Summary
The goal was to create a new tailored tool that would enable effective resource planning for projects in monday.com.
My role
Lead product designer
(UI/UX).
(UI/UX).
Key responsibilities
User research, visual design, prototyping & testing.
The problem
monday’s workaround isn’t good enough
Users have used monday’s flexibility to create various workarounds for defining project-level resource planning.
However, these solutions have major downsides:
Users have used monday’s flexibility to create various workarounds for defining project-level resource planning.
However, these solutions have major downsides:
ImpactMajority of resource mgmt use cases require resource planning on the project level
Not all resource managment use cases call for project-level resource planning. Some would require a more granular task-level planning (where the tasks of the project are known before-hand), or even combine both project-level and task-level planning.
So how would we know which use case to focus on first?
To answer this question, we conducted two surveys that revealed the division of the different use cases amongst potential (opps) and existing clients. There was a clear winner:
Not all resource managment use cases call for project-level resource planning. Some would require a more granular task-level planning (where the tasks of the project are known before-hand), or even combine both project-level and task-level planning.
So how would we know which use case to focus on first?
To answer this question, we conducted two surveys that revealed the division of the different use cases amongst potential (opps) and existing clients. There was a clear winner:
User journeys
We got two different personas to account for
The Resource Planner would be used by two main personas, with different jobs-to-be-done:
1. Project manager - Define resource types needed for the project, and effort needed for each resource type.
2. Resource manager - Review projects with resource types that require assignment, and assign to relevant resources that have capacity.
The Resource Planner would be used by two main personas, with different jobs-to-be-done:
1. Project manager - Define resource types needed for the project, and effort needed for each resource type.
2. Resource manager - Review projects with resource types that require assignment, and assign to relevant resources that have capacity.
It’s testing time!
MVP development for a quick validation
We started with the quickest and most minimal features to validate the tool’s value and usability. We then granted this tool to 26 alpha users for them to explore it and provide feedback.
The screenshot below is from a demo interview we had with an alpha user:
We started with the quickest and most minimal features to validate the tool’s value and usability. We then granted this tool to 26 alpha users for them to explore it and provide feedback.
The screenshot below is from a demo interview we had with an alpha user:
Main takeaways
- Portfolio-level solution is top priority need
The resource planner currently focuses on planning one project at a time. However, one of the main requests we received was enabling a portfolio-level solution, where all projects of a specific portfolio could be planned within the same view.
- Hybrid use case support
It will be important to support specific projects doing top-down planning (on the project level), and other projects doing bottom-up (task level planning). We’d want to enable projects to switch from top-down to bottom-up planning, while supporting both methods within the same project is lower priority.
Creating our North Star
Polished design with future increments
Based on feedback from our alpha users and after identifying their main feature requests and adoption blockers, I created a clear vision for the resource planner. This vision outlines the improvements our team will focus on.
Based on feedback from our alpha users and after identifying their main feature requests and adoption blockers, I created a clear vision for the resource planner. This vision outlines the improvements our team will focus on.