Timesheets for 7shifts
Overview
My objective was to build a comprehensive time clock and timesheet product for restaurants to keep track of employee working hours. The feature needed to record hours, breaks, overtime, wages, tips and more. It also needed to help restaurants stay compliant with labor laws.
Research
To prepare for this project, I dug deep into the problem space. I used a number of different research methods like reviewing feedback directly from our users, held interviews to understand their process, did competitive analysis and built journey maps all with the goal of understanding our users better.
In doing this research, we uncovered a few important problems we wanted to solve.
Users were having trouble identifying shifts that had issues to be resolved. Issues like forgetting to punch in on time for a shift, forgetting to clock out or missing a break.
Users were also having trouble keeping track of shifts that were worked but employees didn’t punch in for at all. Resulting in missed pay.
Many customers had different workflows that required different information. Some users felt overwhelmed by to much, while others wanted to know more.
I worked closely with stakeholders during this process, including PMs, Engineers and Leadership so we stayed aligned on our focus and goals.
Designing, Prototyping and Testing
I discussed ideas, sketched a number of concepts, iterated multiple times until the team and I landed on a concept we felt solved the most important use cases for our users. I then build hi-fidelity mockups and prototypes to test with users.
These concepts included a few key changes that would address the big problems discussed above.
A new column for shift warnings. These warnings notified users of late punches, auto clock outs, missed breaks and compliance exceptions.
We introduced a carousel to show users shifts that were scheduled but not worked. Users could define why the shift was missed or add it as it was scheduled if the shift was worked.
We introduced customizable columns so users could add data points they wanted and remove the unnecessary.
From there, I organized moderated usability interviews with users so my team and I could test its merits. I developed test scripts and scenarios to put users in real situations to see how they would use our product and if it met their needs. We gathered feedback and iterated further.
Handoff, Development and Measuring Success
When everyone was aligned on the final designs, I created in depth design specs, with UI details and acceptance criteria. I worked closely with our development team making iterations as we encountered blockers. We conducted in depth user acceptance tests to make sure the final product functioned as intended.
From there I worked with the team to help define success metrics, set up analytics events to track usage, built onboarding processes and surveys to stay close to our users.
