SaaS

Streamlining Consulting & Staffing Workflows

TL;DR

Redesigned an internal staffing and resource planning platform used by Bain & Company to replace manual tracking and improve visibility into team capacity and deal-based resourcing.

Results:

  • Adopted firmwide and used daily by managers

  • Reduced manual tracking and improved staffing accuracy

  • Enabled Private Equity teams to forecast staffing based on deal flow

My Role

Senior Product Designer at Merkle (staff augmentation for Bain & Company)

Worked end-to-end on UX and UI design in close partnership with a product owner, engineers, and multiple stakeholder groups across Bain.

The Problem

Bain’s staffing workflows relied heavily on spreadsheets and manual processes, leading to:

  • Limited visibility into workloads

  • Slow, error-prone staffing decisions

  • Difficulty forecasting resourcing needs for Private Equity deal work

Goal: Create a centralized, real-time staffing tool that could scale across teams while supporting more advanced planning for Private Equity.

What I Designed

  • A centralized staffing platform for firmwide use

  • Drag-and-drop workflows for allocating and rebalancing teams

  • Private Equity–specific forecasting and deal-tracking flows

  • Flexible, modular components designed to scale over time

Key Decision

We designed the core staffing experience to support firmwide needs first, then layered in Private Equity–specific forecasting tools rather than building separate solutions for each group.

Why It Worked

  • Reduced manual overhead for managers

  • Improved transparency and leadership oversight

  • Enabled more accurate, forward-looking staffing decisions

  • Created a scalable foundation for long-term operational use

What I Learned

What began as a three-month contract evolved into a two-year engagement supporting one of Bain’s most strategic internal tools. Over time, I helped expand the design presence on the project and learned how to deliver meaningful impact within the constraints of internal, operational software.

This project reinforced how thoughtful design, even in non-customer-facing tools, can quietly drive efficiency and scale across an entire organization.