Sanitizeda.Team — multiple startups2022

Series A Product & Compliance UX

Product systems that helped early-stage teams make complex, compliance-adjacent software usable and credible.

Outcome and status

Founders received a coherent product system they could build, demonstrate, and extend instead of a disconnected set of polished screens.

Anonymized multi-client case study. Company-specific screens, names, and fundraising details are omitted.

Context and user problem

Early-stage teams in complex domains often had engineering momentum but no shared interface language. They needed to improve usability, communicate trust, and tell a convincing product story without pausing delivery for a long design program.

My role and collaborators

Role: Product designer
Collaborators: Founders, Product managers, Engineers
Platforms: Web products, Design systems, Product demos
Timeframe: 2022

I audited live products, clarified critical workflows with founders and operators, designed compliance-adjacent interactions, established reusable interface foundations, and stayed close to implementation through delivery and demo preparation.

Constraints

01
The work had to improve the current product while creating foundations the team could continue using after the engagement.
02
Compliance information needed to be legible without dominating the everyday workflow.
03
Product demonstrations had to reflect what engineering could actually ship, not a separate aspirational interface.

Key decisions and rejected alternatives

Start with the consequential workflow

Each engagement began with the action most connected to user trust, product value, or a critical demonstration.

Rejected: A broad visual refresh that improved consistency without resolving the product's hardest interaction.

Build the system through real screens

Tokens and components emerged from shipped product needs, then became reusable defaults for the next workflow.

Rejected: A standalone design-system project completed before the team could see it working in the product.

Use the same truth for product and story

Demo narratives were built from real product states so the commercial story and engineering reality reinforced each other.

Rejected: Investor-facing concepts that depended on behavior the product team had not agreed to build.

Artifacts and annotated flows

These diagrams document the real product logic while respecting the publication limits described above.

Foundations language · type · statesComponents inputs · evidence · reviewProduct workflows real decisions, ready to ship

A system grown from product needsFoundations, components, and workflows were defined together instead of as separate deliverables.

Before

Complete task

Leave product

Find requirement

Return

After

Complete task

Review evidence

Confirm

Compliance in the working pathRequired evidence and review appear at the decision point without turning the whole product into a form.

One product truthWorking product state

Users understand the next actionEngineering understands the stateFounders can demonstrate the value

One product truth, two audiencesThe interface serves the user while giving founders a credible, demonstrable product narrative.

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Shipped result and verified outcomes

Teams left with reusable defaults

The work established patterns engineers could apply to the next screen without waiting for another redesign.

Trust became part of usability

Compliance requirements were integrated into understandable decisions rather than added as a final warning layer.

The demo matched the product

Founders could tell the product story using states the team understood and could support in production.

Reflection and what changed

At this stage, the most useful design system is not a library on the side. It is a set of decisions proven inside the product, clear enough for a small team to reuse under pressure.