Corporate actions event workflow

Sole designer at Smartstream. Research and prototype testing with six client organisations.

The updated event screen: filtering claims by status, then opening an account down to its counterparties and claims. Names in the data are changed.

Context

Operators at banks and custodians handle hundreds of dividends, maturities and elections at once, each with its own deadline. I redesigned the workflow around what needs action next. The design was delivered ahead of schedule.

Problem

The old screen was one flat, side-scrolling table. Deadlines sat in a strip above it and statuses ran off the right edge. Navigation was split across event details, statuses and filters, so operators filtered by hand to find what needed them. Managers couldn’t see the state of an event without opening it.

The old event screen: a strip of deadlines above a wide table whose columns run off the right edge. — The screen it replaced. Names in the data are changed.

Research

I ran Smartstream’s first structured user research: interviews, observation and usability testing with those six organisations. It changed the brief, from adding features to prioritising work. Operators wanted status and deadlines in front of them before any search.

A whiteboard in red marker, sorting what an event needs into accounts, identifiers, deadlines, rates and status. — Sorting what an event has to show, before any screens.

Decisions

Grouping by custodian

Flat grids made it hard to build a mental model of an event, and hierarchies were easier to scan, so tidying the columns of one wide table wouldn’t have been enough. Positions now sit under custodian, then account, with status counts on every row.

The elections stage with one custodian open down to its client accounts and the options each one chose. — One custodian open down to its accounts, and the options each one chose.

Lifecycle stages

More configurable filters would have been straightforward to add, but operators rarely build their own views when they’re working against a deadline. Pre-filtered stages, from golden record through to entitlements, do that work for them.

The entitlements stage with its rail open to show counts for each reconciliation status. — The entitlements stage, with its rail open to show each status and its count.

Suggested comments

Operators rarely wrote comments because writing interrupted time-critical work. Free text stays for the specific case, and AI-assisted suggestions cover the situations that come up again and again.

A comments panel open beside the event, with a thread of comments. — Comments sit in a panel beside the event, so the position stays in view.

Click through it

Frames from the Figma prototype, joined up. Use the labels, or click the cards and buttons in the screen, the way you would in the product.

An event with its summary open: approved status, medium risk, task and approval charts, and five lifecycle cards with counts. — The event opens with its status, risk, deadlines and open tasks. Each lifecycle stage shows its own counts, so you can see where it’s stuck before opening anything. Full size

The positions stage: a rail of stacked status bars beside a list of custodians with reconciliation percentages. — The event opens with its status, risk, deadlines and open tasks. Each lifecycle stage shows its own counts, so you can see where it’s stuck before opening anything. Full size

Testing

I tested high-fidelity prototypes with the same clients and took out complexity before development began. That avoided an estimated £50,000 of development rework: the developer time the same changes would have taken after build.