Streamlining
team management
A user-centric approach to permissions
Role Product designer
Credits Lodgify
Year 2024
How might we empower property managers to manage teams with confidence?
Property managers often struggled to assign appropriate permissions to their teams, leading to role conflicts, data mishandling, and operational inefficiencies. For users managing multiple rentals with diverse teams, the lack of customizable access rights created frustration and limited their ability to collaborate effectively.
This missing functionality also impacted Lodgify, contributing to user churn as property managers sought platforms better equipped to handle their growing team needs.
Mid-fi "Add member" flow
How did I have an impact?
I led the discovery phase, conducting interviews, analyzing user insights, and benchmarking competitors to uncover the core pain points. These efforts highlighted the need for clear role definitions and flexible permission settings.
Through the design thinking process, I:
Defined key problems, such as conflicting access roles and lack of control over permissions.
Facilitated ideation workshops and created wireframes to shape early concepts.
Designed and tested prototypes, iterating based on real user feedback.
The proposal is still in progress, and as such, no high-fidelity designs are available at this stage. If the project is ongoing, expected outcomes include:
Lower user churn, with 5-10% fewer property managers leaving Lodgify due to improved team management.
Higher adoption rates, with 10-15% more property managers actively using the feature.
What did we propose?
We created a simple yet flexible team management system that combines predefined roles for ease of use with customization for added control. This makes setup faster and reduces errors, giving property managers full control with minimal effort, while reducing churn caused by this missing feature.
Mid-fi "Add member" flow
Process
1 Discovery
Benchmark
Pattern identification
User personas
2 Definition
Findings and Insights
Feature mapping
Value proposition
3 Ideation
Workshop
Early prototyping
User testing
4 Iteration
Role definitions
Second prototyping
Next steps
1. Discovery
User Interviews and Surveys
We engaged directly with users through interviews, and we uncovered common challenges in managing diverse roles effectively without a robust access control system. We also identified recurring patterns in team structures, which helped us design later a system offering both granular customization and predefined roles to simplify setup and daily management.
Benchmarking and Technical Evaluation
We analyzed competitors to identify best practices and gaps in access rights management. This highlighted opportunities to differentiate Lodgify while ensuring our solution could be implemented within the platform’s technical architecture.
2. Definition
The discovery phase revealed several critical user needs:
Onboarding new team members easily
Ashley needs a simple way to invite new team members and assign permissions, while keeping sensitive information protected. We have noticed that clear role assignments ensure team members have the right access to perform their tasks efficiently.
Keeping roles and permissions up to date
Ashley needs to update or modify team permissions effortlessly because as her business grows, team roles change frequently, and the lack of a simple permission system leads to security risks and operational confusion.
Assigning team members to the right properties
Ashley needs a flexible way to assign team members to specific properties or multiple locations, because different roles require different levels of access—cleaning staff should only see assigned properties, while accountants need full visibility into financial data.
3. Ideation
Workshops
We conducted an ideation workshop with stakeholders, product managers, and developers to build a shared understanding and gather members’ inputs for the new journey. This was followed by a Crazy Eights session to quickly generate and explore initial concepts.
Prototyping and testing
By testing our first proposal with users, we came up with several key learnings:
Granularity in permissions was needed to be flexible and accurate.
Separate logins and activity histories ensured better control and accountability.
Common roles like cleaning staff and property owners were clear, but others needed refinement.
We needed to identify recurring patterns in team structures, which helped us design later a system offering both granular customization and predefined roles to simplify setup and daily management. That is the reason we run a second discovery and iterate designs from there.
4. Iteration
Roles definition
As part of this second discovery phase, we focused on understanding the most significant roles our users needed to manage their accounts effectively in their daily operations. Over 100 survey respondents helped us create predefined roles with tailored permissions that aligned with real-world tasks and trust levels.
Property Manager
Full access for overall account and property management.
Management Assistant
Full or limited access based on trust and responsibilities.
Accountant
Limited access to financial data for accounting tasks.
Marketing/Sales/IT
Limited access for promotions and content tasks.
Maintenance Staff
Read-only access to maintenance-related details
Cleaning Staff
Limited or read-only access to cleaning schedules.
Property Owner
Limited access for personal use, excluding sensitive business data.
Prototyping and testing II
Using insights from the second discovery, we refined our designs and tested them again, successfully meeting user expectations for flexibility and security.
Next, we plan to:
Test the final iteration with a larger user group to validate predefined roles.
Optimize onboarding flows based on real-world usage data.
Expand the system to support even more granular permissions in future updates.
Before: 1st proposal
Overwhelming Interface
Property managers manually assigned each permission, increasing the risk of mistakes.
Complex Role Assignment
Users saw 20+ permission options in one screen, leading to decision fatigue.
Unclear Role Descriptions
Users struggled to understand what each role or permission entails.
Confusing Navigation
Inconsistent flow between steps led to user frustration.
After: Iterated prototype
Simplified management screen
A progressive disclosure model presents only relevant choices at each step, reducing confusion and cognitive load.
Streamlined Role Assignment
Predefined roles with clear descriptions eliminate uncertainty while allowing custom edits.
Enhanced Feedback
Activity logs & member tracking provide full transparency and accountability.
Better Member Detail Page
A centralized team management page consolidates all role and property assignments in one place.
Learnings
User Needs First: Grounding the design in real challenges ensured practical, impactful solutions.
Collaborative Approach: Early involvement of stakeholders and teams fostered alignment and shared ownership.
User-Centric Focus: A user-first perspective helped validate ideas and meet expectations.
Iterative Improvement: Testing and feedback allowed us to refine the design for flexibility and usability.
Validation Through Testing: Prototyping confirmed the solution effectively addressed user pain points.