AU Payroll

OVERVIEW

Led the 0→1 design of a $500k ARR payroll product for Deputy

YEAR

2025

ROLE

Product Design Manager

COMPANY

Deputy

INDUSTRY

B2B SAAS

Customers were leaving Deputy for other payroll providers

Customers didn’t want to stitch together multiple products to pay staff—they wanted a single workflow inside Deputy that’s fast, accurate, and trustworthy.

  • Deputy is a workforce management platform that allows businesses to track employee timesheets and attendance

  • Customers needed to switch to other tools to administer payroll


  • Switching systems created manual work, errors, and low trust

  • Every time someone switched to administer payroll they were presented with an opportunity to churn from Deputy

  • How do we keep customers in the Deputy ecosystem by building an “all-in-one” solution that includes payroll administration

Made payroll easily discoverable

  • Payroll was added as a primary menu item so customers knew it was now offered in Deputy

  • Payroll was located next to “timesheets”, as a logical next step in the workforce management flow (roster > timesheets > payroll)

Built an all-in-one pay run flow (B2B)

  • Each stage of the process has clear next steps

  • Any missing details required to run payroll were called out ahead of time

  • Review states were also added so admins could easily compare payrun totals with their previous payroll providers

Designed interactive pay slips

  • Created employee-facing payslips with a clear breakdown of earnings, deductions, and allowances

  • Added interactive details to make payday feel more delightful

  • Made payslips easy to access in the Deputy app employees already use day-to-day

Made vendor transitions feel seamless

  • Not every payroll admin action could be done in Deputy so I influenced payroll vendors to update their UI to align with Deputy patterns and styling

  • Smoothed navigation and visual handoffs so customers didn’t feel like they “left” Deputy

  • Reduced friction at the moments that typically break trust (handoffs, confirmations, next steps)

Managed a senior designer from delivery → launch

  • Set the strategic direction and experience bar, then coached a senior designer to execute across delivery, alpha, beta, launch, and post-launch iteration

  • Ran a tight feedback and decision cadence (critiques, alignment, unblockers) to keep execution moving while protecting end-to-end quality

  • Escalated build quality issues with Engineering/PM leadership and drove fixes before we progressed phases

Outcomes

$500k

ARR (exceeded initial $250k target, then hit revised $500k)

18

months from 0-1

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AU Payroll

OVERVIEW

Led the 0→1 design of a $500k ARR payroll product for Deputy

YEAR

2025

ROLE

Product Design Manager

COMPANY

Deputy

INDUSTRY

B2B SAAS

Customers were leaving Deputy for other payroll providers

  • Designed the end-to-end WFM flow:
    Roster → timesheets → pay run → payslips

  • Made the first pay run easy to complete (guided steps + clear next actions)

  • Surfaced value fast with confident review states (so teams can onboard without support)

  • Designed the end-to-end WFM flow:
    Roster → timesheets → pay run → payslips

  • Made the first pay run easy to complete (guided steps + clear next actions)

  • Surfaced value fast with confident review states (so teams can onboard without support)

Made payroll easily discoverable

  • Designed the end-to-end WFM flow:
    Roster → timesheets → pay run → payslips

  • Made the first pay run easy to complete (guided steps + clear next actions)

  • Surfaced value fast with confident review states (so teams can onboard without support)

Built an all-in-one pay run flow (B2B)

  • Designed the end-to-end WFM flow:
    Roster → timesheets → pay run → payslips

  • Made the first pay run easy to complete (guided steps + clear next actions)

  • Surfaced value fast with confident review states (so teams can onboard without support)

Designed interactive pay slips

  • Created employee-facing payslips with a clear breakdown of earnings, deductions, and allowances

  • Added interactive details to make payday feel more delightful

  • Made payslips easy to access in the Deputy app employees already use day-to-day

Made vendor transitions feel seamless

  • Not every payroll admin action could be done in Deputy so I influenced payroll vendors to update their UI to align with Deputy patterns and styling

  • Smoothed navigation and visual handoffs so customers didn’t feel like they “left” Deputy

  • Reduced friction at the moments that typically break trust (handoffs, confirmations, next steps)

Managed a senior designer from delivery → launch

  • Set the strategic direction and experience bar, then coached a senior designer to execute across delivery, alpha, beta, launch, and post-launch iteration

  • Ran a tight feedback and decision cadence (critiques, alignment, unblockers) to keep execution moving while protecting end-to-end quality

  • Escalated build quality issues with Engineering/PM leadership and drove fixes before we progressed phases

Outcomes

$500k

ARR (exceeded initial $250k target, then hit revised $500k)

18

months from 0-1

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AU Payroll

OVERVIEW

Led the 0→1 design of a $500k ARR payroll product for Deputy

YEAR

2025

ROLE

Product Design Manager

COMPANY

Deputy

INDUSTRY

B2B SAAS

Customers were leaving Deputy for other payroll providers

Customers didn’t want to stitch together multiple products to pay staff—they wanted a single workflow inside Deputy that’s fast, accurate, and trustworthy.

  • Deputy is a workforce management platform that allows businesses to track employee timesheets and attendance

  • Customers needed to switch to other tools to administer payroll


  • Switching systems created manual work, errors, and low trust

  • Every time someone switched to administer payroll they were presented with an opportunity to churn from Deputy

  • How do we keep customers in the Deputy ecosystem by building an “all-in-one” solution that includes payroll administration

Made payroll easily discoverable

  • Payroll was added as a primary menu item so customers knew it was now offered in Deputy

  • Payroll was located next to “timesheets”, as a logical next step in the workforce management flow (roster > timesheets > payroll)

Built an all-in-one pay run flow (B2B)

  • Each stage of the process has clear next steps

  • Any missing details required to run payroll were called out ahead of time

  • Review states were also added so admins could easily compare payrun totals with their previous payroll providers

Designed interactive pay slips

  • Created employee-facing payslips with a clear breakdown of earnings, deductions, and allowances

  • Added interactive details to make payday feel more delightful

  • Made payslips easy to access in the Deputy app employees already use day-to-day

Made vendor transitions feel seamless

  • Not every payroll admin action could be done in Deputy so I influenced payroll vendors to update their UI to align with Deputy patterns and styling

  • Smoothed navigation and visual handoffs so customers didn’t feel like they “left” Deputy

  • Reduced friction at the moments that typically break trust (handoffs, confirmations, next steps)

Managed a senior designer from delivery → launch

  • Set the strategic direction and experience bar, then coached a senior designer to execute across delivery, alpha, beta, launch, and post-launch iteration

  • Ran a tight feedback and decision cadence (critiques, alignment, unblockers) to keep execution moving while protecting end-to-end quality

  • Escalated build quality issues with Engineering/PM leadership and drove fixes before we progressed phases

Outcomes

$500k

ARR (exceeded initial $250k target, then hit revised $500k)

18

months from 0-1

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