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Remitly CRM Home & Search

AI-powered search and a real Home for 3,000+ support agents.

I designed the CRM Home and Global Search experience to streamline agent workflows, save time, and get agents to the right customer data and tools faster.

As Lead Product Designer on the CS team, I partnered with PMs, engineers, and CS stakeholders to design scalable, personalized tools for agents around the world.

Timeline

Nov 2024 – Jan 2025

Team

Designer, PM, engineers

Role

Lead designer: UX, research, testing

Impact

Driving $9M in annual cost savings.

↓30%

Cut agents' search time by more than 30%

3,000+

Agents worldwide on a new design standard, with more accurate, owned content

$9M

Added in company value, with higher confidence scores in agent NPS surveys

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The problem

A fragmented CRM with no Home and broken search.

Agents struggled to find up-to-date customer information quickly.

Internal audits found that over 40% of case resolution time went to searching across disconnected tools and systems.

That made it hard for agents to stay engaged.

Current state: agents spend most of their time in Salesforce.

Competitor analysis

Great CRMs balance three things.

Illustration of a plane
Search speed
Illustration of a magnifier and checkmark
Result accuracy
Illustration of a simple chart
Interface simplicity

I interviewed 15 agents, observed workflows, and ran focus groups across three continents

  1. 1Inefficient navigation: agents lost time switching between tools to piece together customer context.
  2. 2Inconsistent search results: search was unpredictable and often returned irrelevant or outdated results.
  3. 3Lack of prioritization: there was no clear place to start after logging in, leading to confusion and backlog.
  4. 4Information overload: too much low-priority data made it hard to focus on what mattered.

Design strategy

Two core areas: Home and Search.

I aligned with the PM and engineer to split the work. Home and Search share common patterns but solve distinct problems.

Home principles

  1. 1Action-oriented: surface tasks and recent cases at a glance.
  2. 2Modular: let sections change as workflows evolve.
  3. 3Regionalized: make region-specific tasks easy to reach.

Search principles

  1. 1Fast and forgiving.
  2. 2Relevant across personas and products.
  3. 3Results grouped by type: user, case, knowledge base, transactions.

Mid-fidelity explorations

Three Home layouts.

Announcements: a must-read section that keeps agents informed with daily updates.

Search: used multiple times per call and critical for fast, accurate resolution.

Exploration 1: side navigation with announcements.
Exploration 2: a dedicated announcements page.
Exploration 2: a dedicated search page.
Exploration 3: announcements filtered by tags.

Moving on with the third exploration

  1. 1Tech constraints: showing different categories wasn't possible on our tight timeline.
  2. 2Align priorities with PM: solve the most important surfaces first, announcements and search.

Detail oriented

“Today” and “Yesterday” make the feed easier to read.

Relative date labels, followed by infinite scroll for older updates, make the announcements feed clearer each day.

Chosen direction

  1. 1Relative date labels with full dates below for a clear hierarchy.

Usability testing

Testing confirmed it: a side nav helps agents move fast.

The sidebar option earned the highest satisfaction score from users.

Tested: side navigation.
Iteration: a clear hierarchy, with search quickly accessible from the nav bar.

Final design

Search relevance, task visibility, and interface clarity.

Building on these insights, I rapidly prototyped and tested directions. Here is the search flow, rebuilt as a live prototype.

crm.remitly.com

Home

  1. 1Sidebar gives quick access to essential workflows like search.
  2. 2Announcements are a key daily touchpoint for critical updates.

Announcements

  1. 1Slide-in panel shows details without opening new tabs, reducing context switching.
  2. 2Infinite scroll keeps older announcements easy to reach for reference.

What I'd take to the next project

  1. 1Use usability testing to validate assumptions. With several directions and competing opinions, testing shows what actually works for users.
  2. 2Hold regular meetings with key stakeholders. When moving fast, a regular cadence keeps feedback tight and everyone aligned.
  3. 3Be willing to take risks when clarity is limited. Bold ideas often lead to the best solutions, and calculated risks move projects forward.