CGI Momentum: Transforming a Legacy System into a Modern, User-Centered Platform

Vision, leadership, and innovation at enterprise scale

Starting Point

Before 2015, Momentum was a monolithic web app supporting complex federal/state accounting workflows. Years of feature creep created complexity, inconsistency, and performance drag—with no dedicated UX to guide the product.

• Redundant taxonomies and 5‑tier navigation; 3–7 related objects often took up to 4 clicks.
• Non‑standard form layouts/controls reduced task success.
• Performance bottlenecks across key screens.
• Low adoption and high support costs; stalled innovation.

Vision & Objectives

Reimagine Momentum as a modern, modular platform that streamlines workflows, cuts support tickets by half, and restores user trust—creating a sustainable foundation for growth and adaptability.

• Modernize on MVC with reusable modules.
• Reduce support tickets ≥50% via onboarding, search, and help.
• Establish consistent patterns/standards for usability.
• Increase flexibility with tabs, filters, and faceted search.
• Build trust with clear validation, errors, and status/queuing.
• Enable self‑service via doc repository, status, and a pattern library.

Leadership Moves

• Break silos: Facilitated cross‑functional workshops and SME interviews to create shared empathy maps and personas.
• Win executive buy‑in: Combined “speed‑listening” tours with support‑ticket analysis to build a data‑driven case for UX investment.
• Embed UX in culture: Introduced Lean UX metrics, biweekly critiques, and “Speed Testing” to hard‑wire feedback into releases.

Innovation in Action

• Discovery & Alignment: Identified 12 top pain points causing ~80% of friction.
• Prioritization & Roadmap: Built a phased backlog with design, product, and engineering.
• Rapid Prototyping: Adobe/Axure prototypes tested in short cycles; insights fed into sprint retrospectives.
• Systemization & Rollout: Migrated to a 508‑compliant React component library to future‑proof development.

Key Solutions

• Guided Onboarding & Contextual Help: Overlays, tooltips, and tutorials reduced new‑user errors by >50%.
• Advanced Search & Faceting: Cross‑library search by taxonomy/type/status with inline error handling; thousands of records accessible in seconds.
• User Dashboard: Unified tasks, alerts, deadlines, and quick links to minimize deep navigation.
• Enterprise Design System & Pattern Library: 508‑compliant React components (HTML/CSS/JS, icons, theming) integrated into legacy and new builds, with hi‑fi prototypes, user stories, and Confluence blueprints for consistent handoff.

Impact & Results

• Support Tickets: ~50% reduction via onboarding/help/error handling
• Delivery: On time and on budget with broad adoption
• Foundation: Multi‑brand React library seeded an enterprise design system
• Feedback Loop: Lean UX + “Speed Testing” sustained multi‑release improvements

Lessons Learned

• Scale innovation by building systems, not just screens.
• Use mid/high‑fidelity prototypes early to surface gaps and build trust.
• Anchor priorities in metrics, journeys, and SME insights.
• Maintain frequent executive touchpoints to keep momentum.
• Introduce change incrementally; co‑create to reduce risk.

Forward Look

• Establish a Design Standards Council for governance, cadence, and quality.
• Expand the design system with modular layouts, mobile variants, and richer dashboards/search/export.
• Pair product analytics with ongoing “Speed Testing” to validate impact.
• Run quarterly 508 reviews with automated and real‑user testing.