Lily Liu Designs

At PactFi, I was the primary designer for Signature Blocks and Internal and External Custodian Reporting. Both features launched, helping deal teams use existing transaction data to prepare documents and reports with less manual coordination. I worked closely with product, engineering, and QA to define the workflows, bring the designs to launch, and refine them afterward.

Beyond these projects, I contributed to Secondary Transfers, Parent Funds, other transaction workflows, and early AI explorations.

ROLE

Product Designer

TIMELINE

Apr 2025 - Aug 2026

COLLABORATION

Product managers, a five-person design team, engineering, and QA

LAUNCHES

Signature Blocks - Oct 2025

Custodian Reporting - Feb 2026

CLIENT FEEDBACK

Clients reported time saved and less email coordination

View Interactive Prototype

Please note that certain details and information have been omitted or altered to protect the privacy and confidentiality of the organizations involved.*

CONTEXT

One Transaction, Many Moving Parts

One Transaction,
Many Moving Parts

PactFi helps private-credit firms and their counterparties coordinate transactions involving multiple organizations, legal entities, signatories, and sensitive information.

Deal teams relied on emails, spreadsheets, documents, and previous transactions to gather and verify information. We brought document preparation and reporting into PactFi by reusing transaction data already in the platform.

Before PactFi

With PactFi

MY ROLE

Primary Designer from Requirements to Client-Validated Solutions

Within a five-person design team, I was the primary designer for Signature Blocks and Internal and External Custodian Reporting. I mapped workflows, explored interactions and edge cases, created prototypes, and supported engineering and QA through implementation.

I joined a five-person design team, initially working on platform enhancements to learn PactFi’s interconnected workflows and design system. I then became the primary designer for Signature Blocks and Internal and External Custodian Reporting.

I mapped workflows, explored options, designed states and edge cases, built prototypes, and supported engineering and QA as the designs were built.

Because the platform handled sensitive client information, PMs led client conversations and shared requirements and feedback with us. I worked with them to clarify how the workflows should behave, then refined the designs through client feedback and regular team critiques.

PMs led client conversations because the platform handled sensitive information. I worked with them to clarify requirements and revise the designs using client feedback, alongside weekly critique with the design team.

SIGNATURE BLOCKS

Turning a Document Request into a
Configuration System

Turning a Document Request into a Configuration System

A signature block defines who signs a legal document, which entity they represent, and their authority to sign. A fund might be represented by a general partner or investment manager, with an authorized person signing on its behalf. Some structures have several of these layers.

LEGAL ENTITY

Northstar Fund III

MANAGER / GP

Northstar GP LLC

AUTHORIZED PERSON

Avery Chen

OUTPUT

Generate Signature Block Packet

LEGAL ENTITY

Northstar Fund III

MANAGER / GP

Northstar GP LLC

AUTHORIZED PERSON

Avery Chen

OUTPUT

Generate Signature Block Packet

THE DESIGN CHALLENGE

How can we help operations teams configure signing relationships across many legal entities and generate document-ready packets while maintaining the flexibility required for different organizational structures? It needed to support:

Multiple legal entities

Entity roles and Authorized signatories

Role-based access and editing

Bulk changes and overwrite risk

Outputs for different preparation stages

Deal- and company-level workflows

DESIGN DECISION 01

Choosing an Editable Table Over
a Step-by-Step Flow

Choosing an Editable Table Over a Step-by-Step Flow

A wizard could guide users through one entity at a time, but it would make comparing entities and identifying missing information more difficult. I used an editable table so teams could review roles, signatories, and manager relationships together before generating a packet.

I reused the table across deal-level and company-level packets, adapting how entities entered the workflow. Once the entities were selected, users followed the same configuration and download steps.

One Table, Two Starting Points

I reused the table across deal-level and company-level packets, adapting how entities entered the workflow. Once the entities were selected, users followed the same configuration and download steps.

DESIGN DECISION 02

Reducing Repetitive Work Without Losing Control

Entering the same signing information for each entity could quickly become repetitive. We started with an option to apply a signatory to all the entities at once. Client feedback later led us to add the same option for entity roles.

Because bulk actions could overwrite individual selections, I added confirmations that explained what would change and gave users a chance to cancel. I used the same approach when users removed entities from the company-level table.

DESIGN DECISION 03

Carry the Configured Structure
into the Final Packet

Carry the Configured Structure into the
Final Packet

From Table Configuration to Final Packet

Signature-block order represents the relationship between an entity, its managers, and the person signing on its behalf. Users could review and reorder manager layers within an expanded entity. The saved order carried through to the generated packet.

PDF supported review and sharing. Word supported editing. Signatories could be included or left out depending on the packet’s stage of preparation.

VALIDATION AND LAUNCH

From Validation to Post-Launch Iteration

I created interactive prototypes to evaluate multi-entity editing, bulk-action consequences, and document outputs. Internal reviews and PM-led client sessions informed revisions before launch.

Prototype and Critique

Weekly reviews with design, product, and engineering helped us catch edge cases, understand technical limits, and find ways to simplify the workflow.

Client Validation

Clients evaluated terminology, table interactions, bulk actions, and document outputs before development

Launch and Iteration

Signature Blocks launched in October 2025. Ongoing feedback helped us see where teams and signatories needed more flexibility.

POST-LAUNCH ITERATIONS

Bulk Role Assignment

Apply the same roles across all entities.

Manager Relationships

Support layered manager signing structures.

Signatory Self-Editing

Allow authorized signatories to update their own signature blocks.

SIGNATURE BLOCKS OUTCOME

More Value from Existing Data,
Beyond Signature Packets

Carry the Configured Structure into the
Final Packet

From Table Configuration to Final Packet

Clients reported time saved and less email coordination. Prospective-client demos also supported new-business conversations.

Centralized entity, role, manager, and signatory information.

Reused existing PactFi data to add more value to client workflows.

Generated document-ready packets directly from the platform.

Grew to support additional signature-related features and components.

CUSTODIAN REPORTING

Expanding the Approach to Custodian Reporting

I was the lead on designing Internal and External Custodian Reporting. Similar to Signature Blocks, the goal was to help deal teams turn information already in PactFi into reports they could customize and send without leaving the platform.

DESIGN DECISIONS

Breaking Reporting into Steps

For Signature Blocks, a table helped teams compare and edit multiple entities together. For reporting, I chose a step-by-step wizard to guide teams through a sequence of decisions, keeping each stage focused without presenting every setting at once.

Teams started by selecting a template and entities, then chose which deal details and supporting documents to include before reviewing and sending the report.

Some options depended on work completed elsewhere in PactFi. For example, wire notices had to be published for the selected entities before they could be attached. When a notice wasn’t available, the interface explained why and what needed to happen before it could be included.

Teams started by selecting a template and entities, then chose which deal details and supporting documents to include before reviewing and sending the report.

I kept the final steps together: previewing the report, writing a message, adding recipients and CCs, saving a draft, and sending. Teams could prepare and distribute the report inside PactFi while keeping the relevant deal information in context.

Teams started by selecting a template and entities, then chose which deal details and supporting documents to include before reviewing and sending the report.

CUSTODIAN REPORTING OUTCOME

Clients reported less time spent preparing reports and coordinating by email.

PMs shared positive client feedback that creating and distributing reports within PactFi saved time and reduced email coordination. The capability was also shown to prospective clients.

Designed beginning August 2025

Launched February 2026

Designed beginning August 2025

Launched February 2026

BROADER CONTRIBUTION

Expanding Across the Platform and into AI

While Signature Blocks and Custodian Reporting were my largest areas of ownership, I also collaborated on Secondary Transfers and enhanced Parent Funds and other transaction workflows.

Working across the platform deepened my understanding of how information, permissions, and actions connected across PactFi.

Signature Blocks

Custodian Reporting

Secondary Transfers

Parent Funds

Transaction Workflows

EARLY AI EXPLORATION

Toward the end of my time at PactFi, I began discovery for an AI agent supporting secondary-transfer workflows and contributed to two internal hackathon prototypes.

Secondary-Transfer Agent

Explored how an AI agent could support secondary-transfer workflows.

Bringing Data into PactFi

Contributed to a prototype that transformed fragmented external data into structured information within PactFi.

Agentic Reporting

Contributed to an agentic chat prototype that pulled data from across PactFi to generate reports.

WHAT I LEARNED

Simplifying a complex product does not always mean removing options.

Private-credit workflows required flexibility across different organizations, transactions, and legal structures.

Flexibility works best when the consequences of actions are visible.

Tables, templates, previews, confirmations, and configurable outputs helped users retain control.

Launch is part of the design process, not its endpoint.

Client feedback after release shaped the next rounds of workflow improvements.

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