Enterprise Grant Management Platform
Transformed California Community Colleges' grant management from a fragmented, manual system to an enterprise platform managing $1/2B annually across 11,000 users and 7,868 institutions. Led product design from MVP through four-year evolution, growing design team from 1.5 to 5 members while collaborating with architects, PMs, developers, and California Community Colleges Chancelor's Office executive leadership.
Impact: $60M → $8.5B managed | 250 → 11,000 users | Weeks → Days for certifications | Days → Instant data visibility
Team & Collaboration
Timeline: September 2016 - 2021 ( project is ongoing)
Team Evolution:
- Started: Myself + 1 designer (PT) + 1 FE dev (PT)
- Grew to: 1 Lead Designer + 2 FT designers + 3 FE developers + 9 Developers
Key Collaborators:
- Chief Architect & Development Team
- Client Manager/PM & Project Manager
- CCCCO Executive Vice Chancellor, Workforce & Digital Futures
- Academic Deans and College Administrators
- State-level stakeholders managing multiple funding streams
My Responsibilities:
- User research & discovery (interviews, surveys, workshops)
- UX strategy & interface design for all major features
- Design system creation & maintenance
- 508 accessibility compliance
- Design team leadership & mentorship
- Stakeholder management & executive presentations
The Problem
California community college’s multi-phase grant management process needed an upgrade. Data was siloed, lost in emails and spreadsheets with a dire need for an upgrade to modernize the process and gather all the data into a single database for analysis and reporting.
The Process
- Interviewed dean’s and stakeholder.
- Identified types of data that was required to be collected.
- Evaluated and documented existing steps and flow.
Sketching out workflows
Building a design system
Building click-through mock-ups of the workflows
Error Stepper : Feature as a solution
Original challenge: Applications require many fields, and when users missed one, they couldn't easily identify which field was incomplete.
Our solution: We built an Error Stepper feature that automatically highlights missing or errored fields and navigates users directly to them, eliminating confusion and reducing the time needed to complete applications.
Long form with errors
Stepper control and highlighted fields
Error Stepper Example
System Designed
- Robust platform consolidating users
- Full application to funding pipeline in one place.
- Built feature modules to be used across all funds.
- Feature modules included allocation management, application submittal approval, rated review process, fiscal reporting, complex certification, and approval process.
Certification approval process
Deadlines and Messaging
Sample Looker Dashboard
Custom Survey Module
Application stage and approvers workflow
Robust full featured platform for managing funds from application on through to final close-out
Results & Impact
Modern grant application and tracking with all data in one location revealed in up-to-the moment dashboards for college, district, regional and statewide reporting.