01 / Context
A non-responsive desktop intranet stranded thousands of employees when the enterprise suddenly transitioned remote.
Serving tens of thousands of distributed financial services employees requiring daily access to directory records, team updates, and enterprise support. The legacy intranet was completely non-responsive on smartphones: when employees stepped away from their office desk computers, corporate communication ceased to exist. When remote protocols hit, reaching employees with safety updates became an urgent business continuity mandate.
02 / The Shift
- • Desktop-only lock-in: Intranet portals required complex VPN authentication and were completely unusable on mobile browsers.
- • 5-minute directory lookups: Finding a teammate's phone or email required navigating buried legacy portals.
- • Siloed tools: News, health benefits, and employee classifieds lived on separate unlinked platforms.
- • Zero-install PWA: Native mobile performance directly on personal or corporate smartphones with biometric auth.
- • 2-second search & call: Context-aware directory caching with one-tap dialing and team organizational trees.
- • Unified service dashboard: Personalized cards unifying corporate news, benefits, EAP, and peer marketplace.
03 / The Approach
Four systemic moves that established enterprise touch ergonomics and workforce adoption.
1. Co-authoring the enterprise's foundational mobile design system
Partnered directly with the central Design System team to author touch-specific button states, type scales, and spacing tokens. Adapted enterprise brand palettes to meet strict accessibility contrast ratios across mobile viewports.
2. High-density information architecture without visual clutter
Organized six core capabilities (News, Directory, Classifieds, EAP, Job Satisfaction, Tasks) into a personalized card grid. Surfaced time-sensitive notifications at the top while providing one-tap navigation to deep utility workflows.
3. Context-aware directory search with offline caching
Rebuilt employee lookup around fast local caching, tabbed organization (My Team, Recent, Favorites), and direct phone/email triggers—turning an agonizing 5-minute desktop search into a 2-second mobile tap.
4. Vetted internal marketplace behind the firewall
Designed an internal peer-to-peer classifieds engine allowing employees to safely list items and housing within the corporate firewall. Became the most active organic engagement driver across the entire platform.
04 / Impact
70% engagement growth and a permanent enterprise mobile standard adopted org-wide.
Within month one, Maven achieved 20% organic workforce adoption and generated a 70% increase in news and services engagement over the legacy intranet. The mobile design system created for Maven became the organization-wide foundation for all subsequent internal applications.
Engagement Growth
Over legacy desktop portal
Month-1 Adoption
Zero mandatory enforcement
Mobile Tokens
Adopted org-wide for all PWAs
Enterprise Experience Retrospective
Enterprise workplace tools fail when they assume everyone sits at a desk.
The legacy intranet wasn't abandoned because its underlying content was broken—it was abandoned because it lived on the wrong form factor. Meeting employees where they actually operate through an accessible, mobile-first PWA delivered immediate adoption and turned daily corporate communications into an active habit rather than an administrative chore.