Role: Product Designer Lead (end-to-end) Team: Founder, Backend engineer, Frontend devs, Financial advisor Timeline: March 2024 – May 2024 Platforms: Web (Desktop-first)

Research

Information Architecture

Cross-functional Collaboration

Design System

UI Design

Handoff

Small to medium businesses struggle with fragmented financial data across spreadsheets, accounting software, and invoicing tools. Finance teams waste hours reconciling data, and decision-makers lack real-time visibility into company health. The result? Delayed decisions, missed insights, and endless data entry.

Create a unified dashboard where financial health is visible at a glance, KPIs are tracked effortlessly, and teams collaborate on one source of truth.

Instant clarity: Show key metrics (cashflow, P&L, balance sheet) in under 5 seconds

Actionable insights: Surface trends and anomalies through smart data visualization

Flexible access: Role-based permissions for finance teams, executives, and stakeholders

Integration-ready: Connect with DATEV, Amazon, and other third-party systems

Scalable structure: Support multiple products, warehouses, and supply chains as companies grow

Time-to-insight (dashboard load → first actionable metric)

Easy third-party integration.

Data accuracy rate across integrations

User adoption across different roles

Task completion rate for common workflows (creating invoices, reviewing KPIs, comparing periods)

Too many clicks to get to critical information; users abandon complex financial tools

Generic dashboards don't match actual workflows; one size fits nobody

Sankey diagrams and data viz are often decorative, not functional

Role management is binary (admin/user) instead of granular

Comparing time periods requires exports and manual calculations

Numbers tell stories: Every chart and metric should answer a business question

Hierarchy matters: Primary actions take 1-2 clicks; secondary features are discoverable but not intrusive

Trust through clarity: Show data sources, update timestamps, and calculation methods

Respectful of expertise: Don't oversimplify for power users; don't overwhelm beginners

Streamlined login process. The experience prioritizes getting users to value quickly while maintaining enterprise-grade security.

Clean metric cards showing revenue, costs, and changes from previous periods. Mini trend charts give context at a glance. Color-coded indicators (green/red/yellow) use semantic meaning consistently. The KPI table lets users track custom metrics with actual vs. target comparisons and visual trend lines.

Multi-scenario planning view with a prominent chart showing liquidity over time. Users can switch between consolidated and product-specific views. The table below breaks down payment inflows, outflows, and month-end positions. One-click access to invoices for detailed review.

An interactive Sankey diagram visualizing asset and liability flows from high-level categories to granular accounts. Users can select specific time periods and toggle between KPI and full accounting views. The compare mode displays two periods side by side with absolute and relative change calculations. Drill-down reveals line-item details with transaction-level breakdowns.

Product and geography-based Sankey showing how revenue flows through costs to net profit. Filters let users isolate products, countries, or time ranges. Visual emphasis on key thresholds (gross profit, operating profit, net profit) with labeled segments. The chart becomes a storytelling tool, not just a data dump.

Dual view: Warehouse cards for location-based overview, and product table for SKU-level tracking. Search and version controls help users find specific items quickly. Stock status labels (in-stock/out-of-stock) with quantity indicators. Product detail pages show full specifications, pricing tiers, and restock dates.

Theme customization (light/dark/device default) with accent color options. API integration toggles for DATEV and Amazon, with clear descriptions of what data each connection fetches. KPI configuration page for defining custom metrics, formulas, and targets. Chart of accounts management for accounting structure customization. Role-based access control with granular permissions and user status management.

To maintain consistency across the entire platform and speed up development, I built a focused design system tailored to Finora's needs. Rather than adopting a heavy, generic framework, I crafted a lean system that addressed our specific use cases—financial dashboards, data-heavy interfaces, and role-based views.

The system ensured every designer and developer could work from the same foundation, reducing decision fatigue and maintaining visual coherence as new features shipped.

Sankey as a storytelling tool: Traditional P&L and balance sheet formats are tables. We used Sankey diagrams to show flow and relationships, making financial cause-and-effect visible.

Contextual drill-downs: Clicking any chart segment or metric opens a focused detail view instead of navigating away.

Comparison as a first-class feature: Rather than exporting data to compare periods, we built side-by-side views with calculated change columns directly into the interface.

Role-based UI adaptation: Different user roles see tailored dashboards.

A cohesive financial command center covering dashboard → cashflow → balance sheet → P&L → inventory → settings.

High-fidelity UI

Interactive prototype with realistic data flows and interaction patterns

Comprehensive design system ready for developer handoff with component specs.

Role-based access framework supporting multi-user environments without friction.

Finora's strength lies in making complex financial data approachable. By treating the dashboard as a narrative tool—not just a data repository—we helped users move from "what are the numbers?" to "what should I do next?" Financial tools don't have to be boring—clarity and beauty can coexist.