Unified Licensing
Designing a scalable licensing platform that unifies products, users, and environments under one consistent system
Designing a scalable licensing platform that unifies products, users, and environments under one consistent system
Role: Senior UX Designer - Co-designer and key contributor
Timeline: Feb 2024 - May 2025 Team: 5 designers, 10+ PMs, 20+ engineering teams
Scope: Cloud + on-prem workflows across 3 VMware products
Timeline: Feb 2024 - May 2025 Team: 5 designers, 10+ PMs, 20+ engineering teams
Scope: Cloud + on-prem workflows across 3 VMware products
Licensing spanning across 3 VMware products
My Role
- Co-designed the licensing experience with designers and UX lead, PMs, and engineers across time zones.
- Focused on direct customer experience spanning 3 VMware products, provider-tenant workflows with license portability concepts, and simplified license assignment.
- Contributed to the project-specific design system (based on Clarity), creating reusable components and patterns that ensured consistency and accelerated delivery across 1,000+ screens.
- Co-owned outcomes while collaborating closely with teammates, staying aligned through design reviews and fast iteration.
- Facilitated UX read-outs and reviews with engineering, accessibility, and technical writing teams to keep designs feasible, compliant, and aligned end-to-end.
Project Background
VMware’s traditional license keys were easy to copy, reuse, and difficult to manage at scale. Admins juggled hundreds or thousands of keys across sites and products, creating inefficiencies, compliance risks, and license leakage. Industry research suggests that software vendors can lose double-digit percentages of revenue to license leakage in enterprise environments. After the Broadcom acquisition, reducing leakage and simplifying license management became a top priority.
VMware’s traditional license keys were easy to copy, reuse, and difficult to manage at scale. Admins juggled hundreds or thousands of keys across sites and products, creating inefficiencies, compliance risks, and license leakage. Industry research suggests that software vendors can lose double-digit percentages of revenue to license leakage in enterprise environments. After the Broadcom acquisition, reducing leakage and simplifying license management became a top priority.
Legacy License Key Management - complex and manual
Admins had to log into each vCenter and assign keys manually , a slow process with a high risk of mistakes and difficult to scale.
The Change We Were Aiming For
- Replace keys with new digitally signed entitlements to reduce leakage
- Give customers clear visibility into usage across deployments
- Support provider-tenant scenarios and offer Bring Your Own License (BYOL) portability, allowing direct customers to move licenses easily between environments
- Ensure accessibility and usability by designing with accessibility principles from the start, and partnering with specialists to review flows, identify gaps, and address compliance issues early.
- Replace keys with new digitally signed entitlements to reduce leakage
- Give customers clear visibility into usage across deployments
- Support provider-tenant scenarios and offer Bring Your Own License (BYOL) portability, allowing direct customers to move licenses easily between environments
- Ensure accessibility and usability by designing with accessibility principles from the start, and partnering with specialists to review flows, identify gaps, and address compliance issues early.
License Keys vs. New Entitlements
A quick look at the shift from outdated license keys to secure, unified entitlements and how it changes license management for good.
Old License key model
A look at the old License key model - manual, fragmented, and vulnerable to errors or overuse.
A look at the old License key model - manual, fragmented, and vulnerable to errors or overuse.
New Entitlements model
A modern, centralized model that’s secure, streamlined, and easier to manage.
A modern, centralized model that’s secure, streamlined, and easier to manage.
Who We Were Designing For
We designed with three core user roles in mind, ensuring that workflows, terminology, and visibility were tailored to their needs and responsibilities.
We designed with three core user roles in mind, ensuring that workflows, terminology, and visibility were tailored to their needs and responsibilities.
The Main User Pain Points We Needed to Solve
- Too many keys to manage across products and sites.
- Manual license reassignments during upgrades.
- No centralized license management.
- Too many keys to manage across products and sites.
- Manual license reassignments during upgrades.
- No centralized license management.
Challenges
We were replacing a decades-old license key model with a new entitlement system spanning cloud, on-prem, multiple products, and global teams. It required discipline, tight coordination, quick iterations, and constant alignment to manage shifting requirements and overlapping ownership.
We had to balance technical constraints with user needs while keeping the experience usable, consistent, accessible and ensure it worked in both connected and air-gapped environments, supporting complex provider–tenant scenarios without adding friction.
We were replacing a decades-old license key model with a new entitlement system spanning cloud, on-prem, multiple products, and global teams. It required discipline, tight coordination, quick iterations, and constant alignment to manage shifting requirements and overlapping ownership.
We had to balance technical constraints with user needs while keeping the experience usable, consistent, accessible and ensure it worked in both connected and air-gapped environments, supporting complex provider–tenant scenarios without adding friction.
The Good Stuff :)
The project gave us a deep understanding of the licensing domain, its technical ecosystem, and real-world user challenges. We built stronger cross-team relationships, found faster ways to align on complex problems, and developed a shared vocabulary across disciplines. In the end, we left behind reusable patterns, better collaboration habits, and design foundations future teams could build on.
The project gave us a deep understanding of the licensing domain, its technical ecosystem, and real-world user challenges. We built stronger cross-team relationships, found faster ways to align on complex problems, and developed a shared vocabulary across disciplines. In the end, we left behind reusable patterns, better collaboration habits, and design foundations future teams could build on.
The Process
We moved fast in an evolving environment, starting UX before technical details and architecture were final, iterating in parallel, and keeping all teams aligned through constant touch points.
We moved fast in an evolving environment, starting UX before technical details and architecture were final, iterating in parallel, and keeping all teams aligned through constant touch points.
From the big picture to the building blocks (as outlined in Step 1) - mapping the licensing journey and breaking it into parallel design areas.
The Outcome
This case study highlights a high-level journey through the new licensing experience, spanning three Broadcom/VMware products and covering direct customer, provider, and tenant workflows. In reality, the project delivered over 1,000 screens , from happy paths to edge cases and error handling, ensuring the system could handle real-world complexity.
Licensing Happy Path: Business Services Console → License Manager → vCenter
This case study highlights a high-level journey through the new licensing experience, spanning three Broadcom/VMware products and covering direct customer, provider, and tenant workflows. In reality, the project delivered over 1,000 screens , from happy paths to edge cases and error handling, ensuring the system could handle real-world complexity.
Licensing Happy Path: Business Services Console → License Manager → vCenter
Customer Feedback & Impact
In usability testing, customers consistently rated the new licensing experience between 4 and 5 out of 5 for clarity and ease of use. They praised its ability to eliminate the need to juggle dozens of license keys, streamline assignment, and provide visibility across deployments. The connected registration option, single “giant license,” and usage analytics were called out as major wins.
Overall Ratings (1–5)
- Registration: 4–4.5 (clear, easy)
- Assignment: 4–4.5 (simple, efficient)
- Usage Analytics: positive, but users want more detail; no formal score collected
In usability testing, customers consistently rated the new licensing experience between 4 and 5 out of 5 for clarity and ease of use. They praised its ability to eliminate the need to juggle dozens of license keys, streamline assignment, and provide visibility across deployments. The connected registration option, single “giant license,” and usage analytics were called out as major wins.
Overall Ratings (1–5)
- Registration: 4–4.5 (clear, easy)
- Assignment: 4–4.5 (simple, efficient)
- Usage Analytics: positive, but users want more detail; no formal score collected
Opportunities for Improvement
Some customers wanted deeper analytics, like cluster- and host-level views, and clearer, more consistent terminology in certain workflows. Others suggested small tweaks to the registration flow, such as making activation steps more obvious. We incorporated several of these changes into the 9.0 release, with more refinements planned for upcoming versions.
By acting on this feedback early, Licensing 2.0 didn’t just solve long-standing pain points but it also set a new standard for how licensing can work: simple, transparent, and easy to manage at scale.
Impact
Large or small, every customer can now see exactly what they have, where it’s used, and stay compliant without the headaches. As one customer put it: “It’s a lot easier to manage everything from one central location instead of having multiple keys for every application.” Another summed it up simply: “This looks a lot better than the old stuff.”
Licensing 2.0 turned a long-standing pain point into a smooth, scalable experience and it’s only the beginning, with Licensing 3.0 already on the horizon.
Some customers wanted deeper analytics, like cluster- and host-level views, and clearer, more consistent terminology in certain workflows. Others suggested small tweaks to the registration flow, such as making activation steps more obvious. We incorporated several of these changes into the 9.0 release, with more refinements planned for upcoming versions.
By acting on this feedback early, Licensing 2.0 didn’t just solve long-standing pain points but it also set a new standard for how licensing can work: simple, transparent, and easy to manage at scale.
Impact
Large or small, every customer can now see exactly what they have, where it’s used, and stay compliant without the headaches. As one customer put it: “It’s a lot easier to manage everything from one central location instead of having multiple keys for every application.” Another summed it up simply: “This looks a lot better than the old stuff.”
Licensing 2.0 turned a long-standing pain point into a smooth, scalable experience and it’s only the beginning, with Licensing 3.0 already on the horizon.
