A Collaborative Approach to Refining Nucleus Payment Workflows
A Collaborative Approach to Refining Nucleus Payment Workflows
Nucleus is BAFTA’s powerful, award management system, a vital tool that enables the entry and judging processes for the BAFTA Awards. Launched in 2013, Nucleus was developed in response to BAFTA’s need for a bespoke, flexible technology solution after unsuccessful attempts with off-the-shelf systems. Since its launch in 2013, Nucleus has evolved into a feature-rich platform essential to the BAFTA Awards, seamlessly managing entries, judging, and more. As its Product Manager, I’ve been heavily involved in guiding this evolution, addressing challenges and seizing opportunities to streamline workflows. My recent work refining the payment workflow exemplifies this ongoing journey—one where a blend of research, collaboration, and strategic problem-solving defines the solutions I regularly deliver.
One ongoing challenge in Nucleus has been the payment workflow. Designed to offer flexibility, the system allowed entrants to submit multiple entries before generating an invoice, leading to a significant uplift in submissions—an 8% increase in the first year for new clients. However, the lack of an automated invoice generation step often resulted in forgotten or delayed payments, leaving administrators to follow up manually. This issue frequently surfaced in client feedback and was clearly becoming a bottleneck for administrative teams.
I realised we needed a solution that would encourage timely payment without compromising flexibility. After consultations with stakeholders and reviewing user data, it became clear that users required clearer prompts and reminders to complete payments. My approach was to respect their freedom to manage submissions while subtly guiding them towards the final payment step.
During a conversation with an internal stakeholder, a seemingly simple suggestion—a “basket icon” showing unpaid entries—sparked an idea. This common e-commerce feature could be the visual cue needed to drive payments. Initially, the solution felt almost too simple for Nucleus’s complex workflows. However, after an exploratory phase I saw potential in adapting it.
I began researching industry best practices around incomplete transactions and “basket reminders” to assess how such workflows might work within Nucleus. My role extended to assessing these ideas with the development team, who provided valuable insights into what was technically feasible. Together, we mapped out a design that leveraged the basket concept to display the number of uninvoiced entries, while respecting Nucleus’s unique structure that required separate invoices for different awards. This collaborative effort led to a solution where clicking on the basket icon would direct users to a newly designed invoices page, showcasing a clear breakdown of uninvoiced entries across awards. This solution transformed what was once a confusing process into a streamlined and intuitive journey.
With the core solution in place, I focused on addressing related pain points. Many clients required different billing addresses for various entries, often because entries were paid by different departments within an organisation. Previously, addressing this need required a complex, admin-heavy workaround. Inspired by the way online platforms handle address books, I proposed adding an “address book” feature to Nucleus, allowing users to store and select multiple billing addresses directly in their account.
To implement this, I led cross-functional sessions with the development team to design an interface enabling users to store multiple billing addresses and select them at checkout. This required close coordination to ensure the feature integrated smoothly with Nucleus’s backend infrastructure. A key addition here was allowing users to temporarily “remove” entries from their invoice while generating a specific invoice, creating a “save for later” function. This refinement gave users control over their invoices without relying on administrators, significantly enhancing efficiency.
With the user-side improvements in place, I worked closely with developers to enhance the admin experience. Nucleus already supported core functions like regenerating invoices and updating PO numbers, but the addition of the address book feature required rethinking how these tools interacted. After gathering input from admin users, I collaborated with developers to consolidate these functions into a single, streamlined interface. This process required balancing user needs with technical constraints, and my role involved guiding discussions to ensure that every feature addition aligned with our overarching goal: reducing the admin team’s workload.
Through close coordination, we crafted an interface that simplified tasks which previously required multiple steps, allowing administrators to quickly manage entries, addresses, and invoices. This new interface was a testament to the power of collaboration; by bringing together the insights of developers, stakeholders, and end-users, we created an efficient solution that directly addressed the needs of each group.
Initial feedback indicates a notable improvement in reducing delayed payments and easing the administrative burden. These updates enhance the invoicing process for entrants and simplify operations for administrators, aligning with our goals for a flexible and efficient system.
Reflecting on this journey, I’m particularly proud of how a simple idea evolved into a fully realised solution through research, stakeholder input, and teamwork. Collaborating with the development team to integrate these complex changes within Nucleus has been a rewarding experience, reaffirming the value of listening to users and tackling complex challenges with creativity and strategic insight. These enhancements underscore Nucleus’s evolution as a robust, user-friendly tool that continues to grow alongside BAFTA’s—and our clients’—needs.
