Velocity
Designing enterprise real estate software used across 10,000+ retail locations
Led product design from 0→1 for a commercial real estate management platform helping enterprise teams manage leases, transactions, projects and portfolio data in one unified system.
CLIENT
Bermwood Technologies
INDUSTRY
Commercial Real Estate / Enterprise SaaS / PropTech
WHAT I DELIVERED
Product Strategy · UX/UI Design · Design System · Prototyping · Developer Handoff
IMPACT
Used by enterprise clients including Walgreens managing 10,000+ locations and $2.8B annual rent obligations.
TOOLS
Figma, FigJam, Maze, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator
ROLE
Lead Product Designer
TIMELINE
Multi-year
PLATFORM
Web App, Mobile App (iOS, iPadOS, Android)
USERS
Brokers, Finance, Ops
PLATFORM
Web App, Mobile App (iOS, iPadOS, Android)
COMPLEXITY
High
OUTPUTS
Dashboards, Workflows, Reporting
USERS
Brokers, Finance, Ops
COMPLEXITY
High
OUTPUTS
Dashboards, Workflows, Reporting
Commercial real estate teams often rely on spreadsheets, legacy systems, email chains and disconnected vendor tools to manage critical operations.
That creates slow decision-making, poor visibility, duplicated work and costly mistakes.
Velocity was created to modernise these workflows through a single enterprise platform built specifically for real estate operators.
I joined the project at an early stage and led product design from concept to production-ready delivery.
About Bermwood Technologies
Velocity was created to replace fragmented spreadsheets, email chains and legacy tools with one centralised platform for enterprise real estate operations.
Used by major organisations managing large property portfolios, the product needed to balance complexity, speed and trust.
Problem
Enterprise real estate operations involve large volumes of data, approvals, deadlines and stakeholders.
Yet many teams still worked across fragmented tools.
Common pain points included:
This created recurring problems:
Scattered Data
Property records, lease information, inspections, budgets and documents were stored across multiple systems.
Problem
Commercial real estate teams often work across disconnected systems, manual processes and outdated software.
This created recurring problems:
Slow approvals
Poor portfolio visibility
Duplicate admin work
Inconsistent reporting
Low confidence in live data
Velocity aimed to solve this through one scalable operating system.
Project Goals
The project focused on turning fragmented operations into a streamlined enterprise product.
Centralise critical workflows into one platform
Improve visibility across portfolios and teams
Reduce manual processes and repetitive admin work
Speed up approvals and operational decisions
Create a scalable foundation for future modules
Deliver a modern user experience for complex enterprise users
SUCCESS MEANT
Helping users work faster, make better decisions and trust the data they relied on daily.
I led product design across core areas of the platform, working from early concepts through to shipped interfaces.
UX strategy
Workflow design
Information architecture
UI systems
High-fidelity screens
Prototyping
Developer handoff
Design QA
Users
Velocity supported users with very different priorities.
Portfolio Managers
needed oversight across assets and renewals
Finance Teams
required accurate obligations and reporting
Deal Teams
needed fast transaction workflows
Leadership
needed clear performance visibility
The challenge was designing one product that worked for all of them.
Key Insights from Research
Property managers struggled to track property data across multiple tools.
Approval workflows were inconsistent and relied on email chains.
Executives needed an overview of pending approvals without digging through multiple systems.
A flexible but structured UI was required to scale across different portfolio companies.
Before designing solutions, I focused on understanding how commercial real estate teams actually worked day to day.
Because Velocity served multiple user groups with different priorities, the discovery phase was critical to uncover operational pain points, dependencies and opportunities for improvement.
Key Activities
I conducted interviews and surveys with:
5 Property Managers
3 Market Officers
2 Admin Users
Key Insights from Research
Property managers struggled to track property data across multiple tools.
Approval workflows were inconsistent and relied on email chains.
Executives needed an overview of pending approvals without digging through multiple systems.
A flexible but structured UI was required to scale across different portfolio companies.
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:
Define the information architecture by structuring data flows and organizing content for seamless navigation.
Establish a scalable navigation system with a hierarchical menu, quick-access shortcuts, and contextual elements.
Ensure intuitive interactions with usability testing, feedback-driven microinteractions, and minimal cognitive load.
Optimise enterprise efficiency by streamlining workflows, reducing redundancies, and supporting bulk actions.
User Flows & Wireframing
I mapped out the end-to-end user journey, ensuring:
Intuitive Portfolio Navigation to quickly access properties.
A clean approval process that minimized decision fatigue.
Enhancing the User Journey
Advanced search & filtering to improve property discoverability.
Inline editing & real-time validation for efficient data entry.
Bulk approval & role-based permissions for faster decision-making.
User activity logs for better tracking of changes and approvals.
Building a Flexible, Scalable, and Intuitive UI
UI DESIGN & PROTOTYPING
Next
Key Challenges & Solutions
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
1. Sign-in with Okta
2. Property Creation
3. Portfolio Navigation
4. Property Details
5. Building & Units
6. Contacts
7. My Approvals
8. My Account
9. User Security & Permissions
10. Property Reports
11. Email Notifications
Stakeholder Feedback
Property managers found the dashboard intuitive
Executives loved the batch approval system, reducing review time by 40%.
Admins appreciated the role-based permissions setup.
01
Designing for Multiple User Roles
challenge
Different users (property managers, market officers, executives) had distinct needs.
solution
Created custom dashboards and role-based access control (RBAC).
02
Creating an Intiutive Approval System
challenge
The old email-based approval process was slow and inconsistent.
solution
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.
03
Balancing Simplicity with Enterprise Functionality
challenge
Enterprise tools tend to be overly complex.
solution
Used progressive disclosure and a clean, structured layout.
04
Designing a White-Label Solution
challenge
The platform needed to support multiple portfolio companies.
solution
Built a flexible design system allowing custom branding.
40% faster approval process with bulk approval, reducing the average approval time.
50% reduction in search time due to improved filtering.
20% improvement in data accuracy by integrating Yardi.
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!”
85% of users reported higher satisfaction with PIM compared to their previous tools.
Reduced the number of approval-related emails by 60%, leading to clearer, more efficient workflows.
20% improvement in data accuracy by integrating Yardi.
Transforming Enterprise UX from the Ground Up
Conclusion
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.
Key Takeaway
A well-designed enterprise UX strategy can transform complex workflows into a seamless digital experience.
