CASE STUDY 03 · MedPlus

Masters (Internal Operations) Management System

5x Faster: Timeline achieved for launching new product lines and inventory batches.

0%: Critical pricing mismatch errors reported across channels post-implementation.

-70%: Drop in manual database administrative overhead and operational data cleanup efforts.

100%: Audit compliance tracking across all SKU and pricing modifications.

01 / 10 · Masters product approval detail form with primary details and product statuses

The Challenge

Replacing a complex legacy database system with an intuitive, error-proof configuration portal.

Internal operations managers regularly handle millions of SKU variants, regional taxation laws, and dynamic pharmaceutical supply rules; a single incorrect cell entry can instantly crash pricing across hundreds of digital storefronts.

Problem Statement

Tedious Business Rules Management: System admins face highly slow, manual, or confusing interfaces when attempting to update product data variables.

Cross-Channel Data Mismatches: Inconsistent product syncing across platforms breaks sales workflows and corrupts digital catalogs.

Blind Price Alteration Risks: High difficulty applying massive bulk pricing updates or promotional models without accidentally destroying regional margins.

Competitor Analysis

Competitors Assessed: SAP Master Data Governance.

Gaps & opportunity

Strategic Gaps Identified: Enterprise competitors offered immense functional power but suffered from extremely poor user experiences, requiring specialized engineering certifications just to run catalog modifications. There was an internal product opportunity to create an operationally secure system with built-in "guardrails" specifically tuned for rapid pharmacy retailing.

User Research

MethodologyTime-and-motion studies of administrative teams, error log audits, and heuristic evaluations of current internal operational software tools.
Insights DiscoveredCatalog staff spent roughly 40% of their workday double-checking entry fields manually inside Excel files out of pure fear of breaking digital catalogs. Over 15% of retail supply delays stemmed directly from slow, manual catalog processing loops when updates were pushed to production databases.

Research was conducted before any design work; findings shaped the problem definition and strategy.

Discovery

Our data audit surfaced that catalog updates failed not because managers didn't understand products, but because they lacked a staging system to verify changes safely. We made an architectural discovery: by separating the "Draft/Staging Environment" from the live "Production Environment" inside the catalog tool, management could safely preview bulk uploads and catch data mismatches before they hit customer-facing apps.

Contextual interviews

Interviewed catalog managers and warehouse staff to learn why Excel double-checking rituals persisted and what made production edits feel unsafe.

Journey mapping

Mapped the catalog update journey end-to-end — from supplier sheet to live store app — pinpointing where manual loops caused retail supply delays.

Analytics review

Audited catalog error rates and processing times to quantify the cost of missing staging, preview, and bulk-upload safeguards.

Strategy

Problem
Internal managers risk breaking live store prices and catalog data because updates lack an isolated staging space.
Insight
Administrative entry errors stem from a lack of visual impact previews rather than a lack of product knowledge.
Opportunity
Build an error-proof configuration portal that completely removes data risk from enterprise workflows.
Strategy
Separate the layout architecture into isolated staging drafts and introduce role-based approval gates.
Solution
Launch a dual environment portal featuring a visual "Impact Preview Dashboard" to simulate updates prior to production.
Roadmap Prioritization
Built a modern bulk-upload parsing engine with custom rule validation scripts. Deployed role-based approvals (Maker-Checker workflow controls) to prevent unverified changes from going live.

Design Process

Designed a high-density tabular user interface incorporating robust advanced sorting, intelligent inline filtering, and clear validation flags. Built a visual "Impact Preview Dashboard" that explicitly simulates the exact revenue margin changes a pricing update will cause across stores before the user commits to pushing changes live.

Wireframes

Tabular data layouts were drafted for bulk uploads, catalog hierarchy management, pricing updates, and maker-checker approval flows.

Exploration

High-density interface concepts were explored with advanced sorting, inline filtering, and validation flags to handle massive catalog datasets.

Prototypes

Interactive prototypes of the Impact Preview Dashboard simulated exact revenue margin changes before users committed pricing updates live.

Testing

Catalog operations specialists validated bulk-upload parsing, error flags, and role-based approvals across realistic update scenarios.

Final Design

A dense, scannable tabular UI with impact preview, intelligent filtering, and maker-checker controls that prevent unverified changes.

Only the iterations that changed the direction of the work are shown — not every exploration.

Final Experience

Personas

Persona 01

Anjali Sharma

The Product Catalog Manager · Senior Catalog Operations Specialist

Responsible for maintaining the overall structural health of the product catalog, catalog hierarchy, and data cleanliness across branches.

Goals

Streamline the introduction of new products, simplify massive variant lists, and sync catalog edits instantly.

Frustrations

Fighting fragmented, manual catalog interfaces and fixing typos caused by legacy backend management architecture.

Age: 31
Single
Mumbai, Maharashtra
Archetype: The Data Custodian

Persona 02

Rajesh Kumar

The Pricing Analyst · Lead Commercial Pricing Analyst

Controls, updates, and scales product pricing tiers based on fast-shifting competitor trends, baseline margins, and marketing plans.

Goals

Roll out hyper-agile pricing updates and track real-time revenue or margin implications globally.

Frustrations

Experiencing massive friction when applying bulk updates and flying completely blind without localized profit margin visibility.

Age: 45
Married (with children)
New Delhi, Delhi
Archetype: The Margin Strategist

Impact

5x Faster

Timeline for launching new product lines and inventory batches

Critical pricing mismatch errors across channels post-implementation

-70%

Drop in manual database administrative overhead

100%

Audit compliance tracking across all SKU and pricing modifications