Rebuilding a 30+ year product-development workflow into one platform, cutting task time by nearly 90% for Tech Developers across Nike.
ROLE
Senior Product Designer
TIMELINE
2 Years (2024-2025)
TEAM
1 Designer, 1 PM, 8 engineers
TOOLS
Figma, Miro, Cursor
Impact Metrics
13,000+
Users
66%+
NPS Score Increase
8x Faster
Time spent
Millions+
Saved in costs
Overview
Nike’s footwear development still depended on legacy tools that hadn’t meaningfully changed in decades. Costing lived in Excel. Status lived in email. Version history lived nowhere reliable.
Development Hub was designed to give Footwear Tech Developers a single place to see assigned products, review cost drivers, explore scenarios, and share decisions, without hopping across disconnected systems.
I led discovery and end-to-end product design, partnering closely with the PM and engineering team from research through release.
The Challenge
An outdated, manual product-development process across disconnected tools created data inconsistency, weak version control, and integrity risk.
What that looked like day to day:
Tech Devs couldn’t get a complete material + labor cost picture in one surface
Previous CBDs were hard or impossible to retrieve for comparison
Updates to a single material price were slow to reflect and hard to trust
Collaboration shifted from shared costing work to isolated, reactive cleanup
Spreadsheet macros helped power users — and locked everyone else out of clarity
Research & discovery
I ran interviews, watched workflow demos, and reviewed screen recordings with Footwear Tech Developers and adjacent partners.
What we heard
“I need the full costing picture — materials and labor — without rebuilding it every time.”
What we learned
The job isn’t entering cost data. It’s influencing a cost/value decision before the next gate.
User Persona
Taylor
WHQ FOOTWEAR TECH DEVELOPER
Location
World Headquarters
Role
Footwear Tech Developer
Tools
Adobe PDF, PCX, PCM, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint
Collaborators
Footwear designers, PCC counterparts, Category teammates
Ensures the FW product is hitting the brief according to what marketing and design have defined
Communicates to the product team the cost drivers and inform/influence product teams for any necessary cost value trade-offs
Delivers maximum product value to the consumer ensuring every penny spent is deliberate
What's working
Great teammates.
Macros are fantastic in the CBD to find things quickly
The CBD's excel version is you can customize the sheet to look at the most relevant information.
What's NOT working
Unable to provide the complete costing picture of material and labor.
Frustrated by the overwhelming amount of data that don't need
Need to be proactive versus reactive with product costs.
Getting the Previous CBD is not possible, so it is hard to make a comparison with the old ones
After CDA, now its only me (costing), instead of collaborating with someone else (costing engineers)
It is hard to make updates on one material price and seeing the change
Product Team Design Process
Research
Conducted user interviews and gathered feedback from demos and screen recordings to identify user needs and product opportunities.
Feature Scope
Met with stakeholders to define the feature based on research insights. We aligned on MVP priorities while also mapping out ideas for future iterations.
User Flow & Designs
Created user flows, wireframes, and high-fidelity designs to visualize the experience. These helped the team align on structure, interaction, and visual direction early.
Feedback
Collaborated with developers to refine patterns for performance and feasibility. Collected user feedback through prototypes to validate whether the design met their needs.
Final Designs
Incorporated input from users, developers, and stakeholders to finalize designs. Ensured clarity, consistency, and design system alignment for a smooth build process.
Build & Release
The dev team built the feature based on final designs. After internal QA and product review, it was released to users and monitored for feedback and improvements.
User flow
A simplified Tech Dev path — from assigned product to a shareable, gate-ready decision.
Storyboard
How a Tech Dev moves from “what’s assigned?” to “here’s the recommendation.”
Hi-fidelity Designs
DASHBOARD
DETAIL PAGE / SCENARIO PLANNING
Prototype
Future State
Result
MODERN UI
CENTRALIZED DATA
IN-TOOL COLLABORATION
User Testimonials
“I like the clean formatting & easy navigation”
“This will be really helpful in scenario planning and sharing ideas”
“I really like that all of my projects are in one place”
Reflections
PLATFORM POTENTIAL
Nike has been doing things a specific way for a very long time. Some of the processes are silo'd and some of the legacy tools are upwards of about 30+ years old. There are opportunities to not only update the working model for costing, but to also rethink and modernize the entire development space to allow physical product developers a space where they can do their entire job all in one place.
SME ENGAGEMENT
Engaging with subject matter experts is a delicate balance. While it's good to have user input during the design process, I've found that engaging with core users too frequently can hold back progress.
STAKEHOLDER EXPECTATIONS
When I came into this project, there had already been an effort to modernize the costing process. Once I joined there were timelines and expectations around design deliverables. Part of managing expectations was to have frequent syncs with product and engineering teams to discuss timelines and deliverables. This allowed for a collaborative and transparent working relationship.