Suyash Gupta

Project Buddy

A project management app for internal team.

UX Case Study

Duration:

6 weeks

Product Overview

Project Buddy is an internal project management platform designed to streamline team collaboration, task tracking, and reporting. Unlike bloated enterprise tools, Project Buddy focuses on simplicity, clarity, and actionable insights, ensuring teams spend less time managing projects and more time delivering results.

It was conceived as a solution tailored to internal workflows, with a design system that balances functionality, usability, and aesthetics while providing a scalable foundation for future growth.

Problem Statement

Internal teams were struggling with:

Scattered communication across multiple tools.
Lack of centralized project visibility.
Overwhelming, feature-heavy solutions that slowed adoption.
Manual reporting consuming valuable time.

Existing solutions (Jira, Trello, Asana) either over-served with unnecessary complexity or under-served with oversimplification, leaving teams frustrated and productivity compromised.

Goals

Build a lightweight yet powerful platform for project management.

Ensure seamless collaboration with intuitive task assignment and tracking.
Provide real-time visibility into deadlines, responsibilities, and progress.
Reduce manual overhead through automation and smart reporting.
Deliver a clean, modern UI that encourages adoption without training friction.

Design Process

I adopted a Design Thinking + Agile Iterative approach, structured into:

Empathize: Conducted team interviews, observed workflows, and gathered frustrations with current tools.
Define: Synthesized insights into clear problem statements and design opportunities.
Ideate: Explored multiple wireframes and flows, prioritizing simplicity and scalability.
Prototype: Developed interactive prototypes for quick validation.
Test & Iterate: Collected user feedback and refined features until friction was minimized.

This process ensured that every design decision was grounded in real user needs while aligning with business goals.

Target Audience

Internal teams within small to mid-sized organizations.
Project managers seeking visibility without complexity.
Team members who want clarity in responsibilities and deadlines.
Leads/Executives who require quick, high-level insights without deep dives.

User Research

Methods used:

1:1 interviews with team members to understand pain points.
Surveys to gather data on workflow inefficiencies.
Observation of daily project tracking routines.

Key insights:

Teams wanted clarity over control.
Simplicity was more important than exhaustive customization.
Real-time updates and progress visibility were non-negotiable.

Competitive Analysis

I benchmarked against leading platforms:

Jira: Extremely powerful but overwhelming for smaller teams.
Trello: Intuitive but lacked depth for reporting and tracking.
Asana: Feature-rich but adoption fatigue due to steep learning curve.
ProjectBuddy.ai: AI-driven but leaned toward automation over simplicity.

Gap identified: A tool that balances Trello’s simplicity, Jira’s depth, and Asana’s structure, without the adoption barriers.

Unique Features

60% of users reported they spent over 3 hours/week on manual status reporting.
70% struggled with tool complexity in existing solutions.
80% expressed a desire for a “lighter” solution tailored to internal use.

These data points validated the market gap and informed the prioritization of simplicity, clarity, and automation in the design.

Quantitative Research

Smart Dashboard: At-a-glance visibility into tasks, deadlines, and progress.
Lightweight Collaboration: Integrated task discussions to reduce dependency on external chat tools.
Customizable Workflows: Simple enough for quick setup, flexible enough for evolving needs.
Automated Reporting: Weekly progress summaries to cut down reporting time.
Minimal Learning Curve: Designed to be adopted in

Pain Points

Before: Confusing, cluttered dashboards → After: Streamlined, task-focused dashboards.
Before: Missed deadlines due to lack of visibility → After: Real-time progress tracking.
Before: Overloaded tools with redundant features → After: Right-sized feature set, designed for actual needs.
Before: Manual reporting → After: Automated summaries.

Screens

Key Takeaways

By research, competitive benchmarking, and end-to-end design process of Project Buddy, I demonstrated my ability to translate complex problems into simple, elegant solutions. This case study reflects not only my UI/UX craft but also my strategic product thinking—making me a strong fit for teams seeking designers who can drive both usability and business value.

Suyash Gupta

Project Buddy

A project management app for internal team.

UX Case Study

Duration:

6 weeks

Product Overview

Project Buddy is an internal project management platform designed to streamline team collaboration, task tracking, and reporting. Unlike bloated enterprise tools, Project Buddy focuses on simplicity, clarity, and actionable insights, ensuring teams spend less time managing projects and more time delivering results.

It was conceived as a solution tailored to internal workflows, with a design system that balances functionality, usability, and aesthetics while providing a scalable foundation for future growth.

Problem Statement

Internal teams were struggling with:

Scattered communication across multiple tools.
Lack of centralized project visibility.
Overwhelming, feature-heavy solutions that slowed adoption.
Manual reporting consuming valuable time.

Existing solutions (Jira, Trello, Asana) either over-served with unnecessary complexity or under-served with oversimplification, leaving teams frustrated and productivity compromised.

Goals

Build a lightweight yet powerful platform for project management.

Ensure seamless collaboration with intuitive task assignment and tracking.
Provide real-time visibility into deadlines, responsibilities, and progress.
Reduce manual overhead through automation and smart reporting.
Deliver a clean, modern UI that encourages adoption without training friction.

Design Process

I adopted a Design Thinking + Agile Iterative approach, structured into:

Empathize: Conducted team interviews, observed workflows, and gathered frustrations with current tools.
Define: Synthesized insights into clear problem statements and design opportunities.
Ideate: Explored multiple wireframes and flows, prioritizing simplicity and scalability.
Prototype: Developed interactive prototypes for quick validation.
Test & Iterate: Collected user feedback and refined features until friction was minimized.

This process ensured that every design decision was grounded in real user needs while aligning with business goals.

Target Audience

Internal teams within small to mid-sized organizations.
Project managers seeking visibility without complexity.
Team members who want clarity in responsibilities and deadlines.
Leads/Executives who require quick, high-level insights without deep dives.

User Research

Methods used:

1:1 interviews with team members to understand pain points.
Surveys to gather data on workflow inefficiencies.
Observation of daily project tracking routines.

Key insights:

Teams wanted clarity over control.
Simplicity was more important than exhaustive customization.
Real-time updates and progress visibility were non-negotiable.

Competitive Analysis

I benchmarked against leading platforms:

Jira: Extremely powerful but overwhelming for smaller teams.
Trello: Intuitive but lacked depth for reporting and tracking.
Asana: Feature-rich but adoption fatigue due to steep learning curve.
ProjectBuddy.ai: AI-driven but leaned toward automation over simplicity.

Gap identified: A tool that balances Trello’s simplicity, Jira’s depth, and Asana’s structure, without the adoption barriers.

Unique Features

60% of users reported they spent over 3 hours/week on manual status reporting.
70% struggled with tool complexity in existing solutions.
80% expressed a desire for a “lighter” solution tailored to internal use.

These data points validated the market gap and informed the prioritization of simplicity, clarity, and automation in the design.

Quantitative Research

Smart Dashboard: At-a-glance visibility into tasks, deadlines, and progress.
Lightweight Collaboration: Integrated task discussions to reduce dependency on external chat tools.
Customizable Workflows: Simple enough for quick setup, flexible enough for evolving needs.
Automated Reporting: Weekly progress summaries to cut down reporting time.
Minimal Learning Curve: Designed to be adopted in

Pain Points

Before: Confusing, cluttered dashboards → After: Streamlined, task-focused dashboards.
Before: Missed deadlines due to lack of visibility → After: Real-time progress tracking.
Before: Overloaded tools with redundant features → After: Right-sized feature set, designed for actual needs.
Before: Manual reporting → After: Automated summaries.

Screens

Key Takeaways

By research, competitive benchmarking, and end-to-end design process of Project Buddy, I demonstrated my ability to translate complex problems into simple, elegant solutions. This case study reflects not only my UI/UX craft but also my strategic product thinking—making me a strong fit for teams seeking designers who can drive both usability and business value.

Suyash Gupta

Project Buddy

A project management app for internal team.

UX Case Study

Duration:

6 weeks

Product Overview

Project Buddy is an internal project management platform designed to streamline team collaboration, task tracking, and reporting. Unlike bloated enterprise tools, Project Buddy focuses on simplicity, clarity, and actionable insights, ensuring teams spend less time managing projects and more time delivering results.

It was conceived as a solution tailored to internal workflows, with a design system that balances functionality, usability, and aesthetics while providing a scalable foundation for future growth.

Problem Statement

Internal teams were struggling with:

Scattered communication across multiple tools.
Lack of centralized project visibility.
Overwhelming, feature-heavy solutions that slowed adoption.
Manual reporting consuming valuable time.

Existing solutions (Jira, Trello, Asana) either over-served with unnecessary complexity or under-served with oversimplification, leaving teams frustrated and productivity compromised.

Goals

Build a lightweight yet powerful platform for project management.

Ensure seamless collaboration with intuitive task assignment and tracking.
Provide real-time visibility into deadlines, responsibilities, and progress.
Reduce manual overhead through automation and smart reporting.
Deliver a clean, modern UI that encourages adoption without training friction.

Design Process

I adopted a Design Thinking + Agile Iterative approach, structured into:

Empathize: Conducted team interviews, observed workflows, and gathered frustrations with current tools.
Define: Synthesized insights into clear problem statements and design opportunities.
Ideate: Explored multiple wireframes and flows, prioritizing simplicity and scalability.
Prototype: Developed interactive prototypes for quick validation.
Test & Iterate: Collected user feedback and refined features until friction was minimized.

This process ensured that every design decision was grounded in real user needs while aligning with business goals.

Target Audience

Internal teams within small to mid-sized organizations.
Project managers seeking visibility without complexity.
Team members who want clarity in responsibilities and deadlines.
Leads/Executives who require quick, high-level insights without deep dives.

User Research

Methods used:

1:1 interviews with team members to understand pain points.
Surveys to gather data on workflow inefficiencies.
Observation of daily project tracking routines.

Key insights:

Teams wanted clarity over control.
Simplicity was more important than exhaustive customization.
Real-time updates and progress visibility were non-negotiable.

Competitive Analysis

I benchmarked against leading platforms:

Jira: Extremely powerful but overwhelming for smaller teams.
Trello: Intuitive but lacked depth for reporting and tracking.
Asana: Feature-rich but adoption fatigue due to steep learning curve.
ProjectBuddy.ai: AI-driven but leaned toward automation over simplicity.

Gap identified: A tool that balances Trello’s simplicity, Jira’s depth, and Asana’s structure, without the adoption barriers.

Unique Features

60% of users reported they spent over 3 hours/week on manual status reporting.
70% struggled with tool complexity in existing solutions.
80% expressed a desire for a “lighter” solution tailored to internal use.

These data points validated the market gap and informed the prioritization of simplicity, clarity, and automation in the design.

Quantitative Research

Smart Dashboard: At-a-glance visibility into tasks, deadlines, and progress.
Lightweight Collaboration: Integrated task discussions to reduce dependency on external chat tools.
Customizable Workflows: Simple enough for quick setup, flexible enough for evolving needs.
Automated Reporting: Weekly progress summaries to cut down reporting time.
Minimal Learning Curve: Designed to be adopted in

Pain Points

Before: Confusing, cluttered dashboards → After: Streamlined, task-focused dashboards.
Before: Missed deadlines due to lack of visibility → After: Real-time progress tracking.
Before: Overloaded tools with redundant features → After: Right-sized feature set, designed for actual needs.
Before: Manual reporting → After: Automated summaries.

Screens

Key Takeaways

By research, competitive benchmarking, and end-to-end design process of Project Buddy, I demonstrated my ability to translate complex problems into simple, elegant solutions. This case study reflects not only my UI/UX craft but also my strategic product thinking—making me a strong fit for teams seeking designers who can drive both usability and business value.

Suyash Gupta