Case Study: Solving B2B Problems for 120 stakeholders

Creating usable interfaces despite Security, Legality, and Sustainability Challenges at Xcel Energy

The Problem

Xcel Energy faced a highly complex B2B customer experience challenge: supporting government contractors tasked with delivering niche sustainability solutions under strict extension NDAs.

The digital products—spanning both mobile and web—had to serve multiple, often conflicting audiences:

Public-facing regulatory agencies who required transparency and compliance.
Internal project managers and legal teams who had to ensure risk mitigation and accuracy.
Government operations externally, who needed direct, secure access to sensitive data.

This made for a tangled ecosystem of stakeholders where legality, regulation, and departmental leadership collided. The existing experience relied on outdated systems and paper-heavy processes, which were slow, inefficient, and prone to error.

The Iterative Process

I led a cross-functional design and delivery effort to streamline and modernize these systems while balancing rebrand, accessibility, and compliance.

Key areas of work included:

Salesforce CRM integration: replacing outdated record-keeping tools with scalable, secure digital workflows.
Mapping and data displays: coordinating legacy scrolling systems with modern ESRI maps and layered data to visualize distributed energy resources.
Mid-rebrand collaboration: adapting existing brand colors and assets while preparing for a new identity rollout.
Accessibility compliance: rigorously testing with internal stakeholders and QA teams to ensure strict WCAG standards were met.
Iterative copy and content: working closely with copywriters to balance legal language, tax incentive details, and user clarity, cutting and refining copy sprint by sprint.
Agile UAT processes: delivering in two-week sprints, validating work with internal subject matter experts and external requirements.
Collaboration cycle: constant internal research, legal review, and QA validation to ensure sensitive content and features were accurate and compliant.

This work required unique domain knowledge in distributed energy resources, regulatory frameworks, and government contracting processes—alongside deep coordination across QA, legal, product, and design governance.

The Results

The outcome was a digitized, secure, and scalable B2B experience that replaced outdated and fragmented processes:

Digitized a historically paper-based process, significantly reducing inefficiencies and errors.
Enabled secure access for international investors (not customers) to sensitive regulatory and sustainability data, while maintaining compliance with strict NDA protections.
Coordinated Salesforce CRM systems across the organization, creating a sustainable record-keeping frameworkthat replaced legacy tools.
Delivered mapping and data solutions that gave stakeholders real-time visibility into distributed energy resources and local community impacts.
Improved accessibility and inclusivity, meeting strict WCAG standards while balancing legal and user needs.
Gathered and aligned up to 120 stakeholders in collaborative meetings, ensuring consensus across government, regulatory, and community leaders.
Met regulatory guidelines fully while also helping local communities benefit from clean energy investments and tax incentive opportunities.

This work not only modernized how Xcel Energy collaborated with contractors and agencies but also laid the groundwork for future sustainability projects by transforming compliance-heavy, fragmented workflows into unified, accessible, digital-first experiences.