UX/UI DESIGN • PRODUCT DESIGN • B2B SAAS DESIGN
Designing Wolfe’s admin portal to reduce support team dependency and enable client teams to manage gifting programs independently.
Wolfe operates multiple e-commerce businesses focused on digital and physical gifting. Companies use Wolfe's B2B platform to run employee rewards and customer appreciation programs—sending personalized gift cards at scale. I redesigned the admin portal so client teams could fund accounts, manage users, and track programs without relying on Wolfe's support teams.
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Problem
Support dependency was throttling program growth
Client teams couldn't fund their own accounts, update user lists and permissions, or check program health without emailing Wolfe's support or finance teams. Every task required manual coordination and this resulted in clients waiting 2-3 days for account funding, and support teams handled 120+ tickets per month on routine requests.
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Revenue at risk
Delayed funding meant clients couldn't launch campaigns on time and sales couldn't close deals that required immediate gift sends.
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Support costs too much
Wolfe's finance and support teams spent 8 hours a week on manual funding approvals alone. More clients meant more support tickets. This isn't sustainable.
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Churn risk
Clients complained about lack of control, specifically mentioning too much dependency on support and finance teams as a friction point.
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. This meant they couldn't answer basic questions like "Do we have enough budget for next quarter's campaign?" without waiting on support.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 and blocked time-sensitive campaigns.Terminology was inconsistent
"Account Manager," "Program Admin," and "Admin" were used interchangeably across the existing product. This caused permission errors where clients would assign the wrong role, then submit support tickets when users couldn't perform actions.
Add Funds Flow — designed to remove finance dependency
Gift Redemption History — instant visibility into program activity
Aligning the team on what ships first
I ran a MoSCoW prioritization workshop with product, engineering, and finance to align on scope. The goal was to eliminate support team dependency without rebuilding the entire platform.
Must Haves
Should Haves
Could Haves
Won't Haves
Key tradeoff we made: We cut advanced analytics and bulk actions from v1. Finance pushed hard for these features, but data showed 90% of clients managed less than 50 users. Bulk actions would've added complexity for edge cases and we agreed to revisit post-launch if adoption proved demand.
Early wireframes prevented scope creep
Design Decisions
The solution: A self-service portal that eliminates finance and support bottlenecks
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. This eliminated 30+ monthly "Can you send me a report?" support requests.
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 and less dependency
Wolfe's finance team went from 8 hours a week on funding approvals to less than 1 hour. The support team could now focus on complex issues instead of routine account management requests.
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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.