BrokerEngine
Redesigned the product over 3 years, leading to a 70% acquisition by a major corporation.
“Damir is a legend. He completely transformed BrokerEngine. He is not a 'yes man' and will 100% push back on you when he doesn't like the direction.”
Design Overhaul
BrokerEngine is a deal management platform for mortgage brokers — think JIRA meets Intercom for real estate. Over three years, I led a systematic redesign that stripped back the noise — using colour more purposefully, whitespace more generously, and leaning on typography instead of borders and boxes.
Simplifying Complexity
A single mortgage deal passes through 15 individual stages before a customer gets their keys. Brokers juggle dozens of these simultaneously, each with its own documents, contacts, and compliance requirements. My goal wasn't to dumb the product down — it was to elegantly simplify. Every design decision was filtered through one question: does this reduce cognitive load without hiding information the broker needs? Consistent filtering, clearer status indicators, and a unified layout language turned a stressful tool into one that felt manageable.
Design System
The project used Ant Design as its component foundation. I extended it with a custom UI library — hundreds of custom components across 9 Figma files, each specced across every state: default, hover, active, disabled, error. This rigour eliminated back-and-forth and let the engineering team ship with confidence.
Messaging & Communication
I designed a revamped messaging architecture that became a core product feature. The new system unified how brokers communicated with clients, replacing scattered touchpoints with a single threaded conversation model. Comments powered team collaboration, while the compose component handled everything from quick notes to document requests.
Outcome
BrokerEngine was acquired by Australian Finance Group (AFG), one of the country's largest finance broking groups, during my tenure. The 70% acquisition validated the product direction and the design investment — three years of deep, systematic product work.