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Envisioning and Transforming a legacy MLM Operations App into a SaaS Platform

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This case study provides a high-level overview of the project, approach, and key outcomes achieved. Due to a strict Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), specific details and proprietary information cannot be shared here. However, the project can be discussed in greater detail with specific insights during a one-on-one conversation. Please reach out for further discussions.

Role

From December 2020 to May 2024, I worked on the design of the MLM suite of applications, starting as an individual contributor focused on hands-on execution and evolving to lead the design specification efforts. By the end of my tenure, I ensured design consistency across applications and phases, delivering cohesive, high-quality user experiences. As Lead Designer, I owned the design process for all service offerings while taking on additional roles to support the project’s overall success.

Overview

The client, a leading provider of MLM commission software and distributor tools, has 30 years of expertise in analysing trends and distributor behaviour. They have two configurable software products in their repertoire.

 

The client's legacy commissions application, and their core offering although robust, was dated and lacked the ability to meet the needs of the current day MLM businesses. To target diverse clientele and simplify proprietary codebase, our clients decided to ship their services to customers in the form of subscription-based cloud apps instead of legacy full-stack solutions. Our clients wanted to create a tool that would make all the functionalities of their legacy software available to their customers at a single destination.

Our brief was to analyse this situation, define stakeholders and service journeys of all parties involved and envision a unified UX and design system based on the insights we drew from our research. Their idea got conceptualised into a decoupled multi-app SaaS platform that would allow internal users and external clients to harness the power of their core services like Commissions Engine,  API integrations, Reporting, Customer Support, etc.

 

We designed the user journeys and frameworks of the platform from scratch before proceeding with each application one-by-one. The presentation below enlists a summary of the projects we undertook to realise the transformation of the legacy software to a multi-app SaaS platform and the value added by us for each of them.

Impacts

One of the most immediate impacts of releasing the MLM SaaS Platform was that the client's customers did not have to delegate business strategies outwards and would be able to solve most issues internally. This will be a solution where everyone benefits since clients will have greater control over their operations, and, with the reduced dependency, Client side engineers would have to maintain API support for only a single codebase. Moreover, it would widen the range of new clients and reduce their onboarding time, thus opening opportunities for more business.​

The design significantly enhanced the user experience, while also meeting the business goals of each of the individual projects. Our work was highly appreciated by the client and stakeholders.

Team

Over the course of four years, this product's journey saw the contributions of numerous talented individuals who played key roles in shaping its success.

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This collective effort included the expertise of Satya Siva Kanth Seethina (Product Designer), Archana Vishwanath (Interaction Designer), Dharmeshwar Brahma (Illustrator), Sourav Mukherjee (Lead Visual Designer), and our strategic design leader, Kadambari Sahu. Past contributors - Akash Anand (Interaction Designer, 2022-2023), Gowtham Madeti (Product Designer, 2022-2023), Tejus Nagdev (Interaction Designer, 2020-2021), and Suryansh Srivastava (Visual Designer, 2020-2021) added unique perspectives to the evolving design process.

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The success of this product stands as a testament to the value of collaboration, mentorship, and continuous iteration, which remain central to my design and leadership ethos.

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