About ComputerEase
ComputerEase is the leading provider of Construction Accounting and Project Management Software for Contractors.
Problem
ComputerEase needed a product offering for customers who couldn’t afford or didn’t require a full-scale enterprise solution. To address this, they decided to build a lighter, more budget-friendly option aimed at smaller construction companies.
After 1.5 years of development with a local consultancy, the project was brought in-house, and I was appointed as the product design lead.
My role involved finalizing and implementing key features such as payroll, state and local taxes, and reporting, refining the design system and interactive patterns, and rebranding the platform as JobBooks.
Audience
The product was designed for small businesses with 1-10 employees, often referred to as ‘mom and pop’ shops. Many of these customers were using non-construction-specific tools like QuickBooks or even managing their operations with Excel files.
My Role
Competitive Analysis
We examined the top four competing products from which we aimed to capture market share, analyzing their features, workflows, and information architectures.
While the competitors offered strong general accounting features, they fell short in job cost accounting and reporting functionality. This gap represented our advantage, along with a seamless migration path to our enterprise product.
Rebrand
The proof-of-concept had been developed under the name Monarch, featuring a gentle aesthetic with a warm gray and light blue color palette. However, company leadership was not satisfied with this direction and had a different vision for the product.
In collaboration with the VP of Product Marketing, we held a brainstorming session to explore alternative names. The standout idea we presented to leadership was JobBooks, which they appreciated for its clear and concise representation of the product’s purpose.
The final logomark featured cut-lines in the lowercase and uppercase 'B' as a nod to the ComputerEase logomark, while the red and blue colors reflected the 35 years of brand equity built by ComputerEase.
Brand Implementation
The user interface was revamped to transition from the Monarch design language to JobBooks. Logos were changed, the red and blue color scheme was integrated, typography was boldened, and various details were refined.
UX Audit & Refinement
The application contained several instances of similar but slightly varied user flows. We unified these design patterns wherever possible to create a consistent experience. Additionally, reusable templates were transformed into React components to enhance consistency, maintainability, and extendibility.
Table Filters
Each top-level table featured unique filters that were displayed in a cascading manner, making them challenging to interpret. We relocated these filters to a popup, displaying only the applied filters, which made the data much easier to digest.
Additional Features
Requirements were identified and incorporated, including a UI to facilitate payroll integration with the CE Payroll service, support for state and local taxes, and enhanced reporting features.
Continual Feedback
New features were prioritized based on the needs of our beta testers. A system of feature flags enabled us to test them as they were rolled out. We showcased these new features to our clients via Zoom to gather their initial reactions and feedback.
Learn from Failure
Occasionally, our features did not meet expectations, but the feedback we received allowed us to adapt and refine our workflows to better meet user needs.
Validate Success
Features that fully satisfied user requirements left them excited and engaged, demonstrating the importance of alignment with their needs.
Future Considerations
In some cases, a feature not only succeeded but also sparked discussions about potential enhancements. Depending on the value added and the effort required for implementation, these ideas were either executed immediately or added to the backlog for future consideration.
Ready for Launch
During development, JobBooks secured 12 beta customers who used the platform for their daily operations.
Unfortunately, before the product launched, ComputerEase was acquired by Deltek, and JobBooks was discontinued as it didn't align with the post-acquisition roadmap.
Despite the disappointment of not being able to test the market with a sales and marketing push, I contributed as a product design leader, collaborating closely with engineering and stakeholders in a highly adaptive and agile environment to develop a B2B SaaS MVP.
