Reducing support ticket submissions through optimizing vulnerability discoverability
Created a searchable, centralized Security Advisories hub to increase transparency, reduce confusion, and empower users to navigate security threats confidently.
SYSTEM CONSOLIDATION2 → 1
Unified internal and third-party CVEs into a single discoverable hub, eliminating the need for users to navigate between the main site and support knowledge base.
WORKFLOW EFFICIENCY↓ 50%
Created a single article template and publishing process, reducing stakeholder maintenance burden from two separate content documents and workflows to one.
THE HOOKOur support team is being inundated with support tickets from customers inquiring about 3rd party security advisories that aren't even impacting our products.
INTROOverview
Post-Sunburst, it was imperative that SolarWinds be actively transparent, especially when it came to security. Our Security IT Manager and Director of Web expressed their concerns about too many support tickets for inquiries on 3rd party CVEs that did not affect SolarWinds products but were already available on the support site.
I owned this end-to-end design, aiming to decrease support tickets and create a more transparent approach to both internal and 3rd party vulnerabilities.
LISTENING SESHOverview
After conducting stakeholder interviews, I understood their goal: migrate 3rd party vulnerabilities to the Security Advisories page alongside internal CVEs so everything lived in one place.
Analytics weren't available at the time, so I conducted my own audit of both our current experience (the Support KB articles and Security Advisories page) and competitor sites handling vulnerability disclosure.
I discovered two core problems beyond consolidation:
Discoverability
Internal CVEs lived on a long, ever-growing page with no filters or sorting — customers and staff had to Command+F to find anything. Third-party CVEs were worse: buried as individual KB articles with no central index. To use the support site search, you already had to know the CVE number. Otherwise, you'd never find it.
Dual workflows
Stakeholders maintained two different templates, submitted to two different teams, published on two different sites. This made quick vulnerability announcements tedious — and speed matters in security.
Trust Center Audit
Security Advisories Index Audit
3rd Party KB Articles Audit
Security Advisories Articles Audit
Index search iterations
Solution
Centralized all CVEs (internal + 3rd party) in one searchable hub
Streamlined Discovery - Added horizontal filtering and sorting to help users quickly find relevant vulnerabilities by product, severity, or date.
Visual Differentiation System - Introduce clear visual cues (color, icons, and new internal “SWSA” codes) to distinguish SolarWinds advisories from third-party ones.
Index Before
Index After
Outcome & Next Steps
The project is currently on hold pending prioritization, but upon launch, I recommended tracking the page for three months to measure:
Decrease in support cases related to 3rd-party CVE inquiries
Filter and sort usage rates
Improved findability of security information across web properties
Future Opportunities:
Cross-link advisories from product and support pages
Expand hub functionality into a searchable security database by product
Lessons Learned
Even small usability gaps (like Command+F dependency) can have major operational costs.
When it comes to security, every second counts. Customer concerned with whether or not the products they use on a daily basis are affected don’t have time to wait. Each second they are affect could be money lost. And because of that, users wanted answers quickly which resulted in our support teams getting and influx of inquiries which could have been solved with a comprehensive space for all advisories notifications. This update should result a reduction of support tickets and reports on 3rd party advisories.
Transparency isn’t just about access to data—it’s about context and clarity in how that data is presented.
A disjointed experience also can affect users getting back to normal as soon as possible. This new experience house all information in one space and allows uses to self select to get their answers quickly.