In enterprise SaaS, ownership of the customer journey is not about screens. It's about designing the system that makes those screens possible.
1. The Problem: Velocity Was an Illusion
We had customization. We did not have a platform strategy.
The experience was:
- Decentralized — no shared building model across teams
- Inconsistent — fragmented patterns and interaction models
- Architecturally fragmented — infrastructure leaking into UX
- Dependency-heavy — rebuilding required for every new capability
Customers hacked the system. Adoption was suffering. Engineering complexity was compounding. We were scaling features, not scaling experience.
2. The Insight: The Issue Wasn't UI. It Was Architecture.
The real blocker was structural:
- No centralized building model
- No systematic implementation strategy
- No reusable experience framework
- No extensibility path
- No shared governance model
We weren't slow because of design. We were slow because of architecture.
3. The Strategic Move: Project Atlas
I originated a platform strategy to centralize how experiences are built across Collibra.
The shift: From feature-by-feature implementation → to composable, scalable journey architecture
Core pillars:
- WYSIWYG building
- Route management
- Templating & reusability
- Widgetization
- Headless flexibility
- Modern React + Arbor-based theming
4. The Builder: From Feature Building to Experience Composition
The builder enabled:
- Framework-driven development
- Structured flexibility
- Governance through theming
- Extensibility without chaos
- Support for technical and non-technical users
This wasn't a page editor. It was a platform capability.
5. Widgetization as Leverage: Turning Capabilities into Composable Assets
We introduced a widgetized ecosystem. This allowed:
- Internal teams to reuse capabilities
- Customers to build within guardrails
- Infinite extensibility without fragmentation
This increased engineering reuse, speed to build, and consistency across experiences.
6. Governance vs. Autonomy: The Hard Part
This was controversial. Teams preferred autonomy. Centralization felt restrictive. Engineering pushed back on scope.
We had to align around a shared vision:
Autonomy without structure does not scale.
We introduced thematic structures, best practices, end-to-end system thinking, and backwards compatibility for legacy customers. This is where leadership mattered.
7. Outcomes
Partially shipped at time of publishing — heavily influenced roadmap direction.
- Increased engineering reuse
- Improved feature velocity
- Higher NPS
- Adoption of new out-of-the-box experiences
- Reduced workaround behavior
- Stronger internal alignment
This shifted Collibra from reactive customization to proactive journey ownership.
8. Forward Strategy
The POC validated technical decisions that dramatically increased velocity and flexibility. This became a foundational layer for future roadmap investments — an extensible, scalable platform that the entire organization could build on.