In my role as Product and Experience Design Lead at Tally Group, I focused on enhancing the user experience for complex SaaS solutions. I also worked on driving customer engagement and creating a unified design approach across Tally's product offerings. Tally Group's goal was to transform the utility billing landscape, and I led initiatives that were instrumental in shaping products that met the evolving needs of utility providers and their customers.

Tally Group sought to develop a seamless and modern digital experience for utility companies, offering a platform that was scalable and easy to use. However, the product suite was complex and consisted of various tools with distinct interfaces, resulting in inconsistent experiences for users. The primary challenge was to establish a cohesive design language that could support multiple products while still offering flexibility for specific market needs.

The utility industry is unique in that customer needs are diverse, and the digital transformation was still in progress for many companies. The Tally Group platform had to cater to different user types, from billing administrators to end customers accessing their energy usage data. This variety required a balance between advanced functionality for power users and simplicity for everyday consumers.

As the Product and Experience Design Lead, I spearheaded the development of a unified Design Language System (DLS) to standardise the user experience across all products. I focused on:

• User Research and Stakeholder Engagement: Engaging with users, including both internal stakeholders and external clients, to gather insights into the various pain points and needs across different segments. This helped inform a user-centred design approach and ensure the platform was intuitive and useful to all parties.
• Design System Implementation: Creating a flexible DLS that would ensure consistent UI/UX across Tally's suite of products, while accommodating specific needs for distinct tools. This system allowed designers and developers to work more efficiently, accelerating the overall development timeline by at least 30%, as measured by reduced design iterations and faster implementation.
• Prototyping and Testing: Developing interactive prototypes to communicate design concepts effectively, and conducting iterative user testing to validate design choices. This iterative process was vital in refining workflows for key user tasks, such as managing customer accounts or viewing billing information.

The design initiatives I led resulted in significant improvements across Tally's product suite:

• Improved Efficiency: The DLS reduced the time required for product teams to design and build new features, as they now had access to a shared set of standardised components.
• Enhanced User Experience: User testing showed that power users found navigation comprehension much faster. The site structure and hierarchy were more intuitive as they were aligned with the customer lifecycle, leading to improved customer satisfaction scores.
• Scalable Design: By establishing a flexible yet consistent DLS, Tally Group's platform was able to support the unique needs of different utility clients without sacrificing usability or brand integrity.

The collaborative effort in developing a unified, scalable platform not only improved user experience but also positioned Tally Group as a leader in providing modern, digital-first solutions to the utility industry.