Accelerate your productivity by automating everyday tasks in Zoom Workplace and beyond
Role
Product design owner – UI/UX, design assets, patterns, usability testing.
Product design owner – UI/UX, design assets, patterns, usability testing.
Timeframe
Mar 2024 - Feb 2025 (conception to GA).
Mar 2024 - Feb 2025 (conception to GA).
Platforms
Mac/Windows.
Mac/Windows.
Tools
Figma, Photoshop, pen & paper.
Figma, Photoshop, pen & paper.
Context
Workflow automation lets users configure a series of actions that trigger automatically when certain conditions are met. In other words: “if this, then that."
Workflows can automate repetitive daily tasks, helping users save time and accomplish more, thereby enabling businesses to operate more efficiently.
My product team at Zoom identified this as a major competitive gap with Slack and Teams, our primary competitors.
I was tasked with owning the end-to-end design and ultimately launching Workflow Automation as a new product within Zoom Workplace.
Hypothesis
By delivering a powerful and easy-to-use Workflow Automation solution, we could empower organizations to automate repetitive daily tasks across Zoom and beyond, thus increasing their productivity and saving time, ultimately closing a major competitive gap and a roadblock to migration from Slack and Teams.
Goals
🚀 Powerful and simple
More capable than Slack, more intuitive than Microsoft PowerAutomate.
More capable than Slack, more intuitive than Microsoft PowerAutomate.
🏢 Third-party integrations
Integrate with third-party connectors including Google Drive, Outlook, and Jira.
Integrate with third-party connectors including Google Drive, Outlook, and Jira.
📑 Prioritize templates
Encourage users to start from templates, empowering them to publish workflows and get results faster.
Encourage users to start from templates, empowering them to publish workflows and get results faster.
🤖 Automate with AI
Trigger existing Zoom AI Companion features (such as meeting summary), and explore how Workflow Automation can innovate with new AI features.
Trigger existing Zoom AI Companion features (such as meeting summary), and explore how Workflow Automation can innovate with new AI features.
How the project started
The core Workflow Automation experience was adapted from a foundation based on Netflix Conductor and an existing workflow tool used by Zoom Contact Center.
My role was to own the end-to-end user experience—to design an automation tool that was powerful yet easy to use.
Design solutions
The following solutions encompass key aspects of the end-to-end experience:
🏠 Getting started
Create a new product home page that welcomes new users, encourages use of templates, and allows experienced users to manage their workflows.
Create a new product home page that welcomes new users, encourages use of templates, and allows experienced users to manage their workflows.
✏️ Build a workflow
Build a simple interface that allows users to drag and drop actions to assemble powerful workflows without training. This UI should scale to accommodate future actions.
Build a simple interface that allows users to drag and drop actions to assemble powerful workflows without training. This UI should scale to accommodate future actions.
🎨 Personalize and publish
Let users customize their workflows before publishing, enhancing identification and trust.
📈 Monitor usage
Implement dashboards and admin controls to monitor the usage of workflows.
Implement dashboards and admin controls to monitor the usage of workflows.
🏠 Getting started
I led the design of a new home page aimed at improving onboarding, usability, and workflow management. The page was built to serve four key goals:
– Promote templates to help users get started quickly.
– Build workflows from scratch.
– Manage existing workflows.
– Surface usage activity for published workflows.
The design was informed by UX patterns from tools like Google Docs, Microsoft Power Automate, and Zoom Docs, while maintaining consistency with Zoom’s Prism design system. The result was a balanced interface that guided new users, supported power users, and scaled with growing adoption. I also designed a library of template images.
✏️ Build a workflow
I redesigned the editor to follow a simple left-right, top-down mental model.
Users can search or browse for actions in the left menu, drag and drop them on the canvas, then click to edit details in a right-hand flyout panel. We simplified the experience by replacing the freeform layout (originally in Zoom Contact Center) with a more linear top-to-bottom flow, making it easier for users to build workflows using a step-by-step sequence. This approach follows familiar patterns seen in competing tools, improving usability and reducing friction.
Scalable navigation
I redesigned the navigation to make it easier for users to browse and find the right actions for their workflows. Actions are grouped by product, allowing users to quickly narrow down relevant options, and a persistent global search lets them find actions by keyword at any time across all categories.
I also designed this navigation with scalability in mind, allowing it to support new actions from both Zoom and third-party developers without additional design effort.
🎨 Personalize and publish
I advocated for adding personalization options—such as name, description, and iconography—to help users better recognize and manage their workflows. This also promotes trust and transparency by making workflows more understandable to others across the organization. To keep it simple and fun, users can either upload a custom image or choose an emoji to visually represent their workflow. This feature was well-received by the team and aligned with our goals for usability and clarity.
📈 Monitor usage
For the GA release, we introduced advanced controls that allow both users and admins to track and manage workflow activity.
Users can view detailed usage data for their own published workflows, while admins have visibility across the entire organization. This empowers admins to identify issues, manage performance, and take action to stop workflows that may be causing problems.
Outcomes
Initial feedback on Workflow Automation was overwhelmingly positive. Early adopters found the tool exciting and were already using it successfully with their teams. Users described the design as delightful and easy to use—especially highlighting the template images as warm and inviting.
One major prospective customer cited it as a key factor in considering a switch to Zoom, and company leadership praised our team's work.
During public beta, over 16,000 workflows were created in a single month.
Workflow Automation launched to GA in February, 2025.
What I learned
This project pushed me to lead end-to-end design for an entirely new product in a fast-paced, highly ambiguous environment. I had to quickly understand complex, industry-specific concepts while adapting my design approach accordingly. As the sole designer, I strengthened my ability to communicate strategy, set expectations, and advocate for user experience in a tight-knit, cross-functional team.
One of the biggest lessons I learned was the importance of designing for scalability from the start—not just for users, but for working efficiency.
For example, I initially created a custom pattern for templates, which worked early on but became time-consuming as demand grew. After GA, I began exploring a more efficient emoji-based pattern to reduce design effort while maintaining visual consistency. This experience reinforced the need to prioritize high-impact solutions and make smart trade-offs to move quickly and deliver value.
