testing ground, iterating on deliverables like the design system and essential features such as login and reporting.
The regular updates to the prototype laid the groundwork for shaping the product.
V1 dashboard design (for early access customers).Some elements was lifted from legacy products, some were new.
Iterations of the Prototype
We continued to consolidate on key aspects:
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Establishing a robust platform shell, intended for shared utilization across products, encompassing standardized page patterns.
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Defining various states, including error states, exemptions, and edge cases.
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Crafting a global notification approach.
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Developing a comprehensive help system, spanning inline and shell levels.
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Incorporating brand elements, featuring brand-derived colors for standard UI elements such as buttons.
The prototype underwent rigorous testing with potential customers, informing product priorities and contributing valuable insights to ongoing persona development.
The pattern approach implemented in Dynamic Edge laid the groundwork for the overarching design system.
Key Insights
UX acted as the product sketch artist, translating ideas into prototypes that became the shared decision-making platform. Once a lean MVP feature set was defined, development accelerated with the UX-owned prototype at the center.
Five guiding principles shaped the work:
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Platform focus: Build from scratch or extend existing products with open APIs.
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Reuse & globalize: Rationalize, globalize, and integrate legacy features.
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Universal experiences: Standardized reporting, analytics, and user management.
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UI consistency: Early versions set the tone for platform UI.
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Sales motion: Customer-journey focus on core moments of truth.
This holistic approach laid the groundwork for the Felix design system, establishing shared terminology and integration guidelines.