Pulse Energy
Leading the design of a suite of industry-leading energy analytics and management tools at a twice-acquired startup
Overview
Design leadership through acquisitions, scale, and systemic change
I joined Pulse Energy in 2012, when the company was a pioneer in energy analytics software for utilities. Over the next six years, I helped guide the design of a growing product suite through two acquisitions and a shift in market focus—from clean tech to real estate.
At every stage, I focused on system-driven design, close design-engineering collaboration, and delivering adaptable tools that could scale across clients, languages, and delivery formats.
Challenges
A growing suite, shifting markets, and high expectations
- →Products were highly-personalized for SMEs—a notoriously diverse segment relative to residential users—so design needed to be adaptable
- →Distilling massive amounts of unfiltered—and often incomplete—data from multiple sources into relevant visualizations and actionable insights
- →White-labelling requirements spanned dashboards, emails, PDFs, and print materials
- →Frequent shifts in business direction, especially post-acquisition, disrupted long-term planning
- →Product had to work across different countries, languages, and regulatory environments
- →Need for internal alignment across Design, Product, and Engineering in a fast-paced environment
Pulse Energy Manager for Utilities (EMU)
The flagship product, EMU, provided detailed analytics on energy consumption for energy managers.
Design system
Developing a bespoke design system for the Pulse platform
- →Built a synchronous component library from the ground up, a Storybook-like component library before Storybook existed
- →Maintained consistency of aesthetics and user experience across multiple products
- →Extended system beyond web app UI: print reports, email templates, internal tools all followed component logic
- → CSS architecture mirrored product IA, reinforcing object relationships by using consistent visual cues.
- → Custom-built UI components (e.g. date pickers) reflected how different user types (energy managers, business owners, etc.) viewed their energy consumption
Design system implementation
Especially for white-labelled or highly customizable products, the CSS should reflect the information architecture, taxonomy, and naming conventions.
White-labelling, localization, & internationalization
Delivering consistent, branded experiences across languages, regions, and formats
Establishing a cohesive UX framework
- →Developed a robust theming engine that allowed utility clients to fully brand their instances
- →Applied custom branding across web UIs, printed reports, emails, and program materials
- →Typography and layout system accommodated diverse branding requirements from clients like British Gas and Axpo
- →Reduced onboarding and deployment time dramatically through reusable styling infrastructure
- →Enabled true “design once, deploy everywhere” without sacrificing visual language or brand fidelity
Supporting localization and regional customization
- →Designed printed reports for varying international paper sizes and type systems
- →Built layout logic that adapted to content length and language structure
- →Supported localization into multiple languages
- →Created a flexible system for styling recommendations based on region-specific energy regulations
- →Worked closely with developers to ensure a consistent experience across regions, devices, and delivery channels
White-labelling in action
Some of the world's largest utilities deployed branded versions of the Pulse platform—including Ergon Energy (Australia), British Gas (UK), and Axpo (Italy).
Internal tools & hackathons
Increasing team efficiency and encouraging creative experimentation
- →Designed and built—along with a talented developer—an email signature generator used by 1,200+ employees and compatible with all email clients
- →Partnered with Engineering on tools to streamline branding, export automation, and QA
- → Projects helped establish culture of experimentation and efficiency within the team
- →Participated in both internal and external hackathons
- →At the Cleanweb Hackathon, a 12-hour coding marathon, I teamed up with some talented people—Neil, Chris, Peter, and David—to build Epic Energy III, an energy-saving simulation game.
Epic Energy III
An energy-saving simulation game built in 12 hours at the Cleanweb Hackathon
Team leadership
Supporting a resilient, resourceful, and code-literate team
- →Hired, mentored, and developed designers with strong technical empathy
- →Every designer could write or edit HTML/CSS—collaboration with Engineering was seamless
- →Advocated for zero-ego design critiques and context-sharing as cultural norms
- → Managed priorities, capacity, and team morale following multiple acquisitions
- → Maintained clarity of direction even during org transitions and shifting priorities
Learnings
Lessons in scale, systems, and sustainable growth
- ✓ Design systems are living, breathing entities
They only work if they evolve in lockstep with code and product goals. Technical limitations need to be considered when creating and implementing a design system. - ✓Trust your team
Giving designers ownership and support results in better outcomes and, more importantly, allows for individual growth as designers work outside their comfort zone. - ✓White-labelled product styling is a different beast
Creating design systems for white-labelled products is a unique design challenge, but flexibility doesn't have to mean inconsistency. Thoughtful consideration mitigates needless complexity. - ✓ Collaboration builds culture
Contributions to internal projects and participation in hackathons promote cross-functional trust and team cohesion. - ✓ Solving for SMEs is never one-size-fits-all
Our systems had to adapt to context, not flatten it. Knowing our customers and understanding what makes their challenges unique helped our product speak more directly to users. - ✓ Good teams are resilient
Acquisitions create ambiguity that will test your team, but a principled approach allows you to navigate ambiguity without sacrificing values.
Galleries
Some visuals representing the design work our team was responsible for
Energy Check
Created specifically for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Energy Check is a comprehensive program that provides valuable insights into usage patterns and provided personalized cost-saving recommendations.
Branded reports and portal for Axpo Italy
A thoughtfully-considered, scalable design system allowed us to efficiently apply utility branding to the entire suite of energy management tools
Print design
Graphic design is not one of my strengths, but the occasional print design was required.
