Everyone in the deal, on the same page. Build the shared place the market was missing.

01 · The problem

The workflow existed. The shared view did not.

Investors, sponsors, brokers and service providers all needed the same documents, dates, pricing and next actions. Each had part of the picture. No one had a reliable view of the whole, so the market coordinated through spreadsheets, email and disconnected data rooms.

I'd spent years on the operating side of this business, close enough to see exactly where the work broke down. So I set up the product function and led the platform from the first wireframe through production and years of continued use.

02 · Getting everyone in

The data room brought people in. The workflow kept them.

Every party needed the documents, so putting them in one place gave everyone a reason to log in. That was how the market arrived on the platform.

What kept them there was everything around the documents: workflow tools and APIs that saved time and surfaced context people used to have to ask for.

03 · What we built

Four decisions made the workflow easier to trust and use.

1. Show the whole portfolioInvestors got one chronological view of events and obligations across every bond they managed, instead of rebuilding the picture deal by deal.
2. Make the next owner obviousNotifications and shared timelines showed who needed to act, which cut the chasing and kept deals moving.
3. Make documents easy to reachDocuments came through the product and the API with no per-file fees. Customers started asking other providers for the same access.
4. Put pricing in contextStatic pricing files gave way to an interactive history that showed each bond alongside the market around it.

04 · A call I made

Shipping later, on purpose.

Customers wanted more data in the API. Engineering needed time to finish the foundation. I chose the delay, and set up scheduled manual delivery so customers kept getting their data in the meantime.

Launch moved about a month, and the interim delivery ran without a hiccup.

05 · What usage taught us

What people came back for showed us what to build next.

The dates people checked, the documents they requested through the API, and the timeline features that cut follow-up all shaped the roadmap.

06 · What it opened up

Proving where each number came from.

Later work on the platform's data taught me that having the number is the easy part. Showing where it came from is what makes people trust it.