Workflows

Axonius

Axonius is a cybersecurity asset management platform that gives organizations a unified, real-time inventory of all their assets across IT and security systems. As the product designer owning the Workflows module, I was responsible for the end-to-end user experience of how teams build, test, and automate their governance and remediation processes.

Context

Axonius gives organizations a unified inventory of all assets: devices, users, vulnerabilities, SaaS applications, and the Workflows module automates governance and remediation across the security stack.

Use Case / User Story

As a security engineer using Axonius Workflows, I needed a way to validate my automation steps before running the entire workflow, so that I could quickly identify misconfigurations, reduce failures, and avoid wasting time on full execution cycles just to find errors.

When I joined the team, users could only test workflows after fully configuring and saving them. Debugging was slow and reactive:

The testing mechanism was fully retroactive.
Users had to run the entire workflow just to validate a single node.
Feedback appeared only in the Run History section, often after the workflow had already failed.
Usage analysis showed that nearly 30% of created workflows were deleted, indicating heavy friction during configuration.

This created a long, frustrating iteration loop that discouraged users from activating workflows and reduced adoption.

What was the challenge?

Design Response

I designed an integrated Test Mode that brings validation into the Workflow editor itself.
The solution allows users to:

Test individual nodes or the entire workflow directly inside the builder.
Use mock data or live sample data without initiating a full run.
Receive immediate visual feedback at the point of configuration.
Iterate quickly without losing context or navigating away.

This shifted the experience from reactive debugging to proactive validation.

KPI Improvement

By allowing pre-run validation and reducing debugging friction, Test Mode is expected to:

Reduce high workflow abandonment.
Increase activation rates (moving workflows from Inactive → Active).
Enable users to launch more reliable, value-generating automations.
Improve overall adoption of the Workflows module.