Context

A major enterprise client would not onboard to ADP payroll unless we provided a manager review and approval workflow. During discovery, we confirmed the request had been made by multiple clients, making this both a near-term deal requirement and a scalable product opportunity.

• Hard constraint: January client onboarding deadline
• Decision ownership: Leadership held final approval
• Validation challenge: Requirements were difficult to visualize because processes varied by industry and role

This meant we needed to move quickly while still designing for security, auditability, and enterprise scale.

The Challenge

Create a secure, intuitive way for managers to review and approve payroll runs, reducing errors, aligning with ADP’s compliance standards, and providing clear visibility into pay groups.

Stakeholders initially weren’t aligned on the true problem or direction, so the first priority was creating shared clarity.

Research

• Participants: 12 interviews across clients and industries (managers, CEOs, final approvers, payroll practitioners)
• Methods: interview-style sessions (PM facilitated; I contributed to the questionnaire and documented flows), 1-hour observations, support tickets and audit logs review
• Primary questions: map the workflow by role; identify stress/risk points; learn what “good” looks like from other tools
• Synthesis: workflow/process/system maps; grouped pain points; prioritized themes around security and efficiency
• Limitations: We did not complete usability testing with managers prior to ship due to time/availability

The existing approval process was effectively not functioning. Managers were expected to spend hours reviewing, but in practice they skimmed under time pressure—and the organization had normalized it.

This reframed the problem: we could not “translate” the current workflow into ADP. We needed to redesign the approval process into a secure, realistic, and trainable model that fit how managers actually work.

Insights & Decisions

These decisions created a secure approval model that matched real manager behavior without adding training burden.

Decision Framework

• Extend an existing communication feature: ultimately scheduled beyond the client deadline
• Reuse generic to-do lists and task patterns: didn’t match approval logic or permissions needs
• Offer a product workaround (discount on time product): reduced friction but didn’t solve security and workflow
• Build a payroll-native approval flow: chosen for timeline, security, and usability

• Speed to deliver (deadline-driven)
• Zero training for managers and payroll teams
• Security & auditability
• Minimal system switching for payroll practitioners

I advocated for addressing the core integration issues across payroll, HR, time, and benefits. We aligned that a payroll-native solution was the most feasible path under scope and timeline—and also served broader client demand.

Iteration

I led rapid co-creation sessions with product, engineering, the PO, and SMEs. For one week, we met daily and I iterated in Figma in real time, using discussion and constraints to converge quickly.

• Early concept: payroll practitioner and manager flows only; configuration assumed to happen during payroll setup
• What changed: we added a configuration flow that can be completed by the right role at any point (onboarding or later)
• Why: client workflows varied; some configure once during onboarding and rarely revisit

• Client review confirmed the workflow met the onboarding requirement
• Tested with payroll practitioners to validate clarity and fit within the payroll routine
• Limitation: we did not test directly with managers before ship due to time/availability

Collaboration

• Core partners: PM (Bridget Cody), Developer (Andre)
• Cadence: co-design meetings twice weekly; daily sessions during peak discovery/iteration week
• Primary alignment artifact: process maps built from interview and shadowing notes

The strongest cross-functional outcome was aligning the team on the core problem: permissions and organizational mapping, secure sharing of payroll data, and a feedback loop between managers and payroll practitioners.

Final Solution

• Secure approval workflow embedded directly in the payroll run
• Mobile-first review experience for managers working on-site
• Permission model that prevents visibility into peers’ pay rates or hours
• Targeted review that highlights what managers actually check (hours, pay rate, overtime, PTO)
• Feedback loop between managers and payroll practitioners without leaving the system

The resulting experience reduced risk, reduced tool switching, and made approvals realistic under real manager time constraints.

Breakthrough

Visual maps of the current process aligned teams and focused discussions on the real problem, unlocking momentum toward a viable solution.

Prioritization Matrix

Next Steps

• v2 prioritization: automatically surface only employees with changes or issues, rather than exposing the full payroll list
• Expand manager usability testing and refine mobile interaction patterns
• Track adoption and completion time by role to quantify long-term impact

Reflection

This project reinforced two patterns I now reuse: start by mapping the process to create shared clarity, and use co-creation to accelerate alignment and iteration under pressure.

My strength is quickly bringing order to complex enterprise systems—identifying the core problem, aligning teams, and delivering a secure, scalable workflow that fits real operational behavior.