PROJECT 1
Automating user management to provide a seamless, secure experience for our largest merchants
Lightspeed Retail
Lead Designer
User research, journey mapping, wireframing, information architecture, interaction design, UX writing
Dovetail, Miro, Figma
COMPANY
ROLE
SKILLS
TOOLS
CONTEXT
Single sign-on automates the creation and management of user accounts in Lightspeed Retail.
The project was initiated as part of a competitive contractual RFP bid to meet the complex needs of one of our largest and fastest-growing merchants, with the goal of creating a solution that would also be valuable to other similar merchants.
PROBLEM
User creation and management in Lightspeed Retail was a significant challenge for large-scale merchants. Users had to be manually created, given permissions and eventually removed if the employee left the business. For one merchant setting up their Lightspeed Retail system, this equated to over 30hours of work to add users.
This heavy administrative load increased security risks, as there was no automated way to revoke access to confidential data if required. This was of particular concern to merchants legally required to be GDRP compliant.
My immediate concern is my staff using your platform and how I manage their access... if that individual was to leave the organisation, I have no automated method to remove their access.
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SOLUTION
Along with an SDM, I led problem and solution discovery through several key stages to meet changing client needs and maximise its value:
SSO integration: The core functionality was developed to allow Lightspeed Retail to seamlessly integrate with centralised user management platforms.
Staged rollout capability: Following initial development, this feature was created to mitigate the risk of disruption to staff and sales during the transition by allowing merchants to selectively enable SSO for specific user roles.
Authentication-only setup: Recognising the opportunity to expand the solution's value, we enhanced the feature with a more streamlined and lightweight integration option to support less complex needs.
IMPACT
User accounts can now be created in Lightspeed Retail 12x faster using SSO managed from an IDP.
For a large account with more than 1,000 users, this equates to more than 30 hours of work saved to add users.
SSO is also a critical feature for retaining and attracting large-scale merchants. This solution achieved our original goal to win the bid for a new three-year contract with our largest customer. We also see this requirement in 80% of the RFPs from large-scale merchants our Go-To-Market team responds to, highlighting that making this solution more widely available unlocks significant revenue opportunities.