SAM Team Builder
A powerful, AI-driven solution that seamlessly assembles high-performing teams by intelligently matching skills, experience, and project needs—enabling faster decisions and better outcomes.
SAM Team Builder
BCG
Product Designer
End-to-end UX
8 Global
Overview
SAM (Staffing & More) is BCG's mission-critical staffing platform — the system through which thousands of consultants are allocated to hundreds of active projects across eight global centres, every week.
The tool was originally built as a data layer: a place to view availability, project timelines, and allocation history. But over years of use, it had become the most-used — and most-resented — tool in operations. Staffers relied on it for every decision, yet trusted almost nothing it showed them.
I was a key designer of the end-to-end redesign of the Staffer View — the primary interface where allocation decisions happen. The brief wasn't to add features. It was to make the existing information actually useful.
Results
This wasn't cosmetic. It was operational transformation.
The metrics below represent real operational outcomes measured across all eight global staffing centres within four weeks of launch.
8.5 Min
Allocation cycle time
0%
Post-submission errors
100%
Global adoption
The Problem
Despite having a staffing portal, teams had reverted to Excel and Slack, Teams, Whatsapp, etc. The official tool had been bypassed — a sign of deeper UX failures.
"Staffers have relied on Excel for years, and the current system doesn't offer an equivalent or better consultants‑versus‑projects view. As a result, most staffing decisions still happen manually in spreadsheets."
The original interface — dense, flat, undifferentiated
Staffers opened the tool only to scan fragmented data, then switched to their own spreadsheets to make allocation decisions. The system displayed availability, skills, project priority, and travel constraints in isolation, forcing staffers to manually combine everything to see the full picture.
Why this needed to be fixed now?
72,000
HOURS / YEAR
Spent across global staffing centers on manual allocation tasks
30%
Errors per cycle
Additional efforts were required to correct the wrongly done staffing
156
Mins/allocation
is spent for staffing a consultant into a project even with all the requirement information
The Goal
Redesign Team Builder to become the tool staffers actually want to use — reducing overhead, preventing errors, and making complex decisions feel manageable.
Process
Starting with friction, not features
The instinct on most enterprise projects is to start with features — what can we add? I started with friction — what's making the current experience fail?
Discovery & Immersion:
Spent three weeks embedded with staffing teams across two centres. Observed daily allocation rituals, documented workarounds, and mapped the full decision sequence from request to confirmation.
Friction Mapping:
Mapped every decision moment and identified where cognitive load peaked. Cross-referencing was the single biggest time sink — staffers spent 60% of their time validating, not deciding.
Ideation Within Constraints:
Designed within the existing data model and role architecture. No new fields, no new permissions. Every solution had to work within the current technical and organizational structure.
Test & Validate:
We conducted usability tests with a diverse group of users to validate the design and identify areas for improvement. Based on the feedback, we made necessary adjustments to the design.
Findings
The Memory Burden
Staffers had to remember which consultants were already partially allocated, which projects had hard constraints, and which combinations would trigger downstream conflicts. The system externalized none of this.
Reactive, Not Preventive
Errors were only flagged after submission — sometimes hours later. Staffers learned to double-check everything manually, adding 40+ minutes to each cycle. The tool created the very inefficiency it was meant to solve.
Workarounds as Standard Practice
Every centre had developed its own shadow system. Color-coded Excel sheets, personal note files, Slack channels for "did anyone already allocate this person?" The official tool had lost institutional trust.
Projects sheet & People sheet, downloaded as Excel,
The Solution
From data display to decision support
Profile and Projects details
The Future - The Vision
Meet Ask SAM — AI-powered talent assistant.
With just a single prompt, instantly discover perfectly matched profiles, making team building faster, smarter, and effortless.
The Impact
This wasn't cosmetic. It was operational transformation.
The metrics below represent real operational outcomes measured across all eight global staffing centres within four weeks of launch.
"The shift wasn't about making the interface prettier. It was about restructuring how staffers make allocation decisions every week. When you improve the decision — not just the display — the operational impact compounds across every centre, every cycle, every quarter."
The Reflections
What I'd carry forward
The redesign focused on structuring complexity, not simplifying it. By introducing a clear information hierarchy—showing primary signals, keeping secondary data accessible, and hiding tertiary details—we reduced cognitive load significantly. Combined with real-time inline validation that surfaced conflicts before submission, the system eliminated much of the manual correction workflow and allowed staffers to make allocation decisions with confidence.