Role
Lead Product Designer
Company
VMware
Domain
Tanzu Service Provisioning
Scope
Setup Flow + Interaction System
Artifacts
10 Core Journey Frames
Outcome
Aligned, Scalable Setup Narrative
Project summary
Setting up a VMware Tanzu, comprehensive portfolio of products designed to build, run, and manage cloud-native applications across multi-cloud Kubernetes environments, was unnecessarily hard. Users were hit with advanced configuration options before they even understood what they were trying to do. I designed the end-to-end Tanzu Service Setup experience, creating a guided workflow that takes enterprise platform teams from first intent through configuration, validation, and service readiness. The design used progressive disclosure and clear system feedback to reduce friction without oversimplifying the platform.
Project E2E workflow
Context & Problem Research
Identified setup friction in Tanzu service configuration — users were exposed to too many variables before establishing basic service intent.
Design Challenges Definition
Defined three core constraints shaping the interaction model: excessive complexity, unclear system feedback, and missing progressive disclosure.
E2E Flow Mapping
Mapped the full service setup flow from initial intent through staged configuration, infrastructure checks, and validation to completion.
Cross-functional Collaboration
Worked with PMs, frontend and backend engineers, and UX writers to align on decision points, dependencies, and system feedback patterns.
Wireframing
Created wireframes to explore progressive disclosure patterns, staged configuration structure, and clear default-setting behaviour.
Mockups & Prototype
Built hi-fidelity mockups and an interactive prototype covering all 10 core journey frames across the full setup workflow.
Iteration & Feedback
Cycled through review rounds with PMs, developers, and UX writers to refine interactions, content guidance, and edge-case handling.
Dev Handoff & Outcome
Delivered a complete implementation-ready package to engineering. Resulted in a guided, scalable setup narrative for enterprise platform teams.
This work focused on reducing setup friction for teams configuring Tanzu services. The objective was to guide users from initial intent through required configuration decisions without forcing deep platform knowledge up front.
The UX direction combined progressive disclosure, clear defaults, and explicit system feedback so users could move confidently through setup, validation, and completion.
The design language mapped each step to a clear purpose, helping platform admins understand what to decide now versus what could be tuned later.
VMware’s Kubernetes platform used to build, run, and manage modern containerized applications across environments.
Lightweight, portable application packages managed by Kubernetes to automate deployment, scaling, and operations.
VMware’s virtualization platform for running and managing virtual machines and core datacenter infrastructure.
VMware-managed cloud services that run VMware infrastructure in public cloud environments with consistent operations.
Before walking through each setup step, this next artifact explains the core product story: what customer pain appears at service-parameter time, where the decision burden spikes, and how the proposed interaction model reduces that burden with clearer defaults and guidance.
Research and cross-functional feedback highlighted recurring friction that informed the final interaction model.
Users were exposed to advanced settings before establishing baseline service intent. The design introduced staged disclosure to protect flow continuity.
Configuration choices lacked immediate consequence visibility. Inline guidance and contextual feedback reduced guesswork and rework.
Completion states were not always actionable. Final states were reframed around readiness, dependencies, and next-step clarity.
I worked closely with a cross-functional team of PMs, frontend and backend developers, and UX writers to map the user workflow end-to-end. Together, we aligned on decision points, dependencies, and system feedback patterns to craft a thorough E2E journey that was both technically feasible and clear for users.
I created wireframes, mockups, and interactive prototypes for the full E2E workflow, then reviewed each stage with PMs, frontend and backend developers, and UX writers. Through feedback and iteration cycles, we refined the journey, interaction details, and content guidance until the designs were implementation-ready, and I handed off a complete dev-ready package to the engineering team.
The core journey was designed as a connected story across entry, configuration, dependency checks, and success state. This flow structure helped teams maintain momentum while still understanding technical implications at each checkpoint.
The final concept positioned Tanzu setup as a guided workflow: clear entry point, predictable progression, and meaningful feedback at every stage. This strengthened onboarding confidence while preserving the flexibility expected by advanced operators.
The complete case narrative and supporting visuals are also available in the project presentation.
PROJECT PRESENTATION