Solar + Storage Platform: UX for Complex Energy Project Financial Dashboards
EDF’s Solar + Storage Costing Platform was built to help project teams model financials for complex hybrid energy developments. The process was mission-critical—but its fragmented spreadsheets and error-prone workflows made high-stakes decisions harder than they needed to be.
I led the UX strategy to transform those workflows: mapping team roles, restructuring key cost inputs, and designing a centralized interface that improved speed, accuracy, and cross-functional collaboration.
This work didn’t just improve a tool—it helped EDF win bids to build new renewable energy projects, like the one featured below.
🎥 Watch the ribbon-cutting ceremony as Arrow Canyon Solar goes online:
Quick Brag: After this solar + storage plant went live, the energy it generated fully powered the first Super Bowl run entirely on renewable energy. ⚡🏈 Catch the CBS Mornings feature covering this milestone.
The Challenge: Disconnected Workflows, High-Stakes Decisions
EDF had committed to doubling its solar + storage capacity to 1.3 GW annually as part of its CAP2030 initiative. But internal teams weren’t scaling at the same rate—and weren’t going to. Without new headcount, our existing workflows needed to stretch dramatically further, faster.
Nowhere was that tension more visible than in costing. The process often took more than three weeks per project, relying on disconnected spreadsheets, institutional knowledge, and individual expertise to deliver high-stakes financial estimates.
We weren’t optimizing for speed alone. We were redesigning the system to deliver reliable insights earlier—without compromising precision. To meet growth targets without sacrificing accuracy, we had to reduce friction across the system and enable consistent, confident financial insight much earlier in development.
Why the Old Workflow Couldn’t Scale
EDF’s solar + storage teams relied on patchworked tools that had never been designed for speed or scale. Each team had its own way of calculating project costs, which led to:
Fragmented Inputs – Disparate data sources made validation difficult and alignment inconsistent.
Manual Entry & Calculations – Repetitive processes slowed delivery and increased risk of error.
No Scenario Comparison – Users lacked a flexible way to weigh trade-offs or present options to leadership.
This wasn’t just a tooling fix—it was a systems redesign to support faster, smarter decision-making at scale.
These examples reflect the fragmented inputs feeding into high‑stakes financial decisions—no wonder users struggled to build accurate bids efficiently.
My Role in This Project
I led UX strategy, research, and design for this internal financial platform—streamlining pricing workflows so EDF teams could build fast, accurate project estimates with greater confidence.
Working closely with finance, engineering, and product leads, I surfaced system-wide bottlenecks, mapped cross-team workflows, and restructured cost input patterns. I designed modular interface components, defined interaction flows, and developed user personas to align key decision-makers around shared financial models.
While I led end-to-end design strategy, this project was a true partnership—made possible by deep collaboration with the engineers and subject matter experts listed below.
Designing for — Accuracy Under Pressure, Across a Fast-Moving Pipeline
The Solar + Storage Costing Tool was built for speed and precision—its purpose was to deliver accurate pricing data for multi-million dollar energy project decisions. Our users weren’t browsing—they were building financial cases that could make or break a bid.
To keep the project grounded, I developed a set of narrative-style user personas that translated complex, cross-functional roles into actionable insight. These personas didn’t just capture user behavior—they clarified priorities, aligned teams, and helped steer product decisions in the right direction as the tool scaled.
Key user profiles included:
The Portfolio Manager: Responsible for compiling complex pricing inputs under intense time pressure, Paola needed a centralized source of truth—one that reduced back-and-forth, supported version control, and gave her the confidence to submit accurate numbers for executive review.
The Technical SME: Responsible for providing granular cost estimates and technical inputs, this user was often brought in midstream—after initial scoping had already begun. They needed fast, intuitive ways to contribute updates, flag risks, and understand how their numbers impacted the overall cost structure. Without clear workflows, they risked becoming the bottleneck—or worse, being blamed for misalignment they didn’t cause.
Because these personas were shared widely across internal teams, I’ve included two versions of the Portfolio Manager persona below. The first follows my standard user-centered format. The second is a polished, shareable version that helped keep multiple teams aligned throughout product development.
Persona in my usual format
Persona in a polished, shareable format
A Note on Screenshots: Because this project involved proprietary financial tools and confidential modeling, you'll notice some screenshots have been blurred. While the data itself is obscured, the UX decisions, design process, and strategic outcomes are fully captured here.
The Solution: Centralized Platform to Simplify Financial Workflows
To optimize the costing workflow, I implemented a user-centered UX strategy that focused on:
Centralizing Data Inputs – Designed a unified interface that consolidated all cost variables in one platform.
Automating Key Calculations – Reduced manual entry by integrating formula-based calculations directly into the tool.
Improving Scenario Comparisons – Introduced interactive data visualization to help teams compare project cost variations more efficiently.
Optimizing for Scalability – Built a modular design framework that allowed the tool to evolve as new pricing models and energy storage configurations emerged.
But this wasn’t just about usability—it was about adaptability.
From day one, we aligned our design strategy with the technical roadmap. Pre-construction and Solar Engineering teams were already building modular “costing engines,” and our interface had to complement that architecture: flexible, transparent, and scalable.
Every design decision—from how templates were selected to how data flowed across stages—was guided by a core principle: Would this reduce the time and effort to create a reliable early-stage pro forma, especially for high-volume solar projects, without adding friction elsewhere?
These changes enhanced usability, reduced errors, and accelerated the cost estimation process—making solar + storage projects more efficient and financially transparent.
We needed a solution that wouldn’t just work for one app or team—it had to support every user group in this ecosystem.
The Process & What I Did
Understand the Stakes
Goal: Build shared understanding of pain points and downstream impact.
Our first step was to uncover the core friction points in the existing costing process—and understand how spreadsheet sprawl was introducing financial risk.
I conducted discovery interviews with key stakeholders from Power Marketing, Portfolio Management, and Pre-Construction, focusing on:
Where their workflows broke down
How siloed inputs delayed proposals
Which decisions carried the highest financial risk if inputs were wrong, late, or misaligned
We mapped pain points by impact and effort to guide prioritization. Reducing rework and improving communication quickly rose to the top.
To visualize the downstream chaos, we mapped how dozens of internal and external contributors touched the same cost data at different stages—each with their own tools, templates, and assumptions.
This diagram helped stakeholders see how small spreadsheet misalignments created ripple effects across entire project phases.
I also worked with finance stakeholders to identify the top financial risks introduced by the existing tools:
Outdated escalation assumptions
Hidden formula errors
Inability to run quick scenario comparisons during proposal negotiations
These early conversations helped build urgency and alignment: we weren’t just cleaning up spreadsheets—we were building infrastructure for faster, safer investment decisions.
Clarify Who Needs What
Goal: Clarify who needs what, when—and why it matters for project success.
Persona development for financial decision-makers and supporting roles
Annotated journey maps or task flows that reflect role-specific friction
Screenshots: Role-based workflow diagrams or communication pain points
Mapping user journeys helped clarify overlapping responsibilities—and surfaced timing gaps where assumptions were breaking down.
Mapping user journeys helped clarify overlapping responsibilities—and surfaced timing gaps where assumptions were breaking down.
Dig Into the Data Mess
Goal: Break down and categorize how financial data is currently created, transferred, and used.
I needed to understand exactly how cost estimates were being created — and where things broke down. That meant digging into live spreadsheets, mapping formula logic, and tracing the handoffs that introduced risk.
Our starting point—Scenario Picker—wasn’t built for today’s use cases. We had to rework it to support complexity, usability, and validation.
Design for Change
Goal: Reduce duplication, simplify updates, and enable confident decision-making.
Modular cost input design — e.g., system that supports both solar-only and hybrid projects
Interface patterns that enabled versioning or scenario planning
Screenshots: Early wireframes, component logic, or visual hierarchy examples
FIX THE HEX CODES FOR RED AND YELLOW! (Check all hex codes)
Early visual definitions helped us establish consistency—and made it easier for developers to implement flexible, maintainable patterns.
Make It Real & Testable
Goal: Build confidence in tool flow and data accuracy under pressure.
Our product owner’s mantra—“If you’re not embarrassed by the first version, you’ve launched too late”—set the tone for fast, iterative releases. That urgency was energizing, but it also meant every design decision needed to earn its place quickly, without derailing dev timelines or sacrificing user clarity.
✦ Design Advocacy in Every Story
Even with strong executive buy-in, good UX isn’t always protected by default.
Throughout this project, I collaborated with well-intentioned product leaders who frequently shared visual mockups to help move the project forward. But these mockups—though fast—often introduced visual clutter, broke established patterns, and muddied key interactions. They weren’t just stylistically misaligned—they actively disrupted user understanding.
Instead of rejecting these inputs outright, I built a lightweight system for real-time course correction:
Story by story, I reviewed proposed visuals and offered refined alternatives grounded in UX principles and real user feedback.
Quick-turn Figma updates became a critical tool for aligning high-visibility decisions with our larger design system—without slowing dev velocity.
I paired every change with rationale, helping cross-functional partners understand why clarity mattered—and building shared design standards in the process.
This quiet advocacy paid off: It preserved usability across dozens of iterative updates and helped shape a product that felt cohesive, intuitive, and scalable—without derailing momentum or dismissing partner contributions.
Test with the People Who Count
Goal: Ensure real-world utility by testing with actual users in-context.
Running feedback sessions with Power Marketing, Finance, etc.
Key insights from internal testing or stakeholder demos
Screenshots: Comparison of before/after designs or annotated internal feedback
Set It Up to Last
Goal: Set the stage for long-term adoption and evolution.
Documentation, design rationale, and cost input schema
Creating artifacts that supported engineering and future enhancements
Screenshots: Handoff materials, final high-fidelity interfaces (with blurred inputs as needed)
The Outcome: An Interface that Boosts Accuracy, Trust, and Speed
✅ 30% reduction in time required to generate cost estimates, enabling quicker decision-making.
✅ Higher accuracy in project financials, reducing errors from manual data entry.
✅ More informed stakeholder alignment, improving confidence in solar + storage project feasibility.
✅ Scalable framework for future pricing models, allowing teams to iterate on cost assumptions more effectively.
“I had a pricing kick-off for a project proposal yesterday. Scenario created with inputs from multiple teams done by end of day (!!) and sent off the storage sizing request SO SEAMLESSLY. Thank you — really good stuff and things are moving so smoothly, especially as cross-functional teams are all continuing to norm to the new processes and tools.
”Usually this step would take me 3–5 days to wrangle the correct information and data from the prospecting teams. Really cool to see and feel real-time improvements. ”
What once took 3+ weeks now takes 5 days—with clearer handoffs, less rework, and centralized data flows.
Project Team
This project brought together UX strategy, agile development, and product ownership to redesign EDF’s solar + storage costing platform—streamlining proposals and accelerating internal workflows. This redesign was also informed by extensive collaboration with the internal Portfolio Management (PFM) team, our primary end users, whose feedback directly shaped interface improvements and workflow adjustments.
Scope & Constraints
The Solar + Storage Costing Tool needed to support high-stakes financial modeling for hybrid energy projects—aligning inputs from multiple teams under tight timelines. The project had formal product ownership and clear support from leadership, but execution still required navigating deep complexity across roles, systems, and shifting priorities.
Key users were often balancing critical deadlines and limited availability, which meant that research and feedback loops had to be highly focused and efficient. We worked closely with the product owners to test assumptions and prioritize foundational improvements while supporting near-term delivery goals.
While the UX work delivered a centralized interface framework and clearer pathways for collaboration, implementation remained ongoing. Backend complexity, evolving requirements, and changing engineering timelines meant that success depended on flexible design thinking and strong cross-functional alignment—not perfect polish.
Lessons Learned
This project reinforced the importance of UX in financial modeling tools and the impact of simplifying workflows for energy projects.
Key insights include:
Going forward, I’d explore how UX can actively support decision intelligence—embedding interface patterns that surface insight, reduce friction, and build stakeholder confidence in real-time financial scenarios.
The Real Win
Turning fragmented spreadsheets into one streamlined platform—reducing human error and accelerating decisions.
Referenced Frameworks & Reading
A few resources that influenced my approach on this project:
