Case study · CogniCor · 2026

Advisor Copilot for Outlook

For financial advisors, an AI reply meant leaving Outlook for the CRM and waiting up to 2 minutes for client data. Now it’s drafted beside the email. I led it from pitch to Microsoft Marketplace and built all of it, front end and backend integrations, with Claude Code.

Role
Product designerStrategy, design, architecture, build
Team
Me and Claude CodeUsually 3–4 developers
Timeline
8–9 weeksPitch to Marketplace
Status
LiveMicrosoft Marketplace
The Advisor Copilot pane with a summary of the email thread.

Six steps across two apps

Advisors work in the firm’s CRM, where CogniCor’s AI writer lives, but they email clients from Outlook. The add-in puts the writer in a pane beside the email.

Before
  1. Open the email
  2. Open the AI writer in the CRM
  3. Pick the client
  4. Wait 45 s to 2 min
  5. Find the email again
  6. Draft
With the add-in
  1. Open the email
  2. Draft in the pane

Led from pitch to launch

Six groups shaped it along the way.

    • Me, with Claude CodeResearch, proposal and a clickable prototype
    • PMThe problem
    • CEODirection

    • Me, with Claude CodeA working prototype, core endpoints only
    • Client firm and its advisorsTried it on their own cases

    A green light to deploy, and feature ideas for the next version.

    • Me, with Claude CodeThe full build, then the pinned-pane rework
    • Service ownersSaw each plan first How

    A manifest update let the pane stay pinned while composing. The reply decision

    • Me, with Claude CodeDev, test, stage and production, plus the listingLive
    • QA team2–3 weeks, for scenarios I hadn’t accounted for
    • MicrosoftCertification

    Rejected once, fixed the next day. The review

    • Me, with Claude CodeDesign system and screens in Figma
The clickable prototype: preview switches for entry, CRM, email and simulated failures above the Advisor Copilot pane, replying to an email.
Shape. The clickable prototype I pitched with. The switches along the top preview each situation: matched or unlicensed, CRM expired, no email, a blocked pop-up.

Draft · Light

Figma frame: Draft · Light.

Draft · Dark

Figma frame: Draft · Dark.

Recent drafts · Light

Figma frame: Recent drafts · Light.
After launch. The design system and screens went into Figma, so the next round can be tried there before code.

Removed the wait

In the CRM, advisors waited 45 s to 2 min for client data before they could write. Now the pane finds the client as the thread opens and starts on their data at once. A draft asked early waits in the background, and a notice says when it’s ready.

In the CRM

  1. Open the AI writer, pick the client
  2. Preparing client data: 45 s to 2 min, can’t start
  3. Write the ask
  4. Draft

In Outlook

  1. Open the email1Meanwhile: household found, client data prepared in the background
  2. 2Read the summary, write the ask
  3. 3Draft4

A replay of the Home screen: the client is detected as the thread opens and their data prepared while the advisor summarises the email and writes the ask; the draft waits in the background and a Draft ready notice appears.

  1. 1Client found on open

    The pane detects the client when the thread opens, and starts preparing their data the moment the household is found.

  2. 2Read or summarise meanwhile

    By the time the advisor has read the thread or written the ask, the data is ready or well along.

  3. 3Drafts wait for the data

    Asked for early, a draft waits for the data while the advisor moves around the product. Two can run at once.

  4. 4Notified when ready

    A Draft ready notice with View, and the draft waits in Recent drafts.

No wrong-client replies

The pane stays open while advisors switch emails. An early version asked where to send a draft, so one wrong click could put a client’s reply in someone else’s thread. I removed the question: a draft only goes back to its own email, and nothing sends automatically.

The early version after the advisor opened Daniel’s email: Open showed a menu asking where to open the draft, with two equal choices, New message to Alice and Reply to Daniel’s email.

Early version

It asked where to open the draft. Both answers looked the same, and one put Alice’s reply in Daniel’s thread.

Shipped

The same draft after the advisor opens another email: an amber notice says Add to Outlook still replies to Alice.
  1. A
    The notice keeps the destination visible. Add to Outlook still replies to Alice.
  2. B
    Add to Outlook takes the first route that works:
    1. 1Outlook’s reply window if that email is open
    2. 2A threaded reply if it isn’t
    3. 3A new message to the original sender as a last resort

Built with Claude Code

I planned every change and Claude Code wrote the code: the whole front end, changes to three shared services, and connections to two more. Each service’s owner saw my plan before I changed their code.

For every change

  1. 1SpecAPI contracts and every screen state
  2. 2Written planMy architecture decisions, 31+ plans
  3. 3Claude Code writes the code
  4. 4I review and test1,197 automated tests, and a nine-step check before merge
  5. 5Pull requestTo the team that owns the service

Front endAll new

  • React and TypeScript, inside Outlook through Office.js
  • Sign-in and CRM connection, including blocked pop-ups and expired sessions
  • Rich-text drafts with version history and signatures
  • Outlook’s quirks: pop-out windows, its own dark mode, the reply form’s size limit
The Home screen, marked: A Recent drafts, B 'This email + history', C the matched client, D Summarise.

Saving, caching and speed

  • ARecent drafts. Typing saves on the device; the server gets one revision per edit.
  • BThis email + history. The conversation loads as the email opens.
  • CClient chip. One CRM lookup once the advisor settles on an email.
  • DSummarise. One summary per thread, kept on the device for 7 days.

Inside a shared platform

The add-in runs on services CogniCor’s other products depend on. The client’s household in the CRM links their records in the firm’s planning, portfolio and document tools. Every change I made stayed out of other products’ way.

In Outlook

Add-in pane

All new

CogniCor platform · shared with other products

Identity and licensing

Changed

Who can use which module

Integration service

Changed

Sign-in, CRM, mail and drafts

Client-data index

Connected

Each household’s data, indexed

AI gateway

Connected

AI requests and client context

AI writing service

Changed

Summarise, draft, rewrite

Outside CogniCor

Microsoft

Microsoft sign-in

The advisor’s work account

Microsoft Graph

Threads and reply drafts

The firm’s tools, found by household

CRMHousehold

The household of record

Financial planning

Portfolio management

Document storage

Follow a reply

Caught before merge. An early change put the add-in’s lookup inside shared CRM code, where every scheduling webhook another product runs would have made two more CRM calls. I reverted it. After that, shared code only got hooks that do nothing for other products.

32 states, six screens

A side pane is almost always mid-task, so most of the design went into states: loading, the CRM dropping, no licence.

Home: Email attached. The open email is attached and the client is already matched.

Home · 11 of 32 states

Dark mode that follows Outlook

Advisor Copilot had never had a dark theme. Outlook’s dark mode doesn’t reach add‑ins, so the pane detects it and switches itself: the same brand at lower saturation, with 51 colour tokens re‑tuned.

The Home screen with a summary, in the light theme (left half).
The same screen in the dark theme (right half).
Colour tokens, light and dark
TokenLightDark
Ink#00206B#DCE2ED
Accent#355EF2#7C95E6
Surface#FFFFFF#1A1E27
Background#F5F8FE#12151C

Certified by Microsoft

Microsoft’s certification flagged one screen: sign-in didn’t say what the add-in does. The next day I added one line saying it, quieter than the sign-in prompt. I also made the store listing images and the reviewer’s testing guide.

The sign-in screen after the fix: the line 'Draft on-brand, client-ready email replies using your CRM data.' above a bolder 'Sign in to get started.'
The sign-in screen as submitted: logo, 'Sign in to get started.' and a Sign in with Microsoft button.
SubmittedFixed
Drag to compare.

Live on Microsoft Marketplace

Opens the Microsoft Marketplace listing in a new tab.

Advisors can now draft client replies in Outlook, without opening the CRM.

  • 6 steps down to 2 for an AI reply.
  • No wait before writing, down from 45 seconds to 2 minutes.
  • 8 to 9 weeks from pitch to Marketplace.
  • Microsoft’s one rejection, fixed the next day.

For CogniCor

A new R&D workflow

Work like this usually takes a PM to lead it, 3–4 developers and QA. I led it, designed and built it with Claude Code, and managed the QA team.

Usually

  • A PM to lead it
  • 3–4 developers
  • A QA team

This project

  • Me: led, designed and built it
  • Claude Codewrote the code from my plans
  • The QA team, managed by me
  • Then developers and architects scale it.
  • The CEO and PM were happy with one person owning it end to end, and CogniCor is building another product the same way.
  • Summarise, first built for the add-in, is planned for use beyond it.

For me

Technical fix, UX fix, or both

Shipping it end to end made me a better product and systems thinker.

Before this project

  • UX fixWhat advisors see and do
  • Technical fix Not yet.
  • Both Not yet.

Now

  • UX fixWhat advisors see and do
  • Technical fixHow the system behaves
  • BothAnd I can tell which one a problem needs

Let’s talk

Dilhaq Shakir on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)

Advisor Copilot for Outlook · CogniCor · 2026