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B2B SaaS · Retail operations

Instivo

Instivo

Letting store managers set their own rules without calling IT

Instivo is a SaaS for multi-unit retail, a company of around 50 people. I turned its business rules into a data workspace, a rule engine and a card-linked entity model that replaced six disconnected tools, and rebuilt the design system underneath.

Role
Product Designer (contract)
Period
Jun – Dec 2023
Team
Cross-functional, 5–10 per task
Research
Interviews with retail managers, usability tests

The problem

Six tools that never talked to each other

Employee records lived in spreadsheets, supplier orders went by phone and stock was counted by hand, across six tools that never talked to each other. A product dropping below 50 units triggered nothing: someone had to notice, call and follow up.

A store manager in a pharmacy stockroom with Instivo's stock overview open on a laptop
Stock status updated by rules instead of someone remembering to count.

The product

The Data Workspace

The Data Workspace is where data is created and structured. Every form field, category and role across Instivo traces back to it. System workspaces feed the platform and cannot be deleted; free workspaces belong to the user.

A desk with a monitor showing the Instivo data workspace and a laptop editing a card
Workspaces on the monitor, a card being edited on the laptop.

Research

IT, managers and operators were blocking each other

I led discovery and interviews with retail managers alongside the PM. An IT rule could restrict a manager, and a manager rule could block an operator IT had allowed. Nobody found out until someone hit the block.

Manager, IT Admin and operational user, and how their rules stack
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Decision

Products became linked cards

The brief asked for folders, but one product belongs to several categories at once and a folder holds it in one place. A linked card keeps a single record that plays a different role in each context.

Folder model duplicating a product versus a card-linked model referencing one record
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Close-up of the Instivo hierarchy canvas with linked product cards
The canvas: linked cards with rule counts, reorganizing as connections grow.

Decision

A rule builder with four fixed parts

The first version used free text, and it failed in testing. What shipped is a fixed four-part schema that managers fill in from chips: operator, entity, condition, action.

A manager editing a card's rules in Instivo on a laptop
Editing a card: name, links and its rules in one modal.
The four-part rule schema with an example rule and the rejected free-text approach
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Decision

Disabled controls say why

Critical workspaces show the delete control disabled, with the reason in a tooltip. Inherited rules appear read-only with their origin.

Hidden control versus a disabled control with an explanatory tooltip
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Fleet & Dock

Fleet and dock read the same records

Booking a dock needs a driver, a vehicle, a bay and a warehouse, all built in the Data Workspace. If a driver's license changes there, every booking picks it up, with no copied data and no integration layer in between.

The Instivo dock schedule open on a laptop in a warehouse office overlooking loading docks
Dock schedule: bays by hour, status by color.
The Instivo driver table open on a laptop in front of numbered loading docks
Drivers, pulled from the same records.

Design system

Rebuilding the design system in four token layers

The inherited system had no tokens and no responsive logic. When mobile came mid-project, the semantic layer already resolved to it.

Core, Palette, Brand and Semantic token layers
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Results

Usability test results

Measured in usability testing with real users. In the test tasks, managers changed rules, categories and thresholds on their own, with no help from IT.

  • ~70%less configuration time
  • 5×faster new-unit onboarding
  • 6 → 1disconnected tools replaced by one workspace