Unique users up 104% in redesign of Fitch Ratings’ Research Platform

Along with Moody’s and S&P, Fitch Ratings assesses the creditworthiness of debt issuers like banks and governments.

Digital products used in this space are complex and industry-specific, very much tailored to the particular needs of a unique kind of user. Which means they require serious Product Design.

This is what Fitch Ratings came to understand about their enterprise research platform, FitchConnect. When it started bleeding subscriptions, they tried aiming a series of visual design experts at the problem. But the product’s issues were more than skin-deep. It needed a fundamental reconceptualization by a design leader with experience in research, usability, and crossfunctional collaboration.

EDI Solution surpasses IBM’s to rank second in market

EDI stands for Electronic Data Interchange. It’s how many partnered businesses talk to each other. To accomplish things like order fulfillment and shipping.

Software in this space is complex and industry-specific. Which means creating it requires a lot of business and technical expertise common to the industry. Which, unfortunately, can make for a lot of overlap in functionality across competing solutions.

So how do you stand out in this market? What would differentiate a new EDI solution from Cleo Communications? My design focused on the user’s experience.

I was able to make that case to Cleo for two reasons. First, I make it my business to understand the business — especially the customers. And second, because I take design where few creatives dare to tread: The boardroom. And into the lion’s den of technical teams, who are often impatient with the concept of bending their hard work around user need.

This is how I designed Cleo Integration Cloud (CIC), the second most popular solution in the EDI space, recently surpassing other big league players like IBM. In the eight years since it shipped, CIC has quadrupled Cleo’s enterprise valuation.

Quadrupled.

First-try success rate soars to 85% in doc app redesign