Factsheet Generator
A small, fast project that replaced a manual process the business could no longer keep up with.
The Factsheet Generator produces standardized reports by pulling structured data, querying BITA's own database to verify financial instruments at the moment the report is generated. The process it replaced had become humanly unsustainable, and at that volume, manual work meant manual error. Clients were starting to notice mistakes in their factsheets, and in a market this small, where long-standing relationships matter more than size, that kind of reputation damage doesn't stay contained. The data and technology to automate it already existed inside BITA. What was missing was an interface that put that technology together in a way people could actually use. We had three weeks to build it, working with one developer and direct input from business stakeholders.
The clock was the real pressure here. The CTO set a one month deadline, and made it clear that if there was no working prototype by then to prove the manual process was worth replacing, the project would be cancelled. That meant building something that proved the point fast, not something polished.
The data itself needed work before any of this could happen. The original spreadsheet had a lot of irrelevant data mixed in, which slowed things down and caused strange visual bugs once it hit the interface, so I had to rework its structure before the tool could read it properly. I also ended up designing the HTML template myself, since the one developer on the project didn't have the time to take it on, which meant my scope stretched a bit past the usual UX and UI work.
Support for the idea inside the company was thin. Most people saw the obvious fix as hiring more people for the task rather than automating it, and the developer working with me didn't seem convinced the tool was worth building, which showed up in some of the shortcuts taken along the way. The CTO and CEO were the ones who kept the project alive.
Shipping the prototype without the preview.
For the version built to prove the idea within the one month deadline, I had to choose between including a live preview step or leaving it out to save time. I left it out for the prototype. The core thing that needed proving was that automated generation could replace the manual process at all, and the preview, while valuable, wasn't essential to make that case. It made it into the final version once the deadline pressure was gone.
Leaving logo and color customization out of this version.
Some clients had already asked for the ability to fully customize their factsheets with their own logo and colors. I knew building that properly would add real time to a project already running against a hard deadline, so I left it out of this version and kept the focus on getting the core automation working first.
Leaving the parameter controls a little loose.
The factsheet's parameter controls ended up with more white space than I would have chosen on a tighter project. It didn't affect how the tool worked, it was purely a visual preference of mine, and with the timeline what it was, it wasn't worth spending time on.
Raising the implementation pushback with a supervisor.
Partway through, I kept running into pushback on design decisions that didn't have a real technical problem behind them, more a reluctance to take on the implementation work involved. After a point, I raised it directly with the developer's supervisor rather than continuing to negotiate it case by case. That conversation cleared the way for the project to move the way it needed to.
What changed underneath the numbers is just as telling. The team went from running a Python script to generate the Excel and then correcting it by hand, to working directly in a platform that didn't need that correction step at all. The project also ended up sparking a broader appetite for automating other manual processes at BITA, something that's still playing out today.
What this project showed me about myself is how much I notice the business side of a product problem, not just the design side. I already knew the operational pain around factsheets, where the real deficiencies were, and that the technology to fix it existed inside BITA with a small enough team to actually build it. Recognizing that combination, and acting on it, mattered as much here as any individual design choice. The tool itself ended up making it noticeably easier for clients and colleagues to work with their factsheets, and that snowballed into something bigger than the project itself, it shifted how the company thought about automating other manual work.
Interested in working together?
I'm currently open to new opportunities in fintech and data-driven product design.
