ClickUp is a comprehensive productivity platform used by millions of teams globally. However, as the platform evolved, its time and resource management features had largely been neglected–users relied on disconnected third-party tools for time tracking and approvals, creating data silos and tedious workflow friction. Teams and enterprise customers consistently requested native functionality to manage capacity, track billable hours, and approve timesheets without leaving ClickUp.
I designed the complete Timesheets and Approvals system, giving users visible, accurate, and actionable access to time and resource data for the work they already tracked in ClickUp, and bringing key functionality to individual contributors tracking their capacity, team leads managing workloads, and managers approving time across projects.
What I did
Year
2023 - 2024
Role
Product Designer (In-house)
Process & Approach
The goal: Bringing essential resource management functionality to users' work in ClickUp
The need for timesheets and approvals within the ClickUp ecosystem was crucial for many team and enterprise customers: team members needed an easy way to see and track their time across all projects, and managers needed reliable, accurate data on which they could base decisions. The lack of these was a major detraction to customers, as workarounds were costly and inefficient.
I kicked off the design process by gathering various streams of user research (direct customer feedback, user testing to examine current patterns, customer interviews, product analytics, and internal team usage). I mapped out and workshopped user flows for each role that that encompassed the different possible submission/approval flows, user needs and pain points, and tech requirements. From there, I identified the distinct functional priorities for individual contributors (quick entry, capacity tracking) vs. managers and admins (team visibility, user permissions, bulk approvals).
I collaborated with product, engineering, and design team members to balance tech constraints, business priorities, and customer needs. Then we released improvements iteratively, getting the most urgent updates out the door quickly and building additional functionality from there.
The result: a comprehensive, flexible, and accurate tracking & management system
The designs included individual and team timesheet views, multi-level approval workflows with customizable deadlines and automated reminders, capacity tracking, billable/non-billable categorization, custom tagging, flexible filtering, and commenting for feedback on submissions, giving teams everything needed for comprehensive workforce management in one experience.
Design system integration & documentation
The designs integrated into ClickUp's design system: reusable timesheet components, consistent interaction patterns, and detailed documentation to maintain platform consistency.
