Background

Publishing institutional financial research requires speed, precision, and adherence to strict regulatory standards. At Morgan Stanley, over 65,000 research reports are published annually through a licensed vendor platform serving thousands of global staff.

As Principal Design Lead, I owned the UX strategy and design for a suite of embedded integration tools that support teams across the research publishing workflow, connecting to internal systems, external services, and data sources.

13 years

Of fragmented tools

High level wins

Eliminated context-switching

Replaced disjointed external desktop apps with embedded, context-aware workflows and integrations.

Scalable architecture

Defined responsive design standards for narrow-width side panels that now govern how future tools are built within the enterprise ecosystem.

Global transition leadership

Championed user-centered design practices to drive trust and smooth adoption across a global workforce undergoing large-scale tool migration.

Platform constraints

Designing within a rigid vendor platform presents a fundamental challenge: the core text editor is completely off-limits. While the left-hand text editor could not be modified internally, the vendor platform provided a single strip of right-side screen real estate reserved for modular supporting tools. This narrow side panel became our primary lever for enhancing analyst productivity.

Grounding decisions in user research

To ensure these tools solved real operational friction, I led discovery initiatives with analysts across regions (Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific) and seniority levels (Associates to Managing Directors), alongside mapping the global publishing lifecycle.

Minutes matter

Analysts operate under extreme market-close pressure. Any task requiring them to leave the authoring platform to verify data or check layouts introduced risk, fatigue, and potential delays. Even small efficiency gains make a meaningful difference in publishing ahead of competitors.

Divergent user needs

Associates need detailed tools to build reports, while Managing Directors perform fast, high-level sign-offs. The panels had to be flexible in order to support different information needs for different groups and scenarios.

Delivered integrations

A few of the tools I delivered to solve a specific high-volume bottleneck in the research lifecycle.

Live Excel Charts Integration

The problem

Financial reports often contain dozens of data-rich charts. Analysts needed a fast, reliable way to browse and insert charts directly from open Excel workbooks without losing connection to the underlying model source.

The solution

Designed a panel that scans open workbooks and lists available charts for instant insertion. Designed micro-previews with clear labeling so analysts can quickly distinguish between similar financial charts in a narrow layout.

Real-Time PDF Preview

The problem

Verifying overall layout, formatting, and page breaks required exporting the draft to an external PDF viewer. This was a slow, repetitive loop that analysts had to run continuously to ensure reports looked clean and structured.

The solution

Integrated a PDF preview panel that renders side-by-side with the editor in real time. As authors type and edit, the preview updates instantly; eliminating manual refreshes, app-switching, and layout surprises before publication.

Tagging and Metadata

The problem

Research reports require accurate categorization to surface correctly on portals and satisfy strict compliance indexing rules.

The solution

Designed a dedicated tagging panel allowing users to seamlessly search and attach metadata to reports.

AI Translation Service

The problem

Global reports must be translated quickly via GlobalLink AI, but processing takes time. Translation staff needed a way to manage requests without sitting idle or losing track of progress while working across multiple reports.

The solution

Designed an asynchronous translation management panel that signals translation status for each section. Staff can step away and return when notified, then import completed translations directly into the report with a single click.

Blastmail and CRM Integration

The problem

Publishing research automatically sends broadcast emails to client lists managed in CRM. Setting up distribution after authoring added unnecessary friction, while accidental sends posed serious compliance risks.

The solution

Embedded CRM list-picker tools directly into the authoring workspace so distribution is set up while writing. Designed explicit binding states and clear visual confirmations so authors see exactly which lists are attached before publishing.

Strategic Leadership and Takeaways

Working at this scale taught me that publishing a financial research report is far more complex than it sounds. It’s a vast, interconnected process involving dozens of stakeholders, compliance requirements, and regional workflows running at enormous volume. The interface is only one part of the system; the real work is shaping how teams operate together.

Navigating change management

Migrating a global workforce away from deeply embedded legacy tools is as much about people alignment as UI design. I led with empathy, built trust across teams, and provided clear UX direction throughout ambiguous transitions.

Thriving within constraints

Operating inside enterprise vendor platforms requires viewing constraints as creative parameters. Success came from maximizing the impact of the available real estate we did control.

Designing for high-stakes velocity

In enterprise UX, speed, accuracy, and compliance are essentials. I designed low-friction workspaces that enable analysts to spend more time focusing on the tasks that matter to them and their world.