Simplifying Revenue Adjustment Processes @ AWS FinTech | UX Design Intern
Role
UX Research, UI/UX Design
Team
Melody (UX mentor), Alok (Product Manager), Sanjeev & Aditi (Managers)
Time
10 weeks (July - Sept 2022)
Tools + Methods
Figma, User interviews, Affinity diagram, UX roadmap, Customer journey map, Mockups, Prototype, Usability test, Preference test
Background
Amazon Web Services Financial Technology (AWS FinTech) is a team within the Finance and Global Business Services organization at Amazon that “build[s] scalable long-term solutions that provide transparency into financial business insights while ensuring the highest standards of data quality, consistency, and security.”
Context
ORIGIN is the AWS automated revenue planning and reporting system that provides a standardized and automated continuous planning for all AWS services. Users (AWS Service Finance owners) can create multiple revenue planning scenarios using SCARF (usage planning tool), external usage plans, use ORIGIN generated ASP baseline forecast, add different ASP adjustments (ASP price cuts/overrides, new region/product ASPs), DDCs, or topside adjustments, and subsequently publish it as an Operational Plan (OP1/OP2/R&O/3YF).
The Challenge
Currently, users create revenue plans in ORIGIN, which provides Excel-based adjustment templates to adjust the plan components—ASPs (Pricecut, Override, Proxy ), DDC, and Revenue (Topside revenue override/additive adjusts ASP/usage). The process to create adjustments includes downloading an adjustment template offered by ORIGIN, creating changes in Excel, saving the new file, and iteratively uploading the new version until a final version is reached. Users are frustrated from having too many files to deal with, spending time on manual input errors, and fixing formatting across platforms. My target was to design an experience within ORIGIN that integrates the cross-platform experience and provides users different options for adding a new adjustment.
The Solution
ORIGIN plans to create a new feature called “Adjustments Wizard” so users can create/edit adjustment templates within ORIGIN, instead of externally editing data in Excel and iteratively re-uploading. This plans to eliminate manual input errors, reduce user steps, and simplify one-line edits. I learned from my PM and mentor about the project requirements, the revenue planning process supported in ORIGIN, and the Excel-based adjustment mechanisms available in ORIGIN. Then, I used my knowledge to execute a UX design cycle to design this Excel-based ORIGIN solution feature from scratch. My project was the first UX initiative in the direction of this feature, with the deliverable offering future scalable table and user flow solutions.
The Current Experience
The process to create adjustments for new users involves downloading an adjustment template, entering data in Excel, saving the new file, uploading a new version with the changes, and repeating this process until an ideal version is reached. Returning users have to upload Excel file adjustments, view the success report, make changes accordingly in Excel, and continue this iterative process until the success report is passed.
Design Process Timeline
Due to the internal usage of this product and its impact on Amazon's employees and other products, please reach out to me for any additional questions—my email is mayliu@ucdavis.edu, or I can be reached at my LinkedIn profile.
Personal Takeaways
The depth and scope of this project were intimidating at first, but successfully completing this internship taught me how designing a feature from scratch is a multifaceted process and constant communication with cross-functional partners is important to deliver product and user needs. I felt true ownership over my work, received trust in my ability to lead this design process, and was fully supported with guidance in understanding this complicated space of enterprise financial software.
This project showed me how different areas of feasibility and changes (e.g. Product, Dev, Design) could all affect the UI and UX of the product. I improved my abilities of finding a balance of addressing both feature-specific needs and the overarching user experience, brainstorming tons of explorations and different user flows, advocating for the user and referring back to user research insights, and narrowing a scope to pursue that would lead to the best ideal user experience. I also learned how to navigate various ambiguous situations and decisions that arose regarding the direction, features, and roadmap of the product.
Overall, I’m glad to have played a role in spearheading the first UX initiative that drives the future direction of this product. I’m so grateful for my team for all the wonderful memories that I’ve created and will look back so fondly on going forward. Thank you, Amazon, for giving me such a meaningful project, the opportunity to also participate in an organization-wide Hackathon, countless team activities and socials, the privilege of exploring the campus headquarters, a chance to experience a Seattle summer, and most of all, a community of thousands of fellow interns and FTEs that I learned so much from in such a short period. Time truly flies when you’re having fun! :')
Thanks for making it this far!
For more design work, check out my ServiceNow internship, my Netflix Party redesign, or this case study. For my UX Research projects, view my work for Zendesk or the UCSD Design Lab.