How a custom platform cut subscription costs by 60%

Shiftlink is a growing company that was successfully managing its team and operations using a variety of popular SaaS tools.

However, as the company continued to scale, this collection of off-the-shelf software started to create more problems than it solved.

The leadership team recognized that their existing toolset was becoming a bottleneck and decided it was time to invest in a single, custom-built platform to support their future growth.

The team at Shiftlink was struggling to manage their daily operations. They were using a bunch of different SaaS apps for things like HR and team management, which caused a few big headaches.

It was getting expensive to pay for all the different tools, and it slowed everything down.

Plus, they couldn't get a simple, clear overview of important things like company spending, who was available to work, or how recruitment was going.

They needed one single, custom solution to bring everything together, cut costs, and make their internal operations way faster.

As the designer on this project, I collaborate closely with stakeholders, the product owner, and the development team, bridging the gap resulting in a great product.

My main responsibility is to drive the design process forward, ensuring the platform we build is user-friendly, cohesive, and directly supports Shiftlink's business goals.

Guided by Shiftlink's internal research and direct input from stakeholders and the product owner, my approach was to systematically design a unified platform that would solve their diverse challenges.

I designed a suite of targeted tools to address specific problems across the business, from recruitment to performance tracking. Each feature was crafted to make their internal operations significantly faster and smoother.

In addition to designing the core features, I provided the creative direction and built a comprehensive design system for the product. This ensures a consistent user experience and will allow the platform to scale efficiently as new features are developed in the future.

By carefully analyzing the team's pain points and designing targeted solutions, the platform delivered significant and measurable results:

The new, centralized platform allowed Shiftlink to reduce its reliance on external SaaS subscriptions by 60%, a number that continues to improve as the project evolves. This delivered immediate and substantial cost savings.

The time required for managers to find vital team member information was reduced by 44%, dramatically improving day-to-day workflow efficiency.