How often does a project begin with a stakeholder declaring, “I need it to look just like our old app” or “Can you replicate this Excel spreadsheet?” While it’s tempting to dive in and build what’s asked, this UI-first approach often misses the point of modern workflow automation and can slow down delivery.
In a recent Pega User Experience Expert Circle webinar, Delivery Excellence Technical Lead @BraamSmithCLSA shared a simple but powerful “recipe for success” designed to break this cycle. By shifting the focus from the user interface to the business outcome, teams can dramatically accelerate their time-to-value and delight clients with rapid delivery.
Watch the video (5 minutes) →
What you will learn
Here is the five-step recipe:
Step 1: Agree on the Business Outcome for Each Workflow Step
Before a single UI element is considered, start by agreeing with stakeholders on what each step in the workflow needs to accomplish. Avoid getting bogged down in how the screen should look and instead focus on the core goal. What is the user trying to achieve at this specific point in the process?
Step 2: Design the Data Model That Records the Outcome
Once the outcome is clear, design the data model that best supports it. This is a critical distinction: you are identifying what data needs to be shown or captured, not how it will be presented. By focusing on the center-out data model, you create a flexible foundation that can be surfaced through any channel, whether it’s Constellation, a mobile app, or an API.
Step 3: Observe the Suggested UX in Blueprint Preview
With your outcomes and data model defined in Pega Blueprint, use the preview feature. This will generate a suggested user experience and interaction pattern that is already compatible with the Constellation architecture. It provides an instant, tangible starting point for discussions and validates that your data model aligns with a modern UI.
Step 4: Import Your Blueprint to Start Authoring
Don’t let your Blueprint be just a document. Import it directly into the Infinity platform. This process automatically scaffolds your application—creating case types, data objects, and default views—giving you working software from day one. You aren’t starting from scratch; you’re starting with an application that already reflects your business design.
Step 5: Configure the User Experience in App Studio
Now, with a working application in hand, you can begin to make Constellation-specific configuration choices. The system will have already picked a default user experience for each field and view based on your data model. From here, you can easily switch between different presentation patterns (e.g., a table, cards, a repeating layout) to refine the UI and tailor it perfectly to your users’ needs, all while staying within the guardrails of a maintainable, future-proof system.
By following this recipe, teams can move beyond simply recreating old interfaces and start delivering true, outcome-driven applications at a speed that was previously unimaginable.
