In the previous episode of our Simple Design mini-series, we discussed why it is essential to understand the core problem in every project we work on. In this week’s episode, we talk about what to do after we understand the problem: crystallize the essence. This means that we are not defining the solution just yet, but instead take time to define its characteristics, the expected results, and the experience we want to provide for our users.

So what does the process of crystallizing the essence of a feature look like? What is the price you pay for not doing this process correctly? Should your design be based on existing solutions in the market, or bring brand new concepts? And how should you approach such a process if you are limited in time and resources?

Today we host Shay Cohen, Product Designer, and Itay Cohen, Full Stack Developer at monday.com, who share how they crystallized the essence of the Resource Allocation feature on our platform – a tool from the classic Project Management world, which is usually considered very bland and boring. Shay and Itay tell us how – after a lot of research, user testing, and design inspiration from unexpected places – we managed to turn this seemingly bland feature into an inseparable part of the monday.com platform.

Scroll down to find photos from the development process, and also – how resource allocation looks like in Excel vs. how it looks like today on monday.com.

Common resource allocation in spreadsheet

Resource allocation – Final version