Building Order from Overwhelm: Designing A Project Management Tool
📖 Background
At a company designing robotic furniture for modular apartments, we faced a growing challenge: managing the overwhelming volume of data, timelines, and communications tied to their multifaceted projects.
Collaborating with real-estate developers, architects, and engineers, the collaboration process spanned sales, architecture, installations, and maintenance. The disjointed documentation, delays, and communication gaps were pushing projects beyond deadlines and budgets. They needed a streamlined project management tool to handle their complexity.
Collaborating with real-estate developers, architects, and engineers, the collaboration process spanned sales, architecture, installations, and maintenance. The disjointed documentation, delays, and communication gaps were pushing projects beyond deadlines and budgets. They needed a streamlined project management tool to handle their complexity.
🧭 Overview
Pulling influence from the traditional UX design process, I created a guideline of steps-to-be-done to align both myself and the team.
🕵️ Discovery:
Entering an unfamiliar industry, I immersed myself in learning workflows through:
1️⃣ 1:1 Interviews: Internal and external stakeholders walked me through their processes.
2️⃣ Field Observations: I shadowed team members working in real-time.
3️⃣ Document Analysis: I reviewed project tickets and paperwork that recorded stakeholder transactions.
4️⃣ Competitor analysis: I explored how existing companies and tools approached similar problems and solutions.
1️⃣ 1:1 Interviews: Internal and external stakeholders walked me through their processes.
2️⃣ Field Observations: I shadowed team members working in real-time.
3️⃣ Document Analysis: I reviewed project tickets and paperwork that recorded stakeholder transactions.
4️⃣ Competitor analysis: I explored how existing companies and tools approached similar problems and solutions.
📋 Define:
With the information gained I framed the core design problem:
"How might we help align documentation, communication, and timelines across stakeholders to improve project efficiency?"
I also created a strategic road map that allowed for us to:
- Identify and outline primary steps within the user journey
- Establish a log of essential documents
- Highlight required actions our users have to take
- Define essential goals and needs to consider for every step
"How might we help align documentation, communication, and timelines across stakeholders to improve project efficiency?"
I also created a strategic road map that allowed for us to:
- Identify and outline primary steps within the user journey
- Establish a log of essential documents
- Highlight required actions our users have to take
- Define essential goals and needs to consider for every step
✏️ Design and Test:
This phase was filled with iterative challenges and creative problem-solving:
- I curated a library of inspiring references to inform early concepts
- Sketched initial ideas and facilitated team alignment on a single path forward
- Built low-to-mid-fidelity prototypes in Figma to validate concepts through usability testing
- Created an interview guide and test outline complete with task flows
Through remote, qualitative testing, failures emerged early and often:
- Features Fell Flat: Some didn’t resonate with users during testing
- Frustration Points: Poor execution of UI elements and disjounted journeys disrupted workflows
- Tough Trade-Offs: Due to time constraints, certain features were postponed to future iterations
Despite setbacks, constant testing and collaboration with stakeholders allowed me to refine the interface into a solution we believed in.
- I curated a library of inspiring references to inform early concepts
- Sketched initial ideas and facilitated team alignment on a single path forward
- Built low-to-mid-fidelity prototypes in Figma to validate concepts through usability testing
- Created an interview guide and test outline complete with task flows
Through remote, qualitative testing, failures emerged early and often:
- Features Fell Flat: Some didn’t resonate with users during testing
- Frustration Points: Poor execution of UI elements and disjounted journeys disrupted workflows
- Tough Trade-Offs: Due to time constraints, certain features were postponed to future iterations
Despite setbacks, constant testing and collaboration with stakeholders allowed me to refine the interface into a solution we believed in.
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🔧🚀 Build and Ship:
Working closely with the software engineer and IT administrator, I:
- Created the product's design system to ensure a consistent identity and visual language
- Built the front-end using Webflow
- Worked in sync with back-end developer to populate real-time data and resolve cross-functional dependencies
Though time was tight, and features had to be prioritized, the product was launched successfully
- Created the product's design system to ensure a consistent identity and visual language
- Built the front-end using Webflow
- Worked in sync with back-end developer to populate real-time data and resolve cross-functional dependencies
Though time was tight, and features had to be prioritized, the product was launched successfully
A walkthrough of the product just prior to V1 launch
🥹 Conclusion and next steps:
This project was an ambitious endeavor carried out by a lean team within a tight timeline. Despite challenges, we delivered a project management tool that exceeded expectations and became a pillar for operations by solving both immediate problems while also laying the foundation for scalability and future growth.
After celebrating our launch, we moved on to our priorities that did not make the first launch along with a backlog of improvements, guided by user feedback. From there I created a success map for us to see the interconnectedness of different goals and how they contribute to the overall success of the product moving forward.
After celebrating our launch, we moved on to our priorities that did not make the first launch along with a backlog of improvements, guided by user feedback. From there I created a success map for us to see the interconnectedness of different goals and how they contribute to the overall success of the product moving forward.
