Wolfe's Web-Based SaaS
Designing Wolfe's admin portal to reduce support dependency and enable client teams to manage gifting programs independently.
Client teams couldn't do anything without contacting support, including funding accounts, managing users, and checking program health. Every task meant emails, waiting, and delays. I built a self-service portal that gave them full control.
Problem
Clients couldn't manage programs without support
Teams relied on email and manual coordination with finance and support to complete basic tasks like funding accounts or updating users. This created delays, errors, and unnecessary dependency on internal teams.
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Fragmented workflows
Routine actions needed back-and-forth emails, slowing execution and creating bottlenecks.
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Delayed decision making
Teams lacked visibility into program status, which delayed approvals and planning.
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Errors and inconsistencies
Manual processes increased mistakes and created confusion around program state.
Gift detail view gives admins complete transaction visibility without contacting support.
Research
Finding the real blockers
I interviewed stakeholders across executive, finance, and product teams and reviewed support tickets to understand where clients were getting stuck.
Three insights shaped the design:
No single source of truth
Clients pieced together program status from emails, spreadsheets, and support responses. There was no centralized view of balances, activity, or user permissions.Manual workflows created friction
Funding requests required email approval from finance, then manual confirmation back to the client. This added 2–3 days to every transaction.Terminology was inconsistent
"Account Manager," "Program Admin," and "Admin" were used interchangeably across the product and in support conversations, causing confusion around who could do what.
Add Funds Flow — designed to remove finance dependency
Gift Redemption History — instant visibility into program activity
Prioritizing features for impact
With a clear understanding of user pain points, I used the MoSCoW method with product and engineering teams to prioritize design decisions based on user needs, technical constraints, and business goals.
Must Haves
Should Haves
Could Haves
Won't Haves
This prioritization kept the team focused on eliminating the core friction points - fragmented workflows, delayed decision-making, and manual errors - while setting clear boundaries on scope.
Low-fidelity wireframes aligned product, engineering, and finance teams on core functionality early.
Design Decisions
Three changes that enabled self-service
Admins fund accounts directly in the platform, bypassing finance entirely.
Consolidate navigation and standardize terminology
The old portal had nine top-level sections with overlapping functions. I collapsed these into seven clearer sections. I also removed "Account Manager" and "Program Admin" labels — they were causing permission confusion. Everything became "Admin" with role-based access controlled on the backend.
Simplified navigation gave users a clear mental model of the product.
Surface program health on the dashboard
Clients had no way to see program performance without emailing support. I added funding balance, redemption trends, and recent activity to the dashboard so teams could assess program health at a glance and make decisions without waiting for reports.
Dashboard gives teams immediate visibility into balances, trends, and activity.
What I didn't do
I considered a guided onboarding wizard to walk new admins through setup, but stakeholder feedback showed most clients were assigned the role after programs were already live. A wizard would have added friction for the majority, so I optimized for power users instead and moved educational content to a help center.
User and permission management centralized in one view
Impact
Faster workflows, less dependency, higher confidence
Following the design, teams were able to manage their reward programs with less reliance on support and finance, while completing key tasks more efficiently and with fewer errors.
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Support tickets dropped 65%
Requests related to funding, user management, and program updates went from 120/month to 42. Finance went from spending 8 hours/week on funding approvals to less than 1 hour.
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90% of tasks completed in-platform
Clients now handle funding, user permissions, and activity monitoring without emailing support or finance.
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Same-day account funding
Funding time went from 2–3 days to same-day. Clients can add funds and distribute gifts within hours instead of waiting for approvals.
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Higher self-service adoption
Dashboard usage increased 3x in the first month post-launch. Clients began proactively monitoring program health instead of reacting to issues.