Case Summary
SAM+ Hub began with complex software-asset data and an undefined customer experience. I shaped it into a product that helped Softchoice customers understand costs, renewals and next actions.
As the sole UX Strategy & Product Design Lead, I owned the experience from concept through launch and established Softchoice’s first formal UX practice.
I organized the hub around customer decisions, using modular cards to surface priorities and reveal detail as customers investigated.
By 2026, the product had reached nearly 4,000 users across approximately 3,300 active accounts, with 944 monthly active users against a plan of 800.
Project Overview
Softchoice was developing SAM+ Hub as its flagship digital product for customers managing software assets, renewals and licensing decisions. The initiative combined a new customer-facing product with complex data architecture and an ambitious roadmap.
The work began as a data requirement rather than an experience model. The product needed to be useful at launch, feasible for engineering and modular enough to accommodate future capabilities without extensive redesign.
My Role and Leadership Scope
My responsibility was to turn broad business and data requirements into a decision-support product. I owned the UX strategy, information architecture, interaction model, prototypes, design system, developer handoff and design QA from initial concept through launch.
Collaboration was central to the work and to establishing UX as a formal discipline at Softchoice. I led through cross-functional influence rather than direct authority, bringing product, data and engineering perspectives into working sessions where we could resolve ambiguity and make decisions together. The product owner set product requirements, data architects defined the underlying model and engineering owned implementation; I translated those inputs into a coherent experience and reviewed delivered work against the intended product model.
I presented and defended the experience strategy in the launch walkthrough for C-level executives and Softchoice’s Board of Directors, using the prototype to make the product model tangible before launch.
The Problem
The initial concept drew on competitor experiences and spreadsheet-based models: a dense collection of data points with little hierarchy. It reflected how the organization stored and discussed information, not the decisions customers needed to make. The risk was a reporting surface that required expert interpretation rather than a product that guided action.
Renewals, licensing exposure, recommendations and account activity all competed for attention. The central question was not simply which data to show, but what the hub should help customers notice, understand and do next.
The product also had to launch without a traditional pre-launch testing window. The experience needed to be understandable from the outset, feasible within the engineering architecture and flexible enough to support the roadmap that followed.
Strategic Response
I made three linked decisions: define the product around customer decisions, use progressive disclosure to manage complexity and reduce launch risk through familiar enterprise patterns.
Define the product around decisions
I led working sessions to determine the role each data point played in the customer journey. We assessed information by the decision it supported, its urgency and the level of detail customers needed. This shifted the conversation from data availability to customer value and established the hierarchy for the hub.
Use progressive disclosure
I introduced a card-based dashboard that surfaced the most meaningful signals first, then allowed customers to move into detail when needed. The model supported scanning, grouping and prioritization while preserving access to the underlying data. It also created a modular structure for future capabilities.
Reduce launch risk through familiar patterns
Without a full pre-launch research process, I made a deliberate risk-management decision to use established enterprise patterns. Navigation, filters, cards, status treatments and drill-down behaviour drew on conventions customers were already likely to recognize, reducing the amount of new interaction logic they had to learn.
Discovery and Key Insights
With no traditional pre-launch research window, discovery came through close collaboration with the product owner, business leads, data architects, engineering and subject-matter experts. I used requirement reviews, data-model discussions and workflow analysis to identify the questions customers needed the hub to answer.
Value came from prioritization, not raw data
Customers needed a clear view of what required attention, why it mattered and where to investigate. The product could not treat every metric as equally urgent. It also needed to bring related data together to surface insights that would otherwise require users to assemble and cross-reference information across multiple sources. This shaped the card hierarchy and the relationship between overview and detail.
The experience had to reflect the data architecture
Daily work with data architects showed where data was stable, where relationships were complex and where the interface needed to account for incomplete states. The resulting patterns balanced customer clarity with the realities of the system.
Modularity was a product decision
The roadmap included new data types and capabilities, so the interface needed to accommodate expansion without redesigning the whole product.
Key Decisions and Execution
Make priorities visible in the interface
In the interface, status language and visual emphasis distinguished routine information from items requiring attention. Tables and detailed records supported deeper investigation.
Use prototypes to align decisions
I built a working prototype early enough to make the product model tangible while important decisions were still open. It gave product, business and technical partners a shared reference for working sessions, helping the team align on the experience before development was complete.
Protect the model through delivery
During implementation, I conducted design QA and experience audits on the delivered product. I documented discrepancies, clarified responsive and state behaviour and worked directly with engineering to preserve the hierarchy and interaction model. The component library created through the work became the foundation for subsequent design on the platform.
Outcomes and Impact
By 2026, SAM+ Hub had reached nearly 4,000 users across approximately 3,300 active accounts. Monthly active users reached 944 against a plan of 800.
The business team reported approximately 3,400 users taking a purchase-related step and 281 requesting a quote. These signals helped frame the opportunity for a Subscription Marketplace that would connect product discovery more directly with commercial action.
The launch also established a formal UX practice for the platform. The design system, modular architecture, prototype-led alignment and design QA process gave future teams a more reliable way to extend it.
2026 validation and next horizon
A 2026 prototype study reinforced the value of bringing vendors, licenses, costs and renewals into one place. All eight participants successfully used multi-vendor filtering. Participants valued the consolidated view as an alternative to assembling information across spreadsheets, vendor portals and internal systems.
The study also sharpened the next priorities: clearer category interactions and licensing units, plus usage, ownership and feature-comparison data to help customers identify redundant spend. These findings gave the team a concrete direction for extending the product on its existing modular foundation.
What This Changed
UX became part of product planning and delivery at Softchoice, with prototypes guiding cross-functional decisions and design QA carrying those decisions into the finished product.
Following World Wide Technology’s acquisition of Softchoice, SAM+ Hub began evolving into an enterprise software asset-management platform. The core experience has required only limited changes from its small-business version, reinforcing the value of the foundational product, architecture and design-system decisions made at launch.
The case demonstrates how I lead without a reporting line: by creating a shared product model, making difficult decisions tangible through prototypes and giving partners a practical way to align around the customer.
Evidence and Attribution
Adoption and engagement figures come from Softchoice product reporting available through 2026. Purchase-interest and quote-request figures were supplied by the business team.
The 2026 findings come from a moderated prototype study with eight software-portfolio professionals, conducted July 28–29.