01 — The context
No B2B product existed. Enterprise clients used consumer checkout.
A global eSIM provider wanted a B2B arm to sell connectivity to companies whose staff travel constantly. No product, no admin surface, no shared language with enterprise buyers. An airline doesn't buy eSIMs the way a consumer does. They buy connectivity for thousands of employees with billing rules and policy enforcement.
Enterprise clients had been buying through the consumer checkout: individual purchases, separate receipts per employee, no budget controls, no visibility into usage across teams.
02 — The problem
Selling eSIMs to an enterprise is a procurement problem, not a UX problem.
Traditional consumer checkout doesn't work for enterprise. An airline needs seat management, budget controls, destination restrictions by role, and consolidated invoicing. Starting with the interface without aligning on the commercial model would fail.
Three pilot clients (a major European airline, a global automotive manufacturer, and a multinational bank) each operated under different procurement models.
03 — What I did
Aligning the object model before drawing a single screen
1. Ran stakeholder workshops with sales, finance, and legal to define buying units, permissions, and billing model.
2. Designed the admin platform from zero: roles, seat assignment, destination catalogue, usage reporting, and invoicing.
3. Shipped a launch cohort with three reference clients across aviation, automotive, and banking.
4. Built the billing and reporting layer: volume discounts, consolidated invoicing, per-team cost breakdowns.
04 — Process artifacts
Design systems thinking, but for B2B processes
05 — The solution
A corporate platform built around how enterprises actually buy
The platform covers the full lifecycle of enterprise eSIM management: bulk assignment (CSV upload or manual entry), per-employee tracking (status, usage, plan extension), role-based access (admin, finance, team lead), destination policies (restrict regions by team or role), and consolidated billing with volume discounts.
The design principle was to meet procurement where it already works. IT managers assign via spreadsheets they already maintain. Finance gets a single monthly invoice.
06 — The result
From blank file to 3,000+ enterprise clients
From zero to 3,000+ enterprise clients and 160+ destinations in 18 months. Launch cohort: a major European airline, a global automotive manufacturer, and a multinational bank. Each with different operating models, same platform. No custom integrations required.
07 — What I learned
The design problem starts with the contract
In B2B, the admin surface only worked because procurement, legal, and finance agreed on the object model before we designed any screen. Spend 40% of the time on alignment, 60% on UI. Reverse that ratio and the product will be polished but unsellable.
08 — Decisions not made
What I chose not to build
1. I didn't build custom integrations for each client. Custom integrations would have shortened onboarding for three clients and made the product unscalable for the next three hundred.
2. I didn't design a self-service sign-up. Enterprise eSIM management requires contract negotiation, volume pricing, and legal review.
3. I didn't design a consumer-style dashboard with charts and graphs. Finance teams wanted raw numbers, downloadable CSVs, and one-page invoice PDFs.