📕 Executive Summary
TL;DR:
The BMO eTasks portal is a hub for commercial clients to submit their financial documentation to their bankers.
However, the eTasks portal only allowed documents to be submitted one at a time, causing friction due to the increased time and effort it would take to submit documents.
I designed a bulk upload feature allowing clients to quickly and efficiently submit their documents.
Compared to the existing single-upload method, the bulk upload flow significantly reduced time on task by 46%, allowing users to upload and tag multiple documents in one streamlined step.
BEFORE BULK UPLOAD
AFTER BULK UPLOAD
🚩 The Problem
The eTasks portal enables commercial clients to upload loan documentation to their relationship managers securely. However, it does not have the functionality to upload multiple documents in bulk for specific requested documents.
⌛ Uploading documents one-by-one is time-consuming and inefficient, compared to previous methods where clients could send multiple documents and folders via encrypted email. The lack of a ‘bulk upload’ and ‘tagging’ feature is creating fiction and a major pain point for clients.
A tedious process
If the user is ready to upload both KYC info and Annual financial statements, they have to upload KYC first, by clicking on the Upload button, and then closing the modal. Then they have to redo the same steps for annual financial statements by clicking on Upload again.
How did we find out this was a problem?
💬 Clients raised concerns and feedback to their relationship managers, which was relayed to our product owner.
One of the quotes:
“I’m uploading docs for compliance. This has gone from something that takes no time (sending a secure email) to a pretty significant amount of time (uploading docs one by one for each agreement, waiting for it to process, proceeding to the next).
We are fully committed to the compliance of our loans and meeting the reporting requirements in our loan agreements, but if there is a way to accomplish this that is more efficient, it would be great. Between this and the time to upload financial statements, this will be an extra hour of added time to these processes just for uploading. If there is a way to upload the docs in bulk and then tag them, that would be preferred.”
⏱️ Timeline and the design challenge
Around the time this feedback was received, BMO announced Accelerate - a hackathon-style event where teams would have 3 days (Feb 26-28, 2025) to ideate and deliver an MVP to stakeholders regarding key business problems and pain points.
We learned about this problem two weeks before the hackathon, so we had some time to figure out the UI and ideate on various flows.
Our design challenge:
How might we reduce document upload friction for commercial clients, while ensuring accuracy, scalability, and clarity across high-volume submission workflows?
What I did as the UX/UI Designer
Brainstormed, collaborated, and found solutions with the cross-functional eTasks portal team.
Conducted user research, concept testing, and usability testing.
Designed mid- and high-fidelity UI in Figma.
Created the UX microscopy, including success and error messages, and guidance messages.
Led handoff to development.
Explored scalable interaction models for batch uploads.
🧭 Design explorations
The first iteration I designed was a modal accessed through a “Bulk Upload” button on the homepage. ↴
👍 What we liked
- Selecting one company first, which would then filter out the requested documents, made sense
👎 What we didn’t
- There wasn’t much room on the screen to make changes, especially in the case of multiple files being uploaded, which would cause the modal to scroll.
The second iteration was a full-page layout, featuring a multi-select dropdown for tagging documents.
❌ However, our product owner relayed that this multi-select dropdown wasn’t intuitive for customers based on previous customers’ feedback and preferred a different approach. ↴
At this point, I thought it was important for us to take a step back and perform concept testing. We still had a week or so before the hackathon, so we had time to experiment with ideas and features.
📝 Concept Testing
Due to time and resource constraints, we weren’t able to put this in front of users before the hackathon, and test usability before demoing.
However, I was able to use ChatGPT to perform concept testing and see that the designs we had made so far were the best solution.
I attached the quote from our client and asked ChatGPT how I would go about solving their problem as the UX Designer.
In turn, it provided the following design solutions:
We had already decided we would be moving forward with a bulk upload and tagging feature, so the fact that Chat GPT reaffirmed this as one of the best design solutions indicated we were moving in a positive direction.
After this, I asked Chat GPT for the pros and cons of each solution to better validate Option A when presenting to the product owner and other stakeholders.
This gave me the confidence to double down on a bulk upload functionality.
For my third iteration, I replaced the multi-select dropdown with a single select dropdown feature and a plus-minus button to add more tags. ↴
The product owner loved this approach and requested we put this forward as an MVP for the hackathon, great timing considering we were only a couple of days away.
Of course, I still used Chat GPT to affirm my design choices and tell me the pros and cons of my design to let us know what could be better.
📆 Hackathon Day
After two hectic days of development and presentation design, the MVP was demoed to key stakeholders in Commercial banking to much fanfare.
Confirming alignment with business goals, bulk upload was immediately prioritized for future development in the eTasks roadmap!
🧪 Usability Testing
With the hackathon successful, we had some buffer before the next release (4-5 months) to conduct usability testing, firm up requirements and user stories, and connect loose ends in development.
To test usability, I ran a task-based evaluation of the bulk upload feature, broken up into four tasks in sequential order.
Find the bulk upload feature
Upload multiple files
Tag documents
Confirm completion
5 participants were asked to upload multiple documents and tag them to their corresponding requests.
📉 Testing takeaways
The great news was that the task success rate was 100%, and we were able to get some key takeaways for improvement as well.
While users found the tagging feature intuitive and helpful, they mentioned that there might be too much clutter if they were to upload 15 to 20+ files in a single session.
I explored a more scalable layout where tagged files would collapse into chips after selection, reducing visual clutter. This was ultimately scoped out as a nice-to-have by the product owner but remains a viable future enhancement.
✅ Implemented:
Bulk upload page
Tagging multi-select dropdown
Red border + error validation on click of Submit
🛠 Explored:
Tag-to-chip grouping for visual clarity
Tooltip enhancements
Post-upload review/summary screen
🔎 The Solution
⬇️ Below you will find the functionalities of the bulk upload feature, showcasing the UI I had designed as well as the microcopy I wrote alongside it.
Bulk Upload button and Select Company
Clients would select Bulk Upload on the home page and then select the company they are uploading on behalf of.
Upload Files
Clients can upload their documents by using the drag-and-drop box or the Add Files hyperlink.
Select/Tag the uploaded files with the corresponding document requests
Once the docs have been uploaded, they will appear in a table below the file upload box, where they can tag their uploaded file to multiple document requests.
Mark as Confidential
Users have the option to “Mark as Confidential,” which allows for the privacy of highly sensitive documents.
Status Indicator and Submission
Once users have uploaded their files, they would see the status of the file upload and submit their files to their relationship managers for review and approval.
Results
Marketing video
We were one of the teams chosen for a marketing initiative within BMO to showcase this functionality to bankers and clients alike.
Feature on BMO Central employee hub
For our efforts, we were highlighted on BMO Central’s page, where this feature was noted for its “increase in internal efficiency and improving the client experience.”
Reflection
What I learned
Even familiar workflows, such as document uploads, have hidden complexity when scaled (e.g., batch flows, tagging).
Navigating product scope and advocating for long-term improvements: Proposing scalable improvements while working within product constraints helped me grow not just as a designer but as a product collaborator.