Director of Design, SAP d.studio
Leading the end-to-end design of data-intensive decision systems used in high-stakes professional environments.
Tablet & Web App
Designing Decision-Making Systems at SAP
SAP Scouting explored how complex, high-stakes decisions could be supported through better systems, not more data. The work originated as an exploratory collaboration, using SAP’s existing partnerships with professional sports organizations to test whether design-led systems could open new product
opportunities beyond traditional enterprise software.
The focus began with taking some time to understanding how scouts and executives evaluate talent in real-world conditions, and how a digital system could reduce uncertainty while respecting deep domain expertise.
The Challenge
Scouting decisions require balancing performance data, medical history, potential, and risk across hundreds of players. Existing tools surfaced large volumes of information but provided little help in understanding relationships, tradeoffs, or relative value.
The system needed to respect the expertise of its users while reducing cognitive overhead. Success depended on clarity, structure, and trust, not simplification.
The Approach
The work focused on designing a system that could help experts move from raw data to confident judgment. Rather than attempting to simplify the domain, the approach was to structure complexity in a way that made relationships, tradeoffs, and patterns easier to see.
Information was organized around comparison, hierarchy, and context, allowing scouts to evaluate players relative to one another instead of in isolation. Visualizations were designed to support scanning
and synthesis, helping users quickly understand performance, risk, and potential without losing nuance.
Close collaboration with scouts informed how data was grouped and surfaced, ensuring the system reflected real decision-making workflows. The result was not a collection of screens, but a coherent decision-support system that could evolve alongside the needs of its users.
Impact
SAP Scouting provided teams with a clearer and more structured way to evaluate talent, reducing time spent assembling information and increasing confidence in decision-making. By helping users see patterns and tradeoffs more easily, the system supported faster, more informed judgments in moments where outcomes carry significant weight.
More broadly, the work demonstrated how design-led systems could extend SAP’s reach into new domains. What began as an exploratory collaboration validated a new way of thinking about product opportunities beyond traditional enterprise software.
Finalist, Optimizing
