At a glance
Relationship knowledge lived in people's heads, spreadsheets and stale Miro boards.
Lead UX/UI designer for the list, creation flows, canvas, node panel and AI integration.
A flagship feature whose graph engine now powers two other parts of the platform.
4
Entry points to create a network from existing platform context
12+
Types of entity that can become a node
0→1
No relationship mapping existed in Genie before this feature
Teams knew who influenced whom, but the system didn't
Engagement managers carried deep knowledge of who influences whom, but none of it lived in Genie. Each time they needed an influence map they rebuilt it by hand, and it broke as soon as someone changed roles.
- Visual map of how stakeholders connect
- Every node is a live profile: click to see everything Genie knows
- Path discovery between any two people
- Start from context (a profile, an AI answer, a project), not only a blank canvas
Every time a team needed to think relationally, they had to rebuild that picture manually from scratch. It was slow, it was fragile, and it broke the moment a stakeholder changed roles.
Three decisions that shaped the entire feature
Separate the information model before designing any screen
Profile data stays with the platform. Canvas state is stored separately, so two people can edit the same map at once.
Separate the canvas engine from the product features
A stable rendering layer with product features on top, which let us reuse the engine elsewhere within six months.
Design the list and creation flows before the canvas
Most journeys start outside the canvas, so I designed the index and four creation entry points first.
User flows
Build a network from context
Goal: see the influence map around a stakeholder
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Start anywhere
From a profile, an Ask Genie answer, a project or an article
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Auto-populate
Genie pre-fills nodes and known relationships
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Explore the canvas
Pan, zoom, group and colour clusters
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Inspect a node
Roles, education and associations; add any of them to the map
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AI
Ask Genie
AI summarises clusters and suggests who to add
Result: a live map tied to real profiles, not a static diagram that goes stale.
Find a path to a decision-maker
Goal: find a warm introduction
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Pick two nodes
A known contact and the target person
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Surface the path
The shortest relationship path across the whole network
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Check each link
Open every person on the path in the side panel
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Act together
Log a touchpoint, or edit the map live with teammates
Result: "Who do we know who can reach this person?" is answered in seconds.
Screens
Screens from the live product. People, contact details and internal names are anonymised.
Shipped as a flagship feature and a foundation for what came next
"The Networks feature was the thing that made Genie feel like a platform, not just a database. Before, we had all the data but no way to see the shape of it."
- Shipped end to end: list, 4 entry points, canvas, node panel, path discovery and live collaboration.
- Reusable foundation: the graph engine now runs in 2 other areas of the platform.
- Set the patterns for how nodes behave and how context travels between screens.