CONCRETE 2.0 & AD MANAGER
Using a product rebuild to mature system infrastructure across six applications
The Problem
GumGum’s Ad Manager was the company’s core revenue-generating platform — a data-heavy, high-complexity operational tool used daily by internal teams. But it was running on a dated 2008 tech stack buried in tech debt. Four additional enterprise applications and five smaller tools all shared data but had wildly inconsistent UX patterns. A company-wide rebrand was happening simultaneously. The challenge: improve the UX/UI with limited backend changes while unifying a fragmented product ecosystem under a single design system.
The Audit
I conducted a comprehensive product and design system audit across all applications, documenting every inconsistency, redundancy, and workflow friction point.
Overused components. Duplicate components solving the same problem. Broken design hierarchy. Inconsistent spacing and typography. UX patterns too complex. Data-heavy UI increasing cognitive load.
Different table behaviors across apps. Different filtering logic. Modal vs drawer inconsistencies. Terminology drift. Inconsistent application of rebrand.
Redundant manual workflows. Copy/paste style data tasks. Overly complex interfaces requiring unnecessary operational headcount.
The Approach
We didn’t just reskin an application.
We simplified workflows, consolidated UI patterns, standardized tables, reduced unnecessary UI states, and unified brand theming from six themes to one canonical theme.
The Results
Removed redundant steps. Reduced copy/paste tasks. Improved hierarchy. Reduced cognitive load. Impact: Reduced need for operational headcount.
Merged overlapping configurations. Standardized table behaviors. Unified filtering logic. Reduced duplicate data entry points. Impact: Reduced duplication and cleaner logic.
Rebrand executed. Reduced from 6 themes to 1. Improved consistency. Improved accessibility. Simplified maintenance burden. Impact: Lower long-term system complexity.