I made it 3x easier for 20,000+ employees to get back to work.

I made it 3x easier for 20,000+ employees to get back to work.

Timeline

Scaled Version — Sept '23 - Feb '24

MVP — Nov '21 to Jan '22

Role

Senior Interaction Designer

Key Skills

User Research

Product Metrics

UI Design

UX Design

Team

1 Product Designer

1 Design Manager

10 Developers

2 Project Managers

1 Scrum Master

Quickly book and check-in to hot desk

Quickly book and check-in to hot desk

Quickly book and check-in to hot desk

Quickly book and check-in to hot desk

View colleagues in-office days

View colleagues in-office days

Book an available meeting room at work

Find information about your colleagues

Impact

Results

🏆 Scaled from 3,000 MVP users to 20,000+ monthly active users across 5 RBC corporate offices within 6 months.

🏆 Achieved 34% adoption across eligible employees within 8 weeks of launch, validating the need for experience.

🏆 70% of surveyed employees reported a significant improved in-person planning attributed to our product.

Why this work mattered

Employees were commuting to work without knowing if teammates or desks would be available. This reduced employee willingness to return to the office and created daily planning overhead for those who did.

Employees were commuting to work without knowing if teammates or desks would be available. This reduced employee willingness to return to the office and created daily planning overhead for those who did.

This product let employees confidently plan the right office days, collaborate with others when in person, and secure desk space reliably.

This product let employees confidently plan the right office days, collaborate with others when in person, and secure desk space reliably.

The Problem

Fewer than 20% of employees were attending the office three days per week.

Fewer than 20% of employees were attending the office three days per week.

There were no official consequences for non-compliance. Without any official consequences, Attendance was socially driven. Employees lacked visibility into:

The Opportunity

If employees could easily see when relevant colleagues would be in-office and secure their desk in advance, they would plan attendance more intentionally.

This could improve:

💪 In-person collaboration

💪 Desk utilization

💪 Adoption of return-to-office policies

Constraints

The solution needs to balance organizational realities with user autonomy.

Desk capacity was lower than employee count

  • Attendance policy could not be enforced through penalties

  • Privacy concerns around workplace tracking

  • Integration with legacy booking infrastructure

  • Multi-office scaling requirement

The Solution

I designed a 0->1 mobile app that acts as a workplace coordination system for employees.

  • Share and view in-office schedules

  • Automatically reserve desks

  • Secure workspace through real-time check-ins

  • Coordinate attendance with relevant teammates

In-Office Scheduler

Employees can indicate upcoming office days and see when relevant colleagues will be on-site.

To improve schedule reliability:

  • Schedules automatically synced with desk bookings, badge taps, and room reservations

  • Employees retained full control and could opt out of syncing

  • Default visibility focused on direct team + skip-level collaborators

This reduced coordination friction and helped employees see the value of attending the office.

Key Design Decisions / Trade-offs

Prioritized schedule editing on homepage to maintain accuracy

Instead of everyone that was "in-office", I Focused colleague visibility to reduce cognitive overload. Users could add/remove people anytime.

Automated Desk Booking

Desk reservations were tied to planned in-office days, reducing booking friction.

  • System auto-assigned desks on user’s home floor

  • Recurring desk assignments increased predictability

  • Reduced manual booking steps significantly

Employees spent under 30 seconds securing workspace.

Key Design Decisions / Trade-offs

Introduced automatic system syncs to minimize manual effort

Designed recurring desk logic to increase trust and predictability

Morning Check-In & Desk Release

Desks were automatically released if users did not check in by 10:30 AM

  • Availability updated in real time

  • Policy aligned with HR operational constraints

This improved desk utilization and reduced workspace conflicts.

Key Design Decisions / Trade-offs

Introduced automatic system syncs to minimize manual effort

Designed recurring desk logic to increase trust and predictability

Room Booking

Desks were automatically released if users did not check in by 10:30 AM

  • Availability updated in real time

  • Policy aligned with HR operational constraints

This improved desk utilization and reduced workspace conflicts.

Key Design Decisions / Trade-offs

Instead of having the user click the rooms section, I created a

Leadership & org contribution

Defined experience strategy for attendance coordination

  • Influenced HR policy decisions (desk release timing)

  • Facilitated cross-team design reviews

  • Worked closely with Workplace Ops to validate real-world constraints

What would i do next?

  • Predictive attendance recommendations

  • Unified desk + room + meeting coordination flow

  • Collaboration density insights for managers

  • Workspace demand forecasting