ProspectCRM came back to us with momentum and a modern design system—but some key flows still felt developer-built. Over a short, focused engagement, I acted as UX lead alongside our PM and Prospect’s engineering team to streamline high-impact features: a clearer dashboard, faster goal/target setting, a template-driven automations builder, a far more intuitive reports builder, and a satisfying add-to-quote experience that finally feels as good as it looks.
Context
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ProspectCRM is a “stock-aware” CRM built for B2B wholesalers, distributors, and manufacturers—surfacing product, pricing, and inventory context directly in the CRM so teams can sell what’s actually available. The company now operates under The Access Group and markets itself as the #1 stock-aware CRM for product businesses.
Problem Statement
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The product’s look and feel had been refreshed under Access Group, but several core flows still cost users time: trial dashboards that felt empty, a dense targets workflow, an opaque report builder, and an add-to-quote step that turned into a modal gauntlet.
The stakes were adoption and velocity—fewer missteps for new users, less back-and-forth for power users, and clearer handoffs for engineering.
Constraints
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We designed strictly inside Prospect/Access’s established system—typography, colors, and components were set. That constraint helped speed: we focused on problem framing, interaction patterns, and copy guidance, not net-new UI. Delivery was slice-by-slice with Prospect’s devs, who would implement, sanity-check in product, and loop back quickly when domain details mattered.
Approach & Strategy
Lead with clarity and speed, one feature at a time. Validate structure in grayscale first, then add polish using the existing components. Keep patterns consistent across surfaces—side panels for in-place detail, fixed headers for persistent context, and searchable inputs where lists run long. Treat each flow as a small product: intent at the top, unambiguous next step, and a clean way to review before saving.
Key Design Decisions
New dashboards often start empty, which kills trial momentum. We introduced clear states: Empty → Demo Data (toggleable and clearly labeled) → Connected. Widget types (reports, KPIs, tasks, recent records, pipeline, goal tracker) slot onto a simple grid; where configuration is required, a short, stepped setup clarifies what data powers each card. Titles and content are editable; widgets can be resized, reordered, or removed without ceremony.
We rebuilt the targets flow into two steps with three entry modes—by team member, by company, or by sales rep—reusing layout where possible and changing only what the domain demands. Inline-editable tables, bulk apply, and period schemes (half-year, quarterly, monthly) let admins move fast. Final views differ by mode: table-first for team members; chart-forward for companies/sales reps.
We designed a canvas with node-based flows that always start from one of four templates: X days after problem closure, customer purchase activity, problem created, or opportunity closed. Each step opens a side-panel editor with context-specific settings—e.g., “Send email” (choose a template) or “Create task” (assign, delay). Saved flows land in a simple table (Active/Paused/Canceled) with a details panel for quick inspection and CSV export.
The legacy builder split a left column that silently controlled a right column; the relationship wasn’t obvious. We kept the stepper but made the mental model explicit with hint text and responsive states. Step 1: choose data source. Step 2: select fields with drag-and-drop, collapse/expand groups, and live preview cues. Long nested lists are categorized with a sticky “Recent/Popular” zone and search. Step 3 (optional): group & summarize. Step 4: review & save, with an easy path back to edit.
Adding products used to mean paging through a huge table, then enduring an unpredictable, multi-step modal for discounts and bundles. We kept the fast keyboard tabbing pattern in the table, added search, sort (recent/popular), and category filters, and introduced a live “Selection” side panel. Each chosen item appears as a card with quantity controls, stock status, and per-item totals; a sticky subtotal and “Add N items to quote” CTA anchor the panel. Upsell logic lives inline: discounted upgrade sub-cards include a one-click “Compare & Swap,” and “Frequently bought together” rows add toggled items beneath the parent—no surprise modal at the end.
Final Experience
Trials see meaningful dashboards immediately; admins set targets in two steps; automations start from proven templates and are edited in place; reports are built with clear guidance and a safe review step; and adding to quotes is fast, transparent, and modal-free. Everything runs on Prospect/Access components, so it looks native and ships cleanly.
Outcomes
The changes remove common stumbling blocks and shave decision time across flows. Trial dashboards communicate value sooner; target setup is shorter and less error-prone; automation authorship is approachable; reports take fewer retries; and add-to-quote keeps users in flow while increasing the visibility of upgrades and bundles.
Learnings & Final Thoughts
This was a UX-first, system-faithful engagement with a very capable, enthusiastic dev team. We treated high-fidelity comps as living specs, adjusted quickly when domain details surfaced, and kept patterns consistent to minimize lift. The work is complete; Prospect’s team will continue iterating feature-by-feature using the same approach and the patterns we established.
