Solutions
Defining how 100,000+ Dell Partners manage complex infrastructure deals. From a passive, read-only list to an actionable self-serve experience.
I led the end-to-end design of the Solutions experience on Dell's ISG Hub, bringing actionability, product discovery, and self-serve capabilities to channel partners who previously relied on a fragmented, sales-assisted workflow.
ROLE
Lead Product Designer
DURATION
11 months
PLATFORM
Enterprise B2B (Web)
Status
In Development
The problem
At Dell, a "solution" is a configured bundle of enterprise infrastructure — servers, storage, networking — tailored to an end customer's needs. Think of it as a complex, multi-product quote worth anywhere from $50K to several million dollars.
Dell's channel partners, resellers and solution providers who sell Dell infrastructure to enterprises, managed their deals through a tool called DSC.
It had a My Solutions page that listed every solution a partner was working on. Every action, from checking a price to duplicating a deal, required opening the Configurator tool that timed out mid-task.
Partners had learned to avoid the tool. The question was: how do you rebuild trust in a digital experience that's been training its users to work around it?
The process
Rather than assume the solution, I grounded the discovery process around a guiding question that helped reveal user needs, pain points, and opportunities for improvement.
Were partners avoiding DSC because the interface was bad - or because the entire workflow model was wrong?
Who was involved?
To answer these questions, I first focused on understanding the people behind the process. I mapped the teams involved to uncover workflows, dependencies, and opportunities for collaboration across the organization.
Why this mattered to Dell?
Reduce Assisted Selling
Goal:
Shift common workflows such as reuse, versioning, and management to self-service experiences.
Success Metric:
↓ Support dependency
↑ Partner autonomy
Accelerate Revenue Growth
Goal:
Streamline the path from discovery to ordering across Dell's infrastructure portfolio. $7B+ business ecosystem
Success Metric:
18% projected growth
Create a Unified Journey
Goal:
Introduce a centralized layer connecting discovery, management, configuration, and purchasing.
Success Metric:
4+ systems → 1 connected experience
Enable Future Innovation
Goal:
Establish a foundation for recommendation engines, AI-assisted workflows, and future ISG experiences.
Success Metric:
Platform-ready architecture
Auditing the current system
At first glance, the process appeared straightforward: create a solution, generate a quote, and place an order.
In practice, however, infrastructure solutions rarely followed a linear path.
Partners frequently revisited existing solutions to accommodate changing customer requirements, create variations of proven architectures, collaborate with teammates, and reuse previous work.
What did the Partners have to say?
Partners frequently revisited existing solutions to accommodate changing customer requirements, create variations of proven architectures, collaborate with teammates, and reuse previous work.
Better visibility into collaboration and ownership
Partners could share solutions, but there was no clear way to see who a solution had been shared with or who was currently collaborating on it.
“It would be nice if it showed who was shared by and who was shared to.”
A way to reuse quoted solutions without opening the Configurator
Once a solution was quoted and locked, partners had no way to create a new version directly from My Solutions. Reusing an existing solution required launching the Configurator, adding unnecessary steps to a common workflow.
“I have to open the configurator to save the solution as a new version or new solution to use it again.”
Access to pricing actions regardless of solution ownership
Partners who were not the solution creator could not raise price requests themselves, creating dependencies on Dell sales representatives and slowing down order fulfillment.
“I am not the creator of this solution but I need to raise a price request to place an order for it. Right now I need to ask the Dell Sales Rep to do it for me.”
Visibility into solution details and status
Partners could not easily see the products contained within a solution or understand its status without opening the Configurator. As a result, many chose to contact Dell sales representatives instead of using the platform.
“There's no way for me to view the products inside a particular solution. I have to open the configurator to view it. That's so time consuming, so instead I mail the Dell Sales Rep to check it for me.”
Partners weren't just avoiding My Solutions because it was passive—they were maintaining workarounds because My Solutions was missing the visibility and self-service capabilities needed to collaborate and manage solutions.
The insights
What we learned
Synthesizing findings across research activities revealed a set of critical insights that explained why partners were relying on workarounds and where the greatest opportunities for impact existed.
Solution Management Lived Inside a Configuration Tool
Evidence
Sharing, versioning, reusing, and editing solutions all required opening DSC.
Reuse Created More Work Than It Saved
Evidence
Reusing a solution required finding it, opening the configurator, creating a version, reconfiguring, and requoting.
Collaboration Happened Outside the Product
Evidence
Partners and TSRs exchanged Solution IDs, quotes, screenshots, and instructions through external channels.
Findability Relied on Institutional Knowledge
Evidence
Users searched using a combination of Solution IDs, Deal IDs, dates, versions, and prior knowledge.
Redefining the partner workflow
The existing experience treated solution management and solution configuration as a single workflow, creating unnecessary complexity and dependency on the Configurator.
DESIGN DECISIONS
Defining the solution management layer
Designing a dedicated solution-management layer was critical to closing the gap between browsing and configuring. To identify the actions that should live within this new experience, I created a three-tier model that defined the flow of actions and clarified the relationship between discovery, management, and configuration.
ISG Hub-native:
Actions that can be completed entirely within ISG Hub without modifying the solution's configuration. These are high-frequency solution management activities that partners should be able to perform without leaving the experience.
- Add collaborators
- Remove collaborators
- Duplicate solution
- Raise price request
- View products within a solution
ISG Hub-initiated:
Actions that originate in ISG Hub but are fulfilled in a specialized downstream experience. ISG Hub acts as the orchestration layer, providing clear pathways to the right destination while maintaining context.
- View solution (opens in Configurator)
- View price request status (opens in Partner Dashboard)
- View quote (opens in Quotes Hub)
- View order (opens in Partner Dashboard)
Configurator-only:
Actions that directly modify the solution and require the depth, rules, and validation capabilities of the Configurator. These remain exclusive to the Configurator experience.
- Add products
- Remove products
- Modify Configurations
- Save solution
- Submit solution for a quote
Prioritizing high-impact actions
The engineering team highlighted that several ISG Hub–native actions would be difficult to deliver in the initial release due to dependencies on external teams and platforms.
Drawing on partner research, I advocated for prioritizing Raise Price Request, View Products, and Duplicate Solution because they addressed the most immediate user pain points.
In partnership with business stakeholders, we aligned on a phased roadmap, deferring Add/Remove Collaborators to a future release while ensuring the MVP delivered meaningful value to partners from day one.
FINAL DESIGN
01 Discover Solutions
Problem
Finding the right solution relied on Solution IDs, Deal IDs, and institutional knowledge.
Design Response
Created a discovery-led landing experience where partners could browse, search, filter, and access existing solutions without entering configuration.
Key Decisions
All Solutions
Shared With Me
Favorites
Search & Filtering
Solution Metadata
Quick Recognition
02 Understand Before Opening
Problem
Users lacked sufficient context to determine whether a solution was worth opening.
Design Response
Surfaced key details directly in the list experience.
Key Decisions
Solution summary
Product composition
Created date
Owner
Quote status
Version information
Last modified details
03 Take Action Without Configuration
Problem
Common lifecycle tasks required opening DSC.
Design Response
Introduced solution-level actions directly within ISG Hub.
Key Decisions
Share Solution
Create solution
Duplicate Solution
Raise Price Request
Raise Configuration Request
Delete Solution
04 Support Collaboration
Problem
Collaboration happened through screenshots, emails, and Teams calls.
Design Response
Made ownership, sharing, and collaboration visible at the solution level.
Key Decisions
Shared Solutions
Collaborator Visibility
Add Collaborator
Remove Collaborator
05 Enable Reuse
Problem
Reusing a solution often felt like creating a new one.
Design Response
Created structured workflows for duplication.
Outcome
Partners could evolve existing architectures rather than starting from scratch.
DESIGN DEBT
What I couldn't solve for
While the redesign addressed several high-impact partner pain points, a few opportunities remained outside the scope of the initial release due to technical dependencies and platform constraints.
Configurator’s timeouts:
The Configurator's session timeout is a platform-level constraint outside this project's scope. I documented it as critical experience debt and presented it to the Configurator team for the infrastructure roadmap, with data from partner interviews showing its impact on trust and task completion.
Complex configurator experience
Configurator's UI is owned by a separate team and wasn't in scope for visual redesign by my team. The handoff improves the transition, but the Configurator experience itself remains complex for now.
VALIDATION
Outcome
This design was approved for development by business and is currently being built. It's the first component of Dell's broader ISG Hub initiative - the product discovery and self-serve platform for Dell's partner channel.
What I'd measure post-launch
Reduction in Configurator sessions initiated for ISG Hub native actions (target: 20% reduction)
Time-on-task for common actions (check status, duplicate, share) - expecting ~50% time cutdown
Partner return rate - are partners coming back to Hub instead of calling their Dell rep?
Drag to view the before and after of the Solutions Dashboard.
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