Microsoft - Excel Payments
Role
Product Designer & Developer
Timeline
3 Weeks
Platform
Excel Plugin (Desktop)
Tools
Figma, Miro, Figma Make, React, Excel
The Context
Developed in partnership between Elo (one of Brazil's largest payment card brands) and Microsoft, this project explored how accounts payable operations could be centralized directly inside Excel through a sidebar plugin experience. The goal was to research, design, and engineer a prototype to simplify complex corporate payment workflows.
The Goal: We set out to design and build a functional plugin prototype within 3 weeks. The objective was to eliminate context switching between spreadsheets, emails, and banking apps for financial teams, designing a unified payment experience that balances extreme speed and operational confidence.
The Challenge
High Context Switching
Finance teams spent substantial daily effort navigating between Excel sheets, email approvals, and bank platforms just to complete payments, creating massive operational inefficiencies.
Unconnected System Friction
Because payment systems were completely disconnected from bookkeeping sheets, users suffered from slow data mapping, potential entry errors, and redundant operational checks.
The Confidence Paradox
Simplifying workflows meant hiding unnecessary layout elements. However, hiding verification triggers completely would decrease user security confidence. We had to decide which steps to hide and which to keep explicit.
The Solution
Usability Testing Driven Redesign
Conducted usability tests on the initial version (vibe-coded by the product team) to track layout confusion, cognitive loops, and confirmation needs, using insights to prioritize redesign patterns.
Integrated Sidebar Plugin
Designed a contextual sidebar panel layout integrated directly within Microsoft Excel, consolidating invoice viewing, parameter verification, and batch actions into one interface.
Solo Frontend Delivery & Partner Integration
Charged with delivering the entire frontend interface solo, I leveraged modern AI-assisted tools (including Figma Make to generate the initial React components) and manually fine-tuned the code. I maintained continuous alignment with Microsoft's engineering team as they built the backend in parallel, ensuring a flawless integration under the tight schedule.
The Results
The Elo Accounts Payable Excel plugin dramatically streamlined finance operations. By designing and building the entire React-based frontend independently while collaborating directly with Microsoft's engineers, we established a highly successful parallel development process that eliminated handover friction completely.
+70%
Average Payment Velocity Increase
Microsoft
Official Tech Partner
Design
+Code
Versatile Performance
3 Weeks
Fast MVP Launch
