Portals die when they’re just file dumps. We design them as decision engines: every page answers a business question, triggers an action, or moves an approval forward.
Generic “all users, all content” views.
Buried actions (book, approve, download).
No reason to log in again after onboarding.
Reporting that mirrors tools, not outcomes.
SSO + Role-Based Access (RBAC)
SSO reduces friction; RBAC means finance sees invoices, ops sees SLAs, execs see outcomes.
Executive Summary homepage
5 tiles: Outcomes (meetings/test-drives/estimates), SLA adherence, Risks/Alerts, Roadmap, Last 5 artifacts (proposals, assets).
Every tile links to a deeper, filterable report.
Action-first navigation
Book meeting • Submit files • Approve creative • Open a ticket • Download assets • Pay invoice.
Zero “dead ends”: every report has a next step.
Approvals & doc rooms
E-sign, watermarking, version history, expiry dates.
Renewal calendars visible to legal + procurement.
In-portal messaging
Email replies mirror inside the portal thread.
Notifications (email/SMS/WhatsApp) link back to the portal.
Embedded education
Contextual “why this matters” snippets; link to the academy (see Post #3).
Front-end: Next.js + Tailwind (or your stack) with SSO.
Data: n8n/Make ETL feeding a warehouse/Sheets; Looker Studio embeds for charts.
CRM + comms: GoHighLevel hosts forms, calendars, reviews, and automations.
Monthly Active Accounts (MAA) and Seats (MAS).
Time-to-Value (first dashboard view, first approval).
Decision cycle time (brief → approval).
Expansion: # of departments active.
Want a Portal Blueprint (wireframes + data map + KPI tiles) tailored to your account mix?