03 / Improving Workflow Transparency & Flexibility Through UX

Context

In the construction industry, managing high volumes of critical project documentation—like RFIs, submittals, and change orders—relies heavily on efficient and trackable workflows. The legacy system powering these workflows, however, was rigid and outdated. It required all participants and stages to be set at the beginning of a project, with no ability to adapt to changes throughout a document's lifecycle.

Problem

The legacy system only allowed static workflows set at project initiation—users couldn’t change assignees or stages as projects evolved. If someone left the company, went on leave, or another consultant needed to weigh in, the system couldn’t adapt. Users were forced to track changes manually or offline, leading to delays, confusion, and data integrity issues.

Research

To understand pain points and user needs, we conducted:

• User interviews with internal coordinators, PMs, and consultants
• Heuristic evaluations of the legacy interface
• Workflow audits to analyze frequency of duplication and bottlenecks
• Collaborative whiteboarding sessions with dev and product teams to define technical constraints and opportunities

Insights revealed that users prioritized clarity of document status, flexibility to modify workflows in real-time, and accuracy in tracking document timelines.

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Solution

The redesigned workflow engine introduced a dynamic, modular system with enhanced user control and visibility:

• Participants and workflow stages are now editable at any time, eliminating the need to duplicate workflows
• Visual workflow tracker shows document progress at a glance, with clear stage indicators
• Email notification logic was rebuilt so external collaborators could be updated at any stage, with customizable recipients and downloadable PDF snapshots of documents
• Response tracking was added per consultant, enabling detailed reporting on turnaround time and helping teams surface insights when evaluating external partners

This system was designed to be reusable across document types, ensuring consistency and scalability. This engine will power not only RFIs, but also change orders, submittals, and other document types, allowing consistency and reuse across the platform.

UX Contributions

• Led user research and journey mapping to uncover workflow pain points
• Designed system architecture and UI for workflow tool
• Collaborated across three product and development teams to align the engine with broader document management goals
• Prototyped, tested, and refined the interface to meet the needs of users

Outcome

The new workflow engine improved collaboration and ensured more accurate tracking across documentation lifecycles. Teams were able to adapt workflows on the fly without sacrificing visibility or data quality—creating a more resilient and user-centered system overall.