Redesigning Shara CRM: Simplifying Admin Workflows for Speed and Clarity
Web App
Deliverables
Interviews
Competitive Analysis
Personas
User flow
Site map
Low Fidelity Designs
High Fidelity Designs
Team
Design
Tools
Figma
Figjam
Jitter
Linear
Notion
Duration
6 Months
In early 2025, I led the redesign of Shara’s CRM, the internal tool that powers merchant onboarding and loan approvals. Over the years, the system had become cluttered and inefficient, with features layered on without a cohesive structure. Admins struggled to find the information they needed, and approval processes dragged on longer than necessary. My goal for this project was clear:
As the lead product designer, I was responsible for rethinking the product architecture, redesigning the interface, and ensuring the workflows aligned with the mental models of Shara’s admin users. I collaborated closely with product managers, engineers, and compliance officers, running workshops and testing prototypes to validate design decisions before implementation.
I approached the redesign in three phases.
Research and Diagnosis: I conducted interviews with admins to observe how they worked with the system day-to-day. Watching them navigate the CRM revealed where time was being wasted. Simple actions like verifying a merchant’s bank statement required multiple steps across disconnected tools.
Exploring Flows: I explored two directions. The first was action-based, organizing the system around key tasks such as “Approve Loan” or “Review Merchant.” The second was process-based, structured around entities like “Users,” “Applications,” and “Loans.” Through testing, I arrived at a hybrid approach that aligned more closely with the real-world lifecycle of merchant onboarding and loan approval.
Design and Testing: With this foundation, I developed interactive prototypes for the home dashboard, merchant submission flow, and loan application reviews. These were tested directly with admins, whose feedback helped refine details such as navigation, visibility of key metrics, and how financial summaries should appear.
The redesign was guided by four principles:
Home Dashboard
The home screen was restructured to highlight what admins needed most: pending applications, average processing times, and conversion rates. Risk alerts and pending activations were surfaced upfront, reducing the time admins spent searching.
User
One of the biggest pain points in the old CRM was the user menu. It was inconsistent, and critical merchant details were spread across multiple tabs with little structure. Admins had to click through different sections repeatedly to build a complete profile.
The redesign introduced a well-structured, tab-based layout that grouped merchant data into clear categories:
Overview: general merchant information, activity history, and credit products.
Wallets: account balances and virtual account details.
Limit Management: credit scores, revenue, risk data, and assigned limits.
Applications: documents, comments, and approval trail.
Transactions & Support: history and case management.
This approach turned the user menu into a single source of truth for each merchant, giving admins everything they needed in one place. It reduced time spent searching for details and improved the accuracy of decisions.
Merchant Submission and Review Flow
The review process was transformed into a structured, multi-step journey. Admins could now:
Upload and review documents like IDs and bank statements directly in the CRM.
Leave comments visible across different admin levels, creating a clear trail of decisions.
Take decisive actions—reject, request more info, or escalate for final approval—with fewer clicks.
This change eliminated the need for external tools and gave admins all the context they needed in one place.
Loan Applications
Loan data was centralized into a single, filterable table with application status, approved limits, and activity logs. This streamlined what had previously been a fragmented and time-consuming search process.
The redesign achieved its primary objective of cutting down admin time. Navigation and review times dropped by nearly 50%, allowing approvals and rejections to be completed in half the time compared to the old system. Admins reported greater confidence in using the tool, thanks to clearer review trails and consolidated information. Beyond usability improvements, Shara’s leadership noted that showcasing the new CRM boosted investor confidence in the company’s operational efficiency.
Not every decision was straightforward. Some power users were initially frustrated by the simplification of certain advanced tools, which they felt reduced flexibility. Engineering also raised concerns about embedding financial summaries into the CRM, so we compromised by phasing them in gradually.
A key lesson was the need to balance simplicity for new users with the control demanded by experienced ones. Designing for both audiences meant building a system that was intuitive but expandable over time.