Approvals workflow
EQS
Revolutionizing the Multi-Step Approval Process
The Approvals Module at EQS is a key tool that helps compliance officers detect and manage potential conflicts of interest within their organizations. These cases can be reported directly by employees or triggered automatically after completing internal compliance campaigns.
To streamline this process, the module includes a Rule Engine — a workflow automation system that allows compliance officers to define rules based on case type and risk level. This automation helps prioritize high-risk disclosures, reduce manual screening, and ensure a more efficient and scalable compliance process.
Overview of old Rules Engine
Senior Product Designer – Product Design & Development Expert
8-week initiative focused on improving the user experience of EQS’s Rule Engine
I led the end-to-end design of a Multi-Step Approval Process within the Approvals Module — part of EQS’s automated Rule Engine for managing conflict-of-interest disclosures. The existing workflow was complex and unintuitive, and it was clear from the start that simply adding new features wouldn’t be enough to improve usability.
My goal was to transform a cumbersome process into a streamlined, flexible experience that empowers compliance officers to configure multi-step approvals with ease. Through user research, testing, and iterative design, we uncovered key pain points and opportunities for simplification.
I collaborated closely with engineering and product throughout, delivering a robust design solution that balanced technical feasibility with user-centric thinking. The result: a more intuitive, efficient interface that improved workflow clarity and reduced configuration time — enhancing the overall experience across the Compliance Cockpit platform.
As I stepped into the project, it quickly became clear that the scope was much broader than initially expected. What seemed like a simple feature improvement revealed a deeper need for a tailored, scalable, and more efficient user experience — especially for compliance teams operating in large, complex organizations.
Key challenges we uncovered:
High complexity and regional variation
Our users often work in large companies with offices in multiple regions. Each case required unique rule configurations, creating a need for highly flexible approval flows.
Poor visual overview
Once rules were added, the interface became difficult to navigate. Users had to scroll both vertically and horizontally to get a full picture of the rule setup — making it nearly impossible to review or adjust configurations at a glance.
Disruptive modal design
Adding new steps or nodes triggered full-screen modals, which blocked users from seeing the context of the changes they were making — increasing the risk of errors and confusion.
Limited flexibility in rule variables
The system constrained the types of variables and logic that users could apply, reducing the flexibility needed for handling diverse use cases.
Enabling a Multi-Step Approval Process
During the design phase of the Multi-Step Approval Process, our primary objective was to craft a streamlined, intuitive experience that allowed users to configure up to five levels of approvers within a rule engine — without disrupting their current workflow.
While tackling the core functionality, I also identified a broader opportunity: enhancing the overall usability and scalability of the rule engine to better serve complex compliance scenarios.
Key Functional Requirements:
Allow users to add up to 5 levels of approvers within a single rule flow.
Ensure smooth integration of the new multi-step logic into the existing experience — without overwhelming the interface.
Improve navigation and visibility, even in rulesets with numerous variables and conditions.
Insights That Informed the Design:
The existing rule engine supports highly complex and customizable logic, tailored to different compliance needs — this flexibility had to be preserved.
The UI needed to evolve in parallel with the rollout of the new Brezel design system, aligning both visually and structurally.
The current layout was non-responsive and often overcrowded, making rule creation and review cumbersome, especially for large configurations.
Each content “node” was editable through a full-screen modal, disrupting context and making it difficult to validate changes in real time.
Designing the user experience
To transform the complex setup process into a seamless and intuitive experience, I focused on incremental, meaningful improvements — starting with layout restructuring and ending with interaction enhancements that empowered users to navigate complex rules effortlessly.
1. Quick Win: Contextual Configuration via Side Panel
One of the first impactful changes was relocating all rule configuration options from a full-screen modal to a persistent side navigation panel.
This allowed users to edit settings in context, maintaining full visibility of the rule engine while making real-time decisions — reducing cognitive load and increasing confidence.
🟢 Result: No more modal interruptions. Users could now “live set” rules and instantly see their effects across the entire workflow.
2. Flexible Navigation for Complex Cases
The existing scrollbars (vertical + horizontal) were not only clunky but also limited spatial orientation. Users with highly populated rule engines struggled to understand how each node connected within the overall logic.
Solution: Zoom & Pan Navigation
Inspired by diagramming tools, I introduced a navigation toolbar at the bottom of the screen, giving users the ability to:
Zoom in/out to manage complexity
Grab and move the canvas to explore the full rule tree
Keep track of structure and flow at a glance
🟢 Result: The new canvas behavior provided a more fluid, responsive, and scalable experience — essential for enterprise-level users with large-scale configurations.
Introducing Flexible Multi-Level Approvals
One of the core functional upgrades was to empower users to configure approval processes with up to five sequential approval levels — a critical requirement for organizations with complex compliance needs.
To support this, we designed and implemented a flexible, modular flow that allows users to set up not only a simple approve/decline logic, but also easily expand it into a multi-step approval chain without added complexity.
🛠️ This new logic enables teams to tailor the approval process to match internal hierarchies, regional requirements, or benefit value thresholds — all within the same intuitive interface.
Impact and future direction
The improved user experience of the Rule Engine brought significant value to our users — streamlining their approval workflows and enabling greater flexibility in handling complex compliance scenarios.
But the impact didn’t stop there.
The success of the Multi-Step Approval Process sparked the interest of other product stakeholders across the EQS Compliance Cockpit. What began as a focused feature improvement has now evolved into a strategic foundation for a broader workflow solution.
🔄 As a result, a new cross-product initiative is underway, aiming to scale this flexible workflow engine across multiple compliance areas within the EQS suite — from gift approvals and conflict disclosures to policy attestations and beyond.
+62%
Increase in configuration success rate for multi-step approval flows within the first 4 weeks after release (measured via in-app telemetry and user feedback).
60%
Page performance improvement
50%
Decrease on configure time of the approval flow
Increased upsell potential
The new feature was flagged by sales as a key differentiator during enterprise client demos (qualitative feedback).
