There was hardly ever just one user. There were reviewers, preparers, managers, and more! We had to design with several different user personas in mind, each having their own goals and values, and ensure they all had a great user experience.

Often we’d hear users say they want to “see everything at once,” or “fit it all on one screen.” What they really needed was some well-placed guidance, a clear view of key information, and easy access to additional information.

Auditing processes are so complex, it didn’t make sense to commit to concepts early. Instead, we rapidly ideated and expanded concepts based on feedback, discovering intricacies each time.

Avoiding scope creep is tricky, especially when working with legacy applications that could use a whole rework. We established problem statements or How Might We statements, so we could focus on helping the user get to their goal and minimize work for dev.

I found it extremely important to ask questions and understand why things were the way they were. Sometimes it was a result of lack of thought or budget. Sometimes things existed for good reason.

It took me a couple months to really understand the industry, and there’s still more for me to learn. I had to learn the audit terminology and processes. But this willingness to learn helped garner trust from the client.