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SecureAI Modular Platform
Focus:
System-level UX strategyCase type:
Concept explorationRole:
Product Design ManagerTime to read:
6 min
Context — patterns I started to notice
In a Product Design Manager role, I collaborated closely with product managers, engineers, sales, support, and marketing teams across multiple Netwrix products. Over time, recurring patterns began to surface: maintaining visual and interaction consistency across a portfolio of 20+ products became increasingly difficult, similar functionality was being designed and built in parallel, and UX work often started from scratch for problems that already existed elsewhere in the ecosystem. Customers struggled to understand where to start and how products fit together, while sales and support teams carried a high cognitive load explaining overlaps and integrations. What stood out was that the problem wasn’t the quality of individual products — it was the experience of the portfolio as a whole. This observation became the starting point for the idea explored in this case.
Reframing the problem
I stepped back from individual tools and reframed the challenge:
What if the core UX problem is not inside any single product, but in how the portfolio is structured and experienced?
From a user perspective, real-world security work is scenario-based — ransomware, data exposure, identity risks — not product-based. Yet our experience forced users to translate their problems into product choices. This mismatch created unnecessary friction for customers and internal teams alike.
Design hypothesis — from products to platform
From this perspective, I formed a hypothesis that the experience should be organized around user intent and real-world scenarios. A single-entry platform, composed of modular capabilities, could reduce complexity while preserving the depth of existing products. Users would start with the situation they are facing, and the system would adapt around that context.
AI played a supporting role in this model, helping users navigate complexity, understand trade-offs, and make confident decisions.
Translating the portfolio into an ecosystem
To explore this idea, I translated existing products and capabilities into role-based modules with clear responsibilities — such as discovering data, detecting threats, neutralizing risks, or guiding recovery. The goal was not abstraction for its own sake, but clarity: each module should communicate what it does without requiring prior product knowledge. At the same time, the system needed to scale — from simple entry points for less experienced users to powerful combinations for complex security scenarios. To achieve this, modules could be grouped by functional areas like Data Security, Identity Management, or Infrastructure Security. This structure keeps the experience approachable without hiding depth, allowing the platform to grow in complexity only when the user needs it.
Designing the entry point and AI guidance
With the overall structure defined, I focused on the main screen as a moment of orientation.
The goal of the entry point was to help users quickly answer a single question: What should I do next?
From this screen, modules can be explored by area, use case, or AI-driven recommendations. The Helper module functions as a persistent interaction layer, helping users articulate problems, surface relevant modules, and understand trade-offs as the experience adapts to their situation.
Grounding the concept in a real scenario
To validate the idea, I designed a ransomware mitigation scenario in a healthcare environment.
Through a short interaction, Helper recommends a relevant set of modules, and the interface reconfigures around the situation — allowing users to focus on detection, containment, investigation, and recovery without switching tools.
Reflection
This case explores how system-level UX challenges emerge inside complex product organizations — and how design can be used to reframe them into a coherent platform direction. The concept was developed and presented during a company hackathon and sparked cross-functional discussion about the future structure of the Netwrix platform.
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Katja Butorina
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