Rebuilding a Workflow Tool for Product Management

Client: Working Sound Role: Product Designer (Freelance) Duration: 4 months Scope: UX strategy, workflow redesign, rapid prototyping, usability testing

Working Sound’s four-step workflow system was too rigid for the evolving needs of consulting firms. Users were hacking together external tools just to get through projects—losing time, data, and trust in the product.

Goal: Redesign the platform to allow customizable stages, dynamic tool integration, and reduce project setup time by 30%.

Consultants had outgrown the product:

Projects needed 6–8 custom stages

Attachments (contracts, forms, links) weren’t supported

Teams were leaving for more flexible tools like Asana

Insight: This wasn’t a UI issue—it was a workflow mismatch.

1. Research & Interviews

Spoke with 4 firms using Working Sound. Key findings:

Checklists weren’t enough—clients wanted to attach actual documents

The 4-stage model didn’t reflect real project complexity

Competing tools had features, but lacked cohesion

2. Rapid Ideation (10-day Sprint)

With client subscriptions at risk, we shifted from async work to daily 30-min live sessions. This enabled fast alignment and rapid decision-making.

Prototyped 6 directions → validated 1

Reduced design churn by 50%

Aligned on a "flexible but familiar" solution

A modular, consultant-friendly workflow system:

We tested 5 prototypes with real consultants. Feedback was immediate:

92% adoption of the new system

300+ hours saved across teams in the first 3 months

Specs handed to devs the same week—no major revisions

Designing fast ≠ skipping strategy. Clients don’t want artifacts—they want results.

Sync beats async when time matters. Quick war-room decisions unblocked the team.

Flexibility doesn’t mean complexity. We designed simple, adaptable workflows—without overwhelming users.

The foundation we built is now expanding:

Workflow templates for common consulting use cases

Analytics to identify process bottlenecks and improve team performanceThis finally feels like a tool built for us.

When workflows break down, I don’t just redesign screens—I align teams, validate quickly, and build solutions that scale with real users.