OVERVIEW—
What is Barracuda Networks?
Barracuda Networks builds cloud-first, enterprise-grade solutions that protects businesses from a wide range of cybersecurity threats. I have the pleasure of working within two separate product teams:
Email protection team, where I design solutions to protect businesses and their data from email attacks such as phishing and account takeovers
Data protection team, where I am building a platform for organizations to back up their data
My work is under NDA, but I can share a high level overview of my current projects and learnings from my experience.
Role: Associate UX Designer
Timeline: Jan 2022 - Present
Tools: Figma, Jira, Confluence, pen and paper
MY ROLE—
What are some projects I’m currently working on?
#1. New email feature that warns end users if an email is suspicious
AI is not always right. There are a number of emails that Barracuda’s ML classifiers cannot confidently flag as phishing, and is released to end user recipients. How might we let end user recipients know that these emails are potentially malicious?
Collaborate with stakeholders to develop wireframes, design concepts, and high fidelity screens while also gaining an understanding of technical limitations.
Conduct 3 rounds of research studies, and iterate on design and content to optimize for user comprehension and positive emotion
Deliver high-fidelity mockups and documentation to engineering team, and currently supporting implementation with design QA
#2. 0-to-1 backup product that offers on-premise and cloud data protection
Customers use Barracuda’s backup products to back up their organization’s data on both the cloud and physical appliances. Having multiple backup products make it confusing and cumbersome for admins to manage. How might we allow IT admins to manage their organization’s backups on a single platform?
Collaborate with UX researcher and PM to conduct user research to understand customers workflows and expectations around data protection. Informed by research, organize product requirements based on user and business needs
Craft user flows, brainstorm concepts, and build a new product from scratch using object-oriented design
#3. Unified audit log design to be component-ized and used across Barracuda’s entire product suite
Barracuda has a large suite of products, each with their own version of audit logging. This results in an inconsistency in data structure and feature capabilities, giving users a less-than-ideal experience as they use different products from our suite. How might we create a more consistent audit log experience across the product portfolio?
Conduct UX audit of existing audit logs within the product suite and competitor analysis to get a sense of industry standards and form feature requirements
Standardize data structure and design flexible data grid model that is adaptable to with multiple products.
Currently working with multiple product teams to implement design, and document and contribute layout to design system
TAKEAWAYS—
What I’ve learned so far
Communicate with partners and stakeholders early and often. Engineers and PMs especially are your best friends, and it’s critical to involve them in the design process.
Fail early and often. My experience allowed me to embrace the iterative nature of design. I learned to make educated assumptions as I design and proactively validate/correct my assumptions through research and data.
Understand your users. I regularly interview users as part of a generative user research initiative to understand their workflows, pain point, and motivations. I understand the value of empathizing with my users, so I can serve as their biggest advocate throughout the product development process.