NGINXaaS for GCP is a standalone NGINX suite that centralizes management of NGINX instances across locations and environments. From a single console, teams can configure services, manage SSL certificates, monitor performance, and address security issues without manual infrastructure work.

As the lead product designer, I defined the UX strategy and structure, and partnered with PM, Engineering, Documentation and Google Cloud teams to deliver the MVP in 6 months through 4 key milestones: provisioning, domain/TLS setup, routing, and observability.

NGINX had a native, tightly integrated onboarding flow on Azure, but no equivalent for other public clouds. To support multi-cloud expansion, we needed a standalone onboarding suite that could scale across platforms—starting with Google Cloud, then extending back to Azure and beyond.

Without this shared entry point, users were forced to piece together manual, error-prone setups for IAM, DNS, TLS, and routing—slowing adoption and creating inconsistent experiences.

This project moved fast, so tight collaboration was everything. I worked hand-in-hand with PM, engineering, and docs through four structured milestones — from provisioning all the way to observability.

With PM, I shaped the UX strategy and broke down the work into clear phases. With engineering, I shared early design drafts, explored constraints together, and adjusted flows as we built. With docs and marketing, I synced closely with the writer to make sure the documentation site reflected what we shipped — with clear definitions and instructions so users could actually understand the new experience.

Timeline

Collaboration with

Key Features:

• Create and manage NGINX deployment on Google Cloud

• Managed configuration and security certificates of NGINX deployments
• Frictionless subscription and onboarding experience
• Advanced features: geographical controller, account management

NGINX SaaS needed to integrate deeply with Google Cloud’s underlying systems — IAM, networking, and configuration APIs — while staying flexible for future multi-cloud expansion.

The challenge wasn’t just design—it was technical translation. I worked closely with engineers to understand what was feasible within Google Cloud’s constraints, shaping flows that respected backend realities while keeping the UX clear and consistent.

Together, we defined how configuration versioning would work — a future-proof feature that supports rollbacks and audit history across environments — ensuring the design scaled with both user needs and system complexity.

Approach

To bridge the gap between UX and engineering, I:

• Joined early architecture discussions to understand constraints and trade-offs.

• Sketched multiple flow variations directly with engineers to test what the API could support.

• Documented shared interaction patterns for provisioning, configuration, and versioning.

• Ensured the UX logic for configuration versioning aligned with the system model while keeping it intuitive for users.

This close partnership allowed us to build confidently for launch while laying the foundation for future integrations with other cloud providers.

Configuration management and certificate rotation were among the most complex areas in NGINX SaaS.
Users needed to:

• • Track and roll back changes safely

  • Maintain audit trails

  • Prevent accidental edits to live SSL certificates

My Design Approach

• Created a versioning pattern modeled after lightweight Git commits — users can create, compare, and restore configurations with full visibility.

• Designed an immutable certificate pattern where every cert is regenerated (never overwritten) with clear lineage and expiration logic.

Impact

• Reduced configuration errors and downtime

• Simplified audit and compliance tracking

• Built a scalable foundation for future policy-driven automation