Risk Management System
Structuring & Automating Multi-role Approvals
Transformed a manual, offline approval system into an intelligent, digital workflow that reduced approval time by 42% and improved task visibility by 63% for People's Insurance Company of China (PICC). By mapping and automating role-specific approval processes, I improved task handoffs, increased transparency, and enabled real-time risk-based prioritization.
Launch: Successfully launched in 2024, accelerating approvals, reducing manual effort, and improving collaboration across different decision-making levels.
Role
Product Design
Team
1 product manager, 1 product designer, 30+ engineers
Duration
8 months (design phase: 3 months)
Client
People's Insurance Company of China (PICC)
Business Goal
As PICC scales its operations, the current risk approval system is struggling to keep pace. Despite being digitized, the process remains rigid, manual in coordination, and misaligned with the pace and complexity of modern risk management. This has exposed the business to delays, inconsistencies, and inefficiencies—particularly in high-stakes decision-making scenarios.
The project was driven by the need to:
Faster, more responsive approval flows
Reducing operational drag in risk handling to better match business velocity.More reliable, data-aligned decisions
Minimizing ambiguity by grounding approvals in consistent, trustworthy information.Smarter collaboration across roles
Empowering each stakeholder with clarity and focus, without overwhelming them with noise.
The Challenge
Unclear Definition of "Efficiency"
The client asked to “improve efficiency,” but the root causes—whether in task assignment, approvals, or communication—were not clearly defined, making the design goal ambiguous.Multiple Roles, Conflicting Needs
The system involved business staff, risk reviewers, and managers. Each had different workflows and definitions of “efficient,” requiring the design to support diverging needs without adding complexity.Undefined Business Logic
Many decisions relied on internal risk rules that weren’t standardized. I had to collaborate with analysts and stakeholders to uncover how these rules actually shaped user behavior and process flow.
✨ With these challenges in mind, I turned to users and stakeholders to figure out
what “efficiency” actually looked like to them—and what was holding it back in reality.
Research & Insights
Interviews
Instead of defining “efficiency” upfront, I focused on identifying what was blocking it—through interviews with supervisors and risk reviewers.
Supervisor
To capture high-level business priorities and strategic pain points.
Risk Reviewers
To understand operational inefficiencies from the end-user perspective.
Risk-based Workflow Modeling
🌟 By analyzing role hierarchy and task classification, I identified inefficiencies in approvals and handoffs.
To optimize the approval process at PICC, I first mapped out the hierarchical structure of task approvals, identifying key roles and responsibilities across three levels.
After analyzing the approval process, I classified tasks based on two key factors: company type and risk level.
✨ How did we turn a complex approval process
into a seamless system?
Solution
📌 The solution had to ensure that approvals were fast, traceable, and automated—without overcomplicating the decision process.
I focused on three core improvements: risk-based prioritization, adaptive role-based workbenches, and seamless data integration.
Automating Risk-Based Task Prioritization
🔹 Automated Risk Classification – Every task is automatically assigned a risk level based on predefined criteria.
🔹 Smart Routing – High-risk tasks are escalated to senior reviewers, while lower-risk tasks are processed efficiently at the appropriate level.
Multi-Role Adaptive Workbench
🔹 Tailored interfaces for each role, reducing cognitive load.
🔹 A centralized task dashboard enhances visibility, so approvers never miss critical cases.
Streamlined, Data-Driven Approval System
🔹 End-to-End Task Visibility – Approvers, reviewers, and supervisors can track task progress in real-time.
🔹 Embedded Data Insights – Eliminating the need to navigate multiple systems.
✨ How can we structure the system so users can
find, act, and decide—without friction?
Information Architecture
From Functional Modules to Role-Centered Experience
Where I started (v0)
A function-first layout: each module mapped to one feature.
🔸 But this created overlaps, made navigation unclear, and didn’t scale across roles.
What changed (v1)
I shifted to a role-aware structure aligned with actual workflows:
Approvers & reviewers see and act on tasks in one place.
Initiators track their submitted cases via Task Tracking.
Supervisors access summary dashboards directly in Overview.
💡 Design Insight
By rethinking the IA, I aligned system flow with these user questions:
→ “What do I need to handle?”
→ “What happened to what I submitted?”
→ “How is the team performing overall?”
✨ With a streamlined structure in place, I turned to optimizing how users interact with each task
— starting with better prioritization and visibility.
Design Execution
Smart Task Workflow
Highlight Critical Tasks First
📌 Before: Manual sorting made high-risk cases difficult to track, delaying approvals.
✅ Now: Tasks are automatically ranked by urgency and risk exposure—no more guesswork.
Track Progress at a Glance
✅ Color-coded task summaries help users instantly know what’s pending, in progress, or completed.
✅ Icons & numbers deliver quick insights—no need to dig.
Smart Actions for Faster Decisions
🔵 High-risk items go to Process → for detailed decisions
⚪️ Low-risk tasks only need a Review → no wasted effort
✨ Routing tasks smartly was only half the challenge.
Each user also needed a way to complete their part, clearly and efficiently.
Role-Based Interfaces
👩🏼💻 Initial Approver
Handles initial assessments and submits high-risk cases for further review.
📌Goals
Understand task background & risk level
Provide preliminary decision & strategy
Track outcomes of their submissions
💡 Design Note
Initial approvers used to lose visibility after submission. Now they can follow outcomes and make informed decisions — all in one screen.
👩🏼⚖️ Reviewer Officer
Responsible for reviewing and finalizing high-risk decisions.
📌Goals
Double-check submitted high-risk tasks
Confirm or adjust suggested strategies
Finalize approval decisions
💡 Design Note
I focused on reducing friction — preserving initial input, removing unnecessary fields, and showing only what’s needed to validate or escalate a decision.
👩🏼💼 Supervisor
Oversees the overall approval process across teams and time.
📌Goals
Monitor workload and completion progress
Analyze task distribution by risk & outcome
Evaluate team performance and efficiency
💡 Design Note
Supervisors don’t handle tasks directly. Instead, they need a clear top-down view to allocate resources and address bottlenecks.
That’s why the interface prioritizes clarity, trends, and team-level visibility.
Handoff & Implementation
To ensure a smooth transition from design to development, I created a detailed Figma spec for each approval role’s dashboard and task views.
Each role’s flow was mapped out with clear navigation, interaction patterns, and component states.
I worked closely with product managers and engineers to define task logic, system behavior, and loading states.
Final designs were organized into Figma-ready assets, with redlines, annotations, and embedded flow specs to support implementation.
From research to execution, every design decision aimed at simplifying complexity.
✨ Here’s what I took away from the journey.
Takeaway
What I did
Engaged with stakeholders to understand digital transformation goals, approval roles, workflows, and access control needs.
Conducted in-depth research on role-based inefficiencies in the manual approval process.
Collaborated with data analysts and business teams to integrate real-time, risk-based prioritization — aligning approvals to risk level and hierarchy.
Developed wireframes and user flows tailored to each approval role, improving clarity and decision-making efficiency.
Designed a multi-role approval system allowing both approvers and supervisors to track progress, review past decisions, and ensure accountability.
Results & Impacts
🚀 42% faster approvals – Reduced average processing time from 5 days to 2.9 days through automation and risk-based prioritization.
🔍 35% less manual work – Eliminated 2-3 manual handoffs per case, allowing approvers to focus on high-value decisions.
👉 63% improved visibility – Approvers and supervisors could track task status in real-time, reducing miscommunication and delays.