LINK Logistics PIM App
Building PIM from the Ground Up
About Link Logistics
Link Logistics is a real estate investment platform owned by Blackstone, specialising in industrial and logistics properties across the U.S. Founded in 2019, it has since become one of the largest owners of logistics real estate in the country, managing a portfolio of over 500 million square feet of strategically located warehouses, distribution centres, and last-mile delivery hubs.
Project Overview
PIM is a real estate portfolio management platform designed to streamline property data management, approvals, and integrations with Yardi. The platform was built from 0 to 1, meaning every UX/UI decision had to be designed from scratch with no pre-existing system.
As the sole UX/UI Designer, I led the design process, defining the user experience, interface design, and interaction flows, ensuring seamless collaboration with developers and stakeholders.
Key Details
Problem
Before PIM, there was no centralized system for managing property data across different Blackstone portfolio companies. Property managers relied on manual spreadsheets, emails, and disjointed tools, leading to:
Project Goals
To design a powerful yet intuitive platform that allows users to:
Since PIM was a 0 to 1 project, we needed to deeply understand user needs before designing any features. Our goal was to ensure that the platform would be intuitive, scalable, and optimized for real estate portfolio management workflows from day one.
User Research & Stakeholder Interviews
I conducted interviews and surveys with:
5 Property Managers
3 Market Officers
2 Admin Users
Key Insights from Research
Since we were designing from scratch, we had to take a methodical approach to ensure the platform met the needs of various user roles while remaining scalable and easy to navigate:
User Flows & Wireframing
I mapped out the end-to-end user journey, ensuring:
Enhancing the User Journey
Establishing a Design System
Since PIM was a new platform, I used the Google Material Design system as a quick start for both the developers and me. I then customised it progressively, creating a scalable design system that ensured:
Key Screens
Stakeholder Feedback
Different users (property managers, market officers, executives) had distinct needs.
Created custom dashboards and role-based access control (RBAC).
The old email-based approval process was slow and inconsistent.
Introduced bulk approvals and an inline approval pop-up.
Seamless Property Management in Action
See how a Property Manager updates a property's name and address while an Approver swiftly reviews and approves the changes.
Enterprise tools tend to be overly complex.
Used progressive disclosure and a clean, structured layout.
The platform needed to support multiple portfolio companies.
Built a flexible design system allowing custom branding.
One of the user shared his positive feedback:
"The new system eliminates so many bottlenecks. Bulk approvals alone have saved our team hours every week!”
Building PIM from 0 to 1 was a challenging but rewarding experience. By focusing on user research, scalable design, and usability improvements, we created a powerful, efficient, and intuitive real estate management platform.
