WORKFLOW
New Product Feature for DreamTeam
Release date:
December 2024
Industry:
HR Tech
The Starting Point
In its early version, DreamTeam’s Workflow was designed as a basic, limited task list. The system only allowed simple task scheduling, which significantly restricted HR teams’ ability to manage complex and automated processes. This limitation created a substantial gap between what HR departments needed and what the Workflow feature could actually deliver.
Motivation
Transform workflows from basic task tracking into comprehensive, end-to-end HR process automation.
Discovery
This comprehensive approach validated our direction while ensuring our solution would meet real user needs and stand out in the market.
/ Customer Support Feedback:
• Channeled through our support team to identify common issues
• Identification of recurring pain points and feature requests
• Direct customer feedback about system limitations
/ User Workflow Analysis:
Understanding how customers were using (and working around with workflow) current features.
/ This customer-centric approach allowed us to:
• Identify real-world use cases
• Understand urgent customer needs
• Validate the importance of proposed improvements
• Prioritize development based on actual user requirements
Key Problems Identified:
The fundamental need was to transform basic task lists into a comprehensive workflow system that could automate and streamline complex HR processes, reducing manual work and improving efficiency.
/ Process Fragmentation
Frequent workarounds indicated the feature didn’t fully support user needs.
/ Inefficient Communication Flow
Time wasted on repetitive communication tasks
/ Data Collection Challenges
Time-consuming phone calls and in-person meetings for basic data collection
/ Information Gaps
Missing Essential Data to Complete Tasks
Task Creation User Flow:
From Hidden Settings to Central Dashboard
Our workflow has evolved from a hidden settings feature into a central dashboard that gives users immediate visibility and control. The main screen now displays active workflows with critical metrics in addition users can create and manage workflow templates.
By surfacing this information upfront, we’ve transformed complex HR processes into manageable workflows. This shift reflects our understanding that workflow management isn’t just a background function – it’s core to daily HR operations.
key guideline: Building Consistent Task Patterns
One of our core UX challenges was balancing consistency with flexibility across our workflow app. While each task type (emails, forms, manual tasks) needed unique functionality, they all shared fundamental elements.
Key Challenge: Creating an app where users could confidently switch between task types while maintaining a familiar experience – without sacrificing the specific requirements of each task type. We needed to build a foundation that could support diverse tasks while feeling natural and predictable.
Unified Experience Across Different Task Types
To keep things consistent, we broke task panel into three clear parts: Task Name, Task Details, and Content Details.
This makes it easier for users to understand new types of tasks and helps reduce the mental effort needed to complete them.
- Role-Based: Enables HR to assign tasks by role, optimizing processes like onboarding where multiple managers follow identical workflows.
- Message Variables: Transforms repetitive communication into dynamic templates. Variables automatically populate with relevant data (names, dates, roles), ensuring consistent messaging while saving time on manual customization.
Two main needs drove our task design:
Form Solution: A Critical Onboarding Challenge
HR teams consistently struggled with collecting new employee data during onboarding – Phone calls and external tools led to errors and wasted time.
This pain is solved by creating forms based on employee fields -It sent via email and responses automatically populate. Streamline the entire onboarding process.
Since then
Usage Expanded
Workflow usage for onboarding kept growing and expanded into other HR processes like maternity leave and salary adjustments.
New Capabilities Added
The feature kept evolving, recently adding highly requested customer automations like e-signature document signing.
Future Foundation
Becoming the foundation for managing complete HR processes — from performance reviews to complex cycles like promotions.