Making Compliance Make Sense
Helping businesses avoid closure from agreements they didn’t understand.
The short version
60 second read- The problem
- Pharmacies were signing vendor agreements they didn’t understand. Missed terms cost them rebates, and some closed.
- What I did
- Designed one dashboard that shows where each location stands on every agreement, before a violation happens.
- How I tested it
- User interviews, synthesis in Dovetail, and usability tests in Maze that shaped how every metric card reads.
- What happened
- IPC, a buying group of 2,000 pharmacies, signed because of it. It also helped grow recurring revenue from $6M to $12.5M in one year.
About SureCost
SureCost is the leading purchasing platform for pharmacies, processing millions in pharmaceutical transactions every year. For more than ten years it has helped customers save money through smarter procurement, rebate tracking and vendor contract management.
Over 12 weeks I worked with 2 product managers, 4 developers and 2 QA engineers to build Purchase Manager from zero. The first job was turning vendor agreements into something pharmacies could actually read.
My role
I was the first and only product designer at SureCost, working across four engineering teams. Every design decision below I owned.
Product and delivery
- Partnered on scope definition
- Prioritized tickets and wrote acceptance criteria
- Helped shape sprints
- Led tickets in refinement
UX research and testing
- User interviews and synthesis
- Dovetail research ops
- Maze usability testing
- Chart comprehension testing
UX writing and content design
- Plain language for complex compliance terms
- Consistent metric naming system
- Cross-vendor terminology alignment
Visual and interaction design
- Visual hierarchy decisions
- Progressive disclosure pattern
- Compliance data visualization
Pharmacies were signing agreements they didn’t understand, leading to lost rebates and closures.
Complex vendor agreements and shifting regulations were eating into pharmacy profits. Pharmacies lost money on rebates, broke compliance terms, and sometimes closed because their margins got away from them.
Every vendor used different terms, so customers leaned on spreadsheets or guesswork. Some even built their own dashboards outside SureCost using our data. This was the biggest issue our customers faced, and I needed to solve it.
A centralized dashboard that surfaces compliance before violations happen.
AI contract parsing was on the table early. But after talking with the Customer Success team and customers directly, it was clear the trust wasn’t there yet. Training models on vendor pricing could also break agreements and put SureCost’s vendor relationships at risk. The Customer Success team asked to own the input themselves. Sometimes the right call is knowing when not to automate.
Interviews and testing showed that each region, pharmacy and department needed to see its own compliance ratios, so the dashboard scopes to each location’s purchasing. In Maze, all 6 testers preferred seeing the current value first with the overage as secondary information, rather than the overage alone. That finding shaped the card design.
Scan fast, then dig in when something’s wrong.
Every region, pharmacy and department sees its own compliance ratios, spending and rebate tiers, scoped to the purchasing they actually control.
Purchase Manager
(03/01/2024 - 03/31/2024)
Copperline Supply Group
124 Days Remaining in Agreement
Source Ratio Analysis
Generic Ratio Analysis
Sample data
The first version used donut charts. In testing, people couldn’t tell from them which agreement was in trouble, because the slices showed share of spend, not progress toward a target. Bar charts put every agreement side by side, so the one falling short stands out. Testing also showed people cared about each agreement, not totals rolled up across all of them.
Enterprise corporations manage many contracts. They need to scan metrics quickly, then open the details when something looks off. Drawers show which locations are doing well and which need help, with plain sentences that say where each one stands.
Purchase Manager
(03/01/2024 - 03/31/2024)
Copperline Supply Group
124 Days Remaining in Agreement
Source Ratio Analysis
Generic Ratio Analysis
Sample data
Purchase Manager
(03/01/2024 - 03/31/2024)
Copperline Supply Group
124 Days Remaining in Agreement
Source Ratio Analysis
Generic Ratio Analysis
Purchase Manager
(03/01/2024 - 03/31/2024)
Copperline Supply Group
124 Days Remaining in Agreement
Source Ratio Analysis
Generic Ratio Analysis
Launched as the first phase of Purchase Manager.
Purchase Manager became a big reason customers bought SureCost. IPC, a national buying group of 2,000 independent pharmacies, signed because of it, and delivering Purchase Manager was part of our contract with them. Together with the modernization work I led, it helped the company grow recurring revenue from $6M to $12.5M in one year.
It also set the foundation for SureCost Autopilot, a future where SureCost manages the business side of pharmacy operations so customers can focus on patient care.
This work gave pharmacies the visibility they needed to avoid costly mistakes and positioned SureCost as a strategic partner, not just a purchasing tool.
“This is exactly what we’ve been trying to do. Right now we’re pulling reports, building spreadsheets, and manually figuring this out. Having it all surfaced here would be huge.”
Chief Operating OfficerSureCost customer “That would be amazing. Right now, we only find issues after the month closes, and by then, it’s too late. This would let us stay ahead of it.”
Director of PurchasingSureCost customer
What changed, in numbers.
- Revenue
Recurring revenue grew from $6M to $12.5M in one year.
The storyPurchase Manager became a big reason customers bought SureCost. Together with the modernization work, it more than doubled recurring revenue in a single year.
- Scale
IPC signed because of Purchase Manager, bringing 2,000 member pharmacies.
The storyIPC is a national buying group for independent pharmacies. It signed for Purchase Manager specifically, and delivering it was part of our contract with them.
- Caught in time
An $18K rebate shortfall caught before the month ended.
The storyCustomers told us they only found problems after the month closed, when it was too late to fix them. This one showed up with time left to act.
Compliance Insights shipped on SureCost.
Sometimes shipping at mid-fidelity is the right call when the core of it solves a critical problem.
Challenges
We were on a tight timeline, so the PM and I met twice a week to whiteboard, explore charts and prototype the Agreement Dashboard. Research showed users didn’t understand agreement terms, so the team decided Customer Success would enter contract details.
I also helped run the work itself. I prioritized tickets, wrote acceptance criteria and helped shape sprints. In refinement and pre-refinement meetings, I sometimes led the discussion on tickets myself.
Midway through, the original PM left. I kept the project moving, onboarded the new PM and handled big scope changes, like the full dashboard landing in version one, new chart styles and new naming. Design only reached mid-fidelity before development, so I worked closely with engineers to fill the gaps. We cut best and worst performer indicators, animations and micro-interactions to meet the deadline.
Retrospective
Handling a PM change mid-project taught me how much clear documentation and adaptability matter.
If I could do it again, I’d push for a phased rollout that put the most important metrics first instead of solving everything in version one. I’d also push for usability testing after launch, once customers had real data in the system.