Turning Zoho’s fixed sales tools into an automated rule engine.
As the sole designer, I led a nine-month redesign across a 20-person team - turning hardcoded sales incentives into reusable logic for non-technical managers.
The product and operating context
Sales Motivator turns CRM activity into points, games, targets, achievements, and leaderboards for sales teams.
The problem behind the request
Point values, KPIs, and rules were hardcoded. If a team’s incentive model did not match the product assumptions, a manager could not change it without engineering.
One criteria-based rules engine, four product consumers.
I replaced fixed values with module, action, and AND/OR conditions, plus flat or record-field-based points. Games, Targets, Achievements, and Contests all read from the same logic.
From decision to shipped system
- Mapped the full product on paper before committing to screens.
- Designed arbitrary criteria without exposing a coding interface to sales managers.
- Created two understandable point models: fixed points and record-field values.
- Coordinated backend, frontend, and product stakeholders while remaining the only designer.
The work, in context
Selected full-product views establish the system. Focused frames show the decisions and interactions that made the direction real.
What changed
The redesign shipped inside Zoho CRM. A single configuration model now powers four experiences, and customers can adapt incentives without rebuilding the product around each team.
Complexity belongs in the model, not in the user’s head. The interaction becomes clearer when the underlying logic is made coherent first.