Cyber Asset Inventory

Project overview

Unified Asset Inventory aggregates and presents a comprehensive view of both on-premises and cloud-based assets, combining data from multiple sources into a single, unified asset record.

By normalizing and stitching together diverse data, this feature provides a consolidated view of asset information across systems, enabling a more efficient and accurate security monitoring process. 

My role

As the UX lead for this feature, I led all aspects of user experience design, working closely with the Product Manager and cross-functional teams. I was responsible for driving the UX strategy, from user research and concept development to high-fidelity design and usability testing. 

Goals & Objectives

This project came with several design challenges:

Diverse Asset Types:
Designing a robust solution that could support a wide range of asset types and data sources, while maintaining scalability and usability.

Unified View:
Ensuring that the asset display was consistent, regardless of where the user accessed it in the system.

Quick Access to Critical Data:
Users, primarily SOC analysts, needed to quickly access, analyze, and make decisions based on asset data. This required careful data distribution and prioritization within the interface. 

The Challenges

• The main objective was to develop a scalable and intuitive unified asset inventory that integrates and displays data from all asset sources—both on-prem and in the cloud. The solution needed to:

• Provide a seamless consolidated view of assets across the system.

• Enable users to drill down into specific data sources when necessary.

• Allow access to critical asset data from various points within the system, with an emphasis on speed and clarity for security professionals.

Research & Discovery

Through user interviews and persona development, I identified two primary user scenarios: proactive and reactive workflows. 

These scenarios were key in understanding how security analysts interact with the system, with distinct needs depending on whether they were conducting incident response (IR), threat hunting, or asset management (ASM).

Key user needs included:

• Asset Identification: "What is this asset?"

• Risk Assessment: "Are there any risks associated with this asset?"

• Impact on Network: "How does this asset affect the network’s security?"

These insights guided the design decisions to ensure that the interface was consistent across different workflows and allowed users to easily access the information they needed to make fast, informed decisions.

Design Solution

• Asset Inventory Table

Nested Table Structure: Default view displays aggregated asset data, with the option to drill down into source-specific data.

Filters and Quick Actions: Filters by data source, and quick filters designed to address specific tasks (e.g., risk status, asset type).

• Asset Data Panel

Side Panel: The asset data panel can be opened from any page within the system, providing contextual information relevant to the asset being viewed.

Collapsible Sections: Information is organized into expandable/collapsible sections for easy navigation, with the ability to pivot data as needed.

Consistent Data Display: The same view and structure are maintained across different workflows, ensuring that analysts can access the same key asset data from anywhere in the system. 

Results

• Initial user feedback indicates that the solution is positively received, with users finding it highly functional and helpful for their daily workflows. 

• As the feature is still in development, we are continuously gathering verbal feedback and monitoring engagement metrics to further refine the design.

Reflections

A few areas for improvement have been identified:

• Insights Layer- Introduce an additional "insights" layer between the header and the detailed data sections to help users quickly understand the context of the asset.

• Customization Options-  Allow users to toggle off the nested table and view only aggregated assets by default, for a more streamlined experience.

This project is an ongoing effort, and as we move into future iterations, we will focus on further refining the experience based on continued user feedback and evolving needs.

Key Contributions & Skills

• Led end-to-end UX design for a complex, data-heavy feature.

• Cross-functional collaboration with Product and Engineering to align on user needs and technical constraints.

• Conducted user research, defined personas, and synthesized insights into actionable design solutions.

• Designed scalable, flexible systems that support diverse user workflows and enhance operational efficiency.

• Iterated based on user feedback and data-driven insights to optimize usability and performance.