How We Redesigned FBN’s User Management for a Smarter, More Scalable, and Intuitive Experience

Interface ease matters. Because the UI for Farmers Business Network predated the design team, users and administrators faced confusion and inefficiency when navigating the disjointed interface. Implementing roles, rules, and permissions for organizations led to better enterprise management, reduced onboarding time, and a vast increase in admin satisfaction.

Role: Senior Product Design Manager

AT A GLANCE:

increase in Business Administrator Invites

40%

reduction in onboarding time
for Business Administrators

60%

increase in owner satisfaction

30%

Farming involves many moving parts, requiring structured roles, access control, and efficient task delegation.

The Challenge

Farmers Business Network’s system struggled to support complex user needs, such as managing multiple roles, enterprises, and billing structures. The outdated UI led to confusion, inefficiencies, and limited scalability, with issues ranging from an overly prominent "Delete Account" button to rigid role management, outdated workflows, and misplaced navigation. The outdated interface was limiting FBN’s ability to support its growing user base, hindering scalability and reducing engagement.

We collaborated with stakeholders to define role-based access needs through brainstorming and use case discussions.

The Fix

As Senior Product Design Manager, my team and I developed the next generation of User Mapping, defining distinct user groups—farmers, trust managers, and enterprise owners—and mapping their workflows to improve navigation, onboarding, and enterprise management. We introduced better toggling between multiple enterprises, pagination, and enhanced search features to streamline multi-enterprise management. A key focus was creating a scalable role and permissions system, ensuring that access control aligned with each user group's specific needs.

Visualization helped us understand how roles, rights, and permissions impact access across the platform..

We assessed how invitees receive invitations based on their existing user data and communication channels.

We compared the previous UI against user needs to revise the effort required for updating user mapping.

“I can focus on the specifics without second-guessing which enterprise I’m working on."

— Shane, Montana Verified Farmer

The Results

These improvements streamlined role management, enterprise navigation, and onboarding, benefiting farmers, enterprise owners, and administrators. As a result, the platform saw higher satisfaction and efficiency, with a 60% reduced onboarding time for administrators through improved workflows, 40% more farm administrator invites thanks to simplified role management, and a 30% increase in owner satisfaction scores due to clearer permissions and enterprise controls.