Design Strategy for GoNetZero
Scaling Carbon Management for Enterprise SaaS
Background and role
GoNetZero launched as a corporate venture under Sembcorp Industries with an ambitious goal — to become a global platform for carbon management and renewable energy. By the time I joined on secondment, the product had grown from individual tools into a suite of interconnected modules. The challenge was clear: transition from a collection of features into a unified, enterprise-grade ecosystem that could serve both commercial leads closing deals and sustainability officers managing complex data daily.
I was initially brought in for a 3-month handover to an in-house Singapore designer. As the platform's scope expanded, so did my role — the engagement was extended and the team grew to include offshore counterparts supporting both engineering and design.
By the end of the secondment I was directing 2–3 designers across multiple product pillars and the DLS simultaneously.
A Product-First Design Language System
The Pivot from Brand to Product The existing design language was built for marketing—prioritising aesthetics and storytelling. I led the evolution of the Design Language System (DLS) to meet demands of an industrial-strength SaaS product.
Architectural shift
Led the evolution of the DLS from a marketing-centric (pre-login) focus to a high-density Enterprise SaaS framework, implementing a new 12-column grid system that prioritises dashboard real estate and complex workflows over imagery.
12-grid with 88 px margin
12-grid with 56 px margin for content area, catered for side navigation
Data visualisation standards
Developed reusable patterns for complex carbon emission charts (Scopes 1, 2, and 3), ensuring semantic consistency and readability across the platform.
Operational velocity
Established comprehensive component documentation to reduce design debt and significantly accelerate developer hand-off.
Visualising Product Strategy through Interface
I acted as a strategic partner to the Product team, ensuring the platform’s architecture was not just functional but also future-proof, also helping stakeholders to have a vision of a possible outcome.
Roadmap alignment
Visualised the dashboard architecture to directly align with the long-term product strategy and roadmap. This ensured that as the platform expanded from one pillar to three, the user interface could accommodate new modules without requiring a core structural redesign.
Macro-to-micro UX hierarchy
Architected an organisational "Command Center" tailored for Sustainability Officers to handle high-level executive reporting, integrated with intuitive drill-down paths into granular, data-heavy module views to ensure complex datasets remain accessible and actionable.
Translating Complex Data into Commercial Value
I designed a suite of sales and client-facing tools that transformed GoNetZero’s technical capabilities into a compelling, easy-to-digest narrative for enterprise partners, positioning design as a strategic revenue driver.
Sales toolkit
Developed a high-level conceptual prototype that abstracted technical backend complexity into a narrative-driven onboarding journey; this functioned as both a vision tool for the client's decarbonisation path and a critical feedback loop to validate platform features with prospective users.
Client "Showcase" Dashboards
Client "Showcase" Dashboards: Established a scalable framework of templates and design methodologies for public-facing energy dashboards, transforming GoNetZero’s technical data into high-visibility branding assets that enable enterprise clients to showcase sustainability milestones and real-time carbon reduction efforts within their physical offices and buildings.
Global Impact and Strategic Tenders
Design solutions for Netherlands Government procurement
I spearheaded the UX strategy for high-value international expansion, leading the end-to-end design for a Netherlands Government tender. This involved architecting flight emission and carbon abatement ecosystem fully localised for European cultural and functional standards.
Integrated technical architecture
Designed a seamless experience that integrated an automated project recommendation engine directly into air travel booking systems, allowing carbon offsetting to be a natural part of the procurement workflow.
Dual-layered information hierarchy
Engineered a multi-tier dashboard architecture to serve distinct user needs within a government framework:
Headquarter view: A high-level oversight tool for administrators to manage organisational abatement efforts.
Individual view: A personalised interface for employees to track their specific travel footprint
Headquarter view
Individual view
Scoring 10/10 for the UX and Design portion of the tender
While the overall tender was not awarded due to external project factors, the UX and Design portion of our proposal received a perfect 10/10 score from the government evaluators — officially validating the quality, clarity, and usability of the interface.