2022
Useagility / Kansas City Southern
KCR's internal PowerBI dashboards were originally built for executive reviews but had grown disjointed and hard to use. Tabs were overloaded, naming conventions were inconsistent, and no formal guidance existed for dashboard creators. I was brought in to create a scalable system that aligned with how different departments actually used the tool.
Through stakeholder interviews, hands-on audits, and UX best practices, I built a flexible design system, documented it for internal teams, and introduced a repeatable structure that reduced confusion and made dashboards easier to build, navigate, and trust.
Challenge
The Problem
KCR's dashboard system was built for executive review meetings but lacked cohesion and scalability. Core issues included:
- Over-reliance on tab-switching during review sessions
- Inconsistent layouts, naming conventions, and visualization logic
- Disconnected understanding of how dashboards were used across departments
- No shared documentation or standards for dashboard creators
- "Power Users" lacked guidance and training was informal and ad-hoc
Objectives
Project Goals
- Streamline stakeholder review flow by unifying dashboard patterns
- Establish visual and structural consistency for easier cross-team interpretation
- Empower internal "Power Users" with best practices and layout templates
- Reduce technical dependency for dashboard creation
- Create a scalable governance model to avoid future sprawl
Selected visuals
Project Assets
Approach
Design Process
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01 Research & Discovery
- Conducted interviews across org layers — yard staff, analysts, and executives
- Mapped dashboard usage patterns during weekly Monday ops meetings
- Identified cross-department inconsistencies in structure, vocabulary, and KPI definitions
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02 Dashboard Audit
- Reviewed existing dashboards for UX violations: poor tab naming, unclear filters, redundant KPIs
- Tracked visual inconsistencies and interface friction points across teams
- Evaluated review session flow to identify opportunities to reduce context switching
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03 Template & System Design
- Built PowerBI layout templates to standardize visual hierarchy and filter placement
- Designed in-dashboard navigation using bookmarks in place of tab overload
- Created flexible role-specific views tailored to exec, field, and analyst user types
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04 Governance & Documentation
- Authored a Notion-based PowerBI design guide covering visualization best practices, naming conventions, and bookmark navigation standards
- Formalized a "Power User" enablement model to decentralize dashboard ownership and support sustainable growth
Results