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Enterprise Resource Portal Redesign
Qualcomm
Re-architecting a fragmented resource ecosystem for engineers and procurement teams
Executive Summary
Qualcomm's CreatePoint portal served engineers, purchasing managers, and internal teams across a dense, multi-role resource ecosystem - but its architecture reflected internal content ownership rather than how users actually navigated it. Engineers lost product context moving between sections, search lacked filtering depth, and purchasing managers had no single entry point for product evaluation. I led the structural re-architecture - defining persistent product filtering, faceted search, and centralized Product Overview pages - sequencing delivery across 16 months to preserve architectural continuity despite shifting stakeholder priorities.
Legacy Navigation vs Redesigned Experience
Legacy Navigation
Redesigned Experience
Measured Impact
Persistent product-level filtering across the portalReduced content noise and improved targeted resource discovery for engineers
Enhanced faceted search architectureEnabled faster, scoped navigation across complex documentation ecosystems
Centralized Product Overview pagesStreamlined cross-functional access to tools, documentation, and support resources
Phased rollout over 16 monthsMaintained architectural continuity despite shifting stakeholder priorities
Full platform rebrand aligned to updated guidelinesUnified navigation, templates, and interaction patterns across the enterprise portal
Overview
CreatePoint is Qualcomm's enterprise portal for suppliers and partners, providing access to chip documentation, testing tools, security patches, software and hardware updates, support, and pre-purchase product information across a large, multi-role user base. As the primary designer, I owned problem definition, information architecture, interaction modeling, and stakeholder facilitation from discovery through phased launch - working across engineering, sales, admin, and management teams with the Creative Director.
- Supported Devices: Desktop and browser-based (responsive)
- Timeline: June 2017 – October 2018 (phased functional launches through April 2018; full rebrand October 2018)
- Primary Audience: Developers, engineers, product managers, chip designers, purchasing managers, internal Qualcomm teams
Discovery
Understanding Relationships & Workflows
- Conducted a full portal audit independently before collaborating with the Creative Director in structured whiteboarding sessions - mapping product data structures against real engineering and procurement workflows and surfacing the core misalignment: the portal's architecture reflected internal content ownership rather than how users needed to navigate it.
- Through joint analysis with the Creative Director, identified that engineers needed scoped, noise-free access to a single product at a time, while purchasing managers required broad exploration and cross-product comparison - two fundamentally different mental models the existing IA couldn't support simultaneously.
Workflow Misalignment Map
Whiteboard synthesis mapping documentation structure against engineering and procurement workflows, revealing structural gaps.
Key User Workflows
- Product owners (engineers): quick access to relevant product resources without unrelated noise
- Prospective buyers (purchasing managers): broad exploration, cross-product comparison, and deep dives
Takeaways
The audit and workflow mapping pointed to three compounding structural failures: users lost product context when navigating between sections, search lacked the filtering depth engineers needed, and there was no single entry point where a purchasing manager could evaluate a product end-to-end. Each intervention targeted a specific failure mode - persistent filtering preserved product context site-wide, faceted search enabled scoped discovery within dense documentation, and the Product Overview page created a consolidated entry point that didn't previously exist.
Prototype & Ideation
Concept Exploration
Working iteratively with the Creative Director, I explored structural solutions through sketches and whiteboard modeling before committing to high-fidelity design. Together we stress-tested the filtering model, evaluated competing search architectures, and aligned on layout approaches that would hold up across the portal's full content density - ensuring direction was validated at low fidelity before engineering and stakeholder resources were engaged.
Persistent Product Filtering
Explored how a site-wide persistent filter could carry product context across navigation, search, and documentation - eliminating the noise engineers encountered when moving between sections.
Enhanced Faceted Search
Evaluated search architectures that could support scoped, role-specific discovery within dense documentation. Iterations tested filter hierarchy models, facet presentation, and the interaction cost of precision at varying documentation depths.
Product Overview Page
Consolidated fragmented tools, documentation, and support resources into a unified product-level entry point - working through competing priorities between engineering quick-access and buyer exploration to arrive at a hierarchy that served both without bloating the layout.
Design
Information Architecture & System Model
- Re-architected the global navigation taxonomy to reflect how engineers and purchasing managers actually move through the portal - grouping by product line rather than content type, and establishing persistent product context as a first-class element of the navigation model.
- Introduced persistent product filtering to reduce content noise across the entire portal.
- Designed enhanced faceted search to enable scoped, role-specific discovery.
- Created centralized Product Overview pages to consolidate tools, documentation, and support resources under a single product-aligned entry point.
Centralized Product Overview Page
Product-level entry point consolidating tools, documentation, and support resources under aligned taxonomy and persistent filtering.
Interaction & Brand System
- Defined clear hierarchy and interaction patterns for complex documentation structures.
- Applied updated Qualcomm brand guidelines across templates, header, navigation, and search.
- Established scalable components using shared Sketch libraries to ensure the component system could support both the structural redesign and the rebrand rollout within a single maintainable library.
Production
Phased Functional Rollout
- Sequenced launches to prioritize global layout and persistent filtering before layered feature releases - giving engineering a stable structural foundation before introducing search improvements and the rebrand.
- Coordinated closely with stakeholders to align engineering feasibility with design intent throughout each phase.
- Sustained delivery continuity across 16 months, adapting scope sequencing to evolving business priorities without compromising architectural intent.
Stakeholder & Complexity Management
- Co-facilitated weekly client alignment sessions with the Creative Director across 16 months, maintaining stakeholder trust through multiple rounds of shifting business and political priorities.
- Made explicit tradeoffs between enterprise information density and usability legible to non-design stakeholders, using the persistent filtering model as a shared reference point for structural decisions.
- Leveraged shared Sketch libraries established early in the engagement to reduce implementation variance and give engineering a stable component reference across a multi-phase delivery timeline.
Decisions & Trade-offs
- Shifting stakeholder priorities: managed through phased launches and weekly alignment with the Creative Director, ensuring scope changes didn't destabilize the architectural foundation already in production.
- Enterprise complexity vs. usability: persistent product filtering and faceted search reduced cross-section noise without simplifying the content model itself - preserving depth for power users while reducing friction for task-focused engineers.
- Long timeline: shared Sketch libraries and scalable components maintained continuity across 16 months without requiring design rework each time a new phase started.
Synthesis
The structural interventions resolved the core misalignment between how Qualcomm organized its content and how its users needed to navigate it. Phased delivery allowed the highest-leverage changes to land first, creating a stable foundation before layering in search and the rebrand. The result was a platform that handled two distinct mental models - focused engineering access and broad purchasing exploration - within a single coherent architecture.
Back to Work
Back to Work
Enterprise Resource Portal Redesign
Qualcomm
Re-architecting a fragmented resource ecosystem for engineers and procurement teams
Executive Summary
Qualcomm's CreatePoint portal served engineers, purchasing managers, and internal teams across a dense, multi-role resource ecosystem - but its architecture reflected internal content ownership rather than how users actually navigated it. Engineers lost product context moving between sections, search lacked filtering depth, and purchasing managers had no single entry point for product evaluation. I led the structural re-architecture - defining persistent product filtering, faceted search, and centralized Product Overview pages - sequencing delivery across 16 months to preserve architectural continuity despite shifting stakeholder priorities.
Legacy Navigation vs Redesigned Experience
Legacy Navigation
Redesigned Experience
Overview
CreatePoint is Qualcomm's enterprise portal for suppliers and partners, providing access to chip documentation, testing tools, security patches, software and hardware updates, support, and pre-purchase product information across a large, multi-role user base. As the primary designer, I owned problem definition, information architecture, interaction modeling, and stakeholder facilitation from discovery through phased launch - working across engineering, sales, admin, and management teams with the Creative Director.
- Supported Devices: Desktop and browser-based (responsive)
- Timeline: June 2017 – October 2018 (phased functional launches through April 2018; full rebrand October 2018)
- Primary Audience: Developers, engineers, product managers, chip designers, purchasing managers, internal Qualcomm teams
Discovery
Understanding Relationships & Workflows
- Conducted a full portal audit independently before collaborating with the Creative Director in structured whiteboarding sessions - mapping product data structures against real engineering and procurement workflows and surfacing the core misalignment: the portal's architecture reflected internal content ownership rather than how users needed to navigate it.
- Through joint analysis with the Creative Director, identified that engineers needed scoped, noise-free access to a single product at a time, while purchasing managers required broad exploration and cross-product comparison - two fundamentally different mental models the existing IA couldn't support simultaneously.
Workflow Misalignment Map
Whiteboard synthesis mapping documentation structure against engineering and procurement workflows, revealing structural gaps.
Key User Workflows
- Product owners (engineers): quick access to relevant product resources without unrelated noise
- Prospective buyers (purchasing managers): broad exploration, cross-product comparison, and deep dives
Takeaways
The audit and workflow mapping pointed to three compounding structural failures: users lost product context when navigating between sections, search lacked the filtering depth engineers needed, and there was no single entry point where a purchasing manager could evaluate a product end-to-end. Each intervention targeted a specific failure mode - persistent filtering preserved product context site-wide, faceted search enabled scoped discovery within dense documentation, and the Product Overview page created a consolidated entry point that didn't previously exist.
Prototype & Ideation
Concept Exploration
Working iteratively with the Creative Director, I explored structural solutions through sketches and whiteboard modeling before committing to high-fidelity design. Together we stress-tested the filtering model, evaluated competing search architectures, and aligned on layout approaches that would hold up across the portal's full content density - ensuring direction was validated at low fidelity before engineering and stakeholder resources were engaged.
Persistent Product Filtering
Explored how a site-wide persistent filter could carry product context across navigation, search, and documentation - eliminating the noise engineers encountered when moving between sections.
Enhanced Faceted Search
Evaluated search architectures that could support scoped, role-specific discovery within dense documentation. Iterations tested filter hierarchy models, facet presentation, and the interaction cost of precision at varying documentation depths.
Product Overview Page
Consolidated fragmented tools, documentation, and support resources into a unified product-level entry point - working through competing priorities between engineering quick-access and buyer exploration to arrive at a hierarchy that served both without bloating the layout.
Design
Information Architecture & System Model
- Re-architected the global navigation taxonomy to reflect how engineers and purchasing managers actually move through the portal - grouping by product line rather than content type, and establishing persistent product context as a first-class element of the navigation model.
- Introduced persistent product filtering to reduce content noise across the entire portal.
- Designed enhanced faceted search to enable scoped, role-specific discovery.
- Created centralized Product Overview pages to consolidate tools, documentation, and support resources under a single product-aligned entry point.
Centralized Product Overview Page
Product-level entry point consolidating tools, documentation, and support resources under aligned taxonomy and persistent filtering.
Interaction & Brand System
- Defined clear hierarchy and interaction patterns for complex documentation structures.
- Applied updated Qualcomm brand guidelines across templates, header, navigation, and search.
- Established scalable components using shared Sketch libraries to ensure the component system could support both the structural redesign and the rebrand rollout within a single maintainable library.
Production
Phased Functional Rollout
- Sequenced launches to prioritize global layout and persistent filtering before layered feature releases - giving engineering a stable structural foundation before introducing search improvements and the rebrand.
- Coordinated closely with stakeholders to align engineering feasibility with design intent throughout each phase.
- Sustained delivery continuity across 16 months, adapting scope sequencing to evolving business priorities without compromising architectural intent.
Stakeholder & Complexity Management
- Co-facilitated weekly client alignment sessions with the Creative Director across 16 months, maintaining stakeholder trust through multiple rounds of shifting business and political priorities.
- Made explicit tradeoffs between enterprise information density and usability legible to non-design stakeholders, using the persistent filtering model as a shared reference point for structural decisions.
- Leveraged shared Sketch libraries established early in the engagement to reduce implementation variance and give engineering a stable component reference across a multi-phase delivery timeline.
Decisions & Trade-offs
- Shifting stakeholder priorities: managed through phased launches and weekly alignment with the Creative Director, ensuring scope changes didn't destabilize the architectural foundation already in production.
- Enterprise complexity vs. usability: persistent product filtering and faceted search reduced cross-section noise without simplifying the content model itself - preserving depth for power users while reducing friction for task-focused engineers.
- Long timeline: shared Sketch libraries and scalable components maintained continuity across 16 months without requiring design rework each time a new phase started.
Synthesis
The structural interventions resolved the core misalignment between how Qualcomm organized its content and how its users needed to navigate it. Phased delivery allowed the highest-leverage changes to land first, creating a stable foundation before layering in search and the rebrand. The result was a platform that handled two distinct mental models - focused engineering access and broad purchasing exploration - within a single coherent architecture.
Back to Work
Measured Impact
Persistent product-level filtering across the portalReduced content noise and improved targeted resource discovery for engineers
Enhanced faceted search architectureEnabled faster, scoped navigation across complex documentation ecosystems
Centralized Product Overview pagesStreamlined cross-functional access to tools, documentation, and support resources
Phased rollout over 16 monthsMaintained architectural continuity despite shifting stakeholder priorities
Full platform rebrand aligned to updated guidelinesUnified navigation, templates, and interaction patterns across the enterprise portal