Pure Storage
Vision to Implementation of a Platform Design
Type: Zero-to-One (Enterprise) | Role: Platform & Team Lead | Design: Platform Design | Timeframe: 2024
To comply with the non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted and obfuscated confidential information. All info in this case study is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pure Storage.
THE ASK
Pure Storage sells and leases storage arrays to organization to enable them to store and manage their data at scale. Pure was a leader in the storage space and was known for its ability to move fast. However, it came at a cost that was starting to cause massive problems.
Fragmented workflows, tacked-on features, and incoherence across products created friction for users and internal teams. Furthermore, most of their clients were small and medium businesses (SMBs) but Enterprises were also starting to use their solution and felt that their needs were not met. Our goals were to
Unify a range of products & offerings from separate business units into an Enterprise Platform Vision
come up with an exciting platform vision that could serve as a north star
design for enterprise customers who worked at scale and had complex needs
focus on the 2 primary products of Pure (cloud mgt) and Purity (on-premise mgt)
MY ROLE
Led the design of the platform vision across 4 major workstreams while also owning the hands-on design work for one of them: platform design. Got cross-functional teams aligned, presented to executives, secured funding, and built key aspects of the vision.
Platform Designer – work on information architecture and key screens that span products
Team Lead – manage the work from the 4 workstreams of platform, visual, Pure1, and Purity.
User Researcher – end-to-end research with storage admins and solution architects
Stakeholder Liaison – end-to-end research and mgt of GMs, VPs, PMs, and Engineers.
SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE
From Product to Platform Centricity
The first challenge was to shift the mindset of the teams who were used to focusing on their own product to a platform approach. As they were from different departments and business units, many had never met each other before.
In our first cross-business unit meeting, I could sense the tension and knew that I needed to build trust with them and with each other.
In order for that trust building to happen faster, I focused on
Showing that I understood the system that the different business units operated in
Introduce ways for the teams to think about the platform not just their products
Utilize a co-creation workshop with a selected influential group to serve as champions
Build Trust by Visualizing the Systems
Since storage infrastructure is highly technical, I needed to quickly establish credibility with all the teams. I made sure to demonstrate my understanding of their systems and highlighted the interconnections between different components to show how their teams' work was interdependent.
Platform workshop with likely champions
I handpicked influential stakeholders for a strategic workshop, prepared primers that shifted their mindset from product to platform thinking, and got them to collectively ideate on the navigation for the unified platform.
Output: Single Platform Navigation & Information Architecture
I synthesized workshop outputs into a navigation structure built around adaptive access. The platform would automatically customize what users see based on two key factors: their environment (internet connectivity) and their permission level (read-only versus full management, array access).
ENTERPRISE SCALE
From Array to Infrastructure Centricity
Pure Storage built for SMB customers who managed 10+ storage arrays. At that scale, customers naturally thought array-by-array as their main concern was making sure each individual array was running smoothly.
But enterprise customers were managing around 50+ storage arrays and thought about their entire storage infrastructure as groups of arrays at different scales that had relationships to each other.
I focused the design on enabling enterprise customers to
Visualize their storage infrastructure
Zoom in and out at different scales of their infrastructure
Highlight the relationships between the arrays
Visualize storage infrastructure (and Failed!)
I explored different visualizations to show the relationships and scale of their storage infrastructure but the feedback was that we were not swinging enough for the fences so we decided to design for the monitoring of 100 arrays, which was 10x the current approach.
New Approach - Points of View with Visualization
To completely rethink my approach, I went back to our enterprise user interviews. I noticed that when customers were monitoring their arrays, they focused on specific themes—capacity, performance, health.
This insight led me to create a 'Points of View' approach that let users see their storage infrastructure through these lenses, with a heatmap highlighting the arrays that were outliers.
Applied Visual Design
I used the ‘vision design system’ that was created by our visual designer for dark mode and applied the visual designs onto my wireframes for the capacity POV and the different levels of zoom.
QUICK IMPLEMENTATION
From Vision to Reality
I had the opportunity to present the platform vision to the C-suite. It resonated with them and we received funding to start building some aspects of the vision as a trial for their enterprise customers.
We narrowed our focus to the Capacity POV and visualization shown above as it tested well with the enterprise customers.
Focus on the capacity point of view with levels of zoom
Utilize the current design system for faster implementation
Use their current visualization library (Highchart) with little customization
Balancing vision intent with technical constraints
As we were shifting gears into implementation, I worked closely with the engineers and QA to better understand the constraints that we were working with and to find ways to ensure that the intent of the vision still held.
A component iteration example is shown below.
Documentation for Development
Laid out the principles behind the work for all the components and captured the required data for the different modules.
Outcomes & Reflections
This project taught me that platform design is really organizational design. I had to navigate between C-suite strategic concerns to frontline customer service realities, translating their perspectives into different facets of the overall vision. The magic happened when all these disparate groups realized they were working toward the same goal from different angles and the part they had to play to succeed.
The unified platform was just the output—the real transformation was getting the entire organization to see themselves as one team.
As this was a trial, the customer success managers of the enterprise clients have received positive feedback. On a survey on whether to keep this feature, it’s currently averaging 4.7 out of 5.
