Problem

Carbon Guardians carbon calculation process relied on manual Excel files powered by macros. What should have been a straightforward calculation turned into a 2-week bottleneck:

• Consultants had to manage huge Bill of Quantities (BOQs) with thousands of rows.

• Mapping material categories, columns, and units was mostly manual, and macros often broke when data formats changed.

• Each project required multiple experts cross-checking data, leading to errors and rework.

• Reports took ~14 days to prepare, by which time clients were already moving ahead with construction decisions.

The process was too slow, fragile, and unscalable - directly limiting Carbon Guardians’ ability to serve more clients and grow revenue.

Goal

Redesign the process into a web-based tool that reduces calculation time from 14 days → under 48 hours, while keeping the UI familiar for users who lived in spreadsheets.

My Process

1. Understanding the Workflow

• No budget for formal research → relied on deep dives into Excel macros and conversations with domain experts.

• Mapped out the manual journey and identified bottlenecks

2. Setting the Foundation

• Started with login, signup, and landing page screens to establish the visual identity

• First major hurdle: structuring the web app layout — early versions didn’t land in reviews

• Looked to industry dashboards for inspiration → created two layouts, one was selected and became the base for Phase 1

• Two weeks before launch, the client introduced a new logo and theme → reworked the entire design manually (since I hadn’t yet built style guides/variables in Figma) and delivered before deadline

3. False Start: The Over-Engineered Dashboard

• Initial assumption: users wanted advanced analytics dashboards

• Designed a complex interface with filtering, slicing, and data visualization

• Feedback during reviews: “This looks interesting, but what we really need is speed.”

4. Pivot: Focusing on Speed

• Realized the core pain wasn’t analysis, but getting results faster

• Strategic decision: scrap dashboard for Phase 1

• Designed a 3-step, Excel-inspired flow:

  1. Upload BOQ (Excel) for an existing project or create a new one

  2. Map sheets to predefined categories → then map columns

  3. Review & enter missing data → send for admin approval → auto-generate charts, dashboard, and downloadable report

• Prioritized clarity, automation, and minimal learning curve

Solution

A clean, focused web tool that:

• Automates calculations with 3 simple steps

• Feels familiar to Excel users (layout + interactions)

• Generates fast, accurate carbon reports

Outcome

• Time reduced: 14 days → < 48 hours

• Error-prone manual process → automated accuracy

• Business impact: enabled scale-up, with client projecting ~₹30 Cr revenue growth

Key Learnings

• Simplicity is a superpower – solving the core pain beats feature overload

• Assumptions ≠ reality – early “wrong” designs helped uncover true needs

• Adaptability matters – last-minute brand changes taught me to prepare systems for flexibility

• Tight feedback loops > big budgets – collaboration replaced formal research

Conclusion

This project showed me how critical it is to pivot quickly, listen closely, and design for the real pain point, not the assumed one. What started as a “dashboard project” became a focused tool that transformed the client’s business.