Enterprise task infrastructure for Exchange Platform—centralizing triage, ownership, and auditability inside the ops system teams already run.
UX Research · Product Design · Workflow Design · Internal Tools
Exchange handled orders and payments at scale, but operational follow-up lived in Slack, email, and spreadsheets. I led discovery with ops and management, mapped the task lifecycle, and defined Task Center as in-product infrastructure—scalable triage, clear accountability, and enforceable closure over feature breadth.
Teams executed in Exchange while coordination happened elsewhere—unclear ownership, manual tracking, and inconsistent prioritization across high-volume triage.
Research mapped how tasks entered the business, how teams coordinated, and where Exchange could enforce rules without breaking throughput.
Phase 1 modeled one operational path—from intake through resolution—so every screen reinforced the same system rules.
Work enters from Exchange context—linked to orders, communities, or payments.
Owner assigned; task surfaces in shared queue with assignee visible.
Tabs, due dates, and list scan support daily triage order.
To-Do → Assigned → In Progress → Completed with consistent labels.
Comments, locked completion, controlled reopen—activity log preserved.
“If I don't write it down the second I hear it, it's gone. Nothing in Exchange tells me what I still owe by end of day.”Operations specialist, contextual inquiry
Each behavior mapped to a workflow rule we could ship in Phase 1—structured enough for accountability, flexible enough for real triage.
Operators maintained parallel trackers because Exchange had no system of record for open work.
Task Center module beside Dashboard, Orders, and Payments—tasks tied to operational records.
Expected outcomeSingle queue for creation, assignment, and updates—less cross-tool reconciliation.
Managers could not scan stalled or unassigned items without exports or direct outreach.
Status tabs plus assignee and status columns in the list row.
Expected outcomeFaster coordination across teams during standups and peak periods.
Full-page navigation per update broke sequential triage throughput.
Inline detail panel for status, assignee, and comments—queue stays in view.
Expected outcomeReduced context switching in workflow shadowing sessions.
Disputed completions had no durable history in informal trackers.
Locked completion, explicit reopen warning, permanent activity log.
Expected outcomeClear escalation path when ownership or timing was challenged.
Three modules mirror how ops triages at scale—list scan, in-flow updates, enforceable closure—using the same Exchange patterns operators already know.
01 · Queue at scale
02 · In-flow updates
03 · Trusted closure
Measured against pre-launch fragmentation—not vanity feature counts. Signals the ops team could observe in Phase 1.
+100%
Task Center usage vs. prior scattered trackers (post-launch, internal reporting).
One status model and assignee field across teams—onboarding aligned to tab semantics.
Fewer Slack/sheet loops to confirm “who owns this” during peak triage.
Same queue architecture ready for bulk actions and SLA signals in Phase 2.
Enterprise internal tools fail when they optimize for configurability over adoption. Here, structure had to be firm enough for accountability—locked closure, visible assignee, status tabs—while leaving room for how teams actually triage under load. Edge cases (reopen, disputed ownership, empty queues) shaped as much of the design as the happy path. The systems bet was simple: make Exchange the coordination layer, then scale rules in Phase 2 without asking operators to learn a second product.