Topia
Simplifying Remote Work Across Borders
2021 – 2022
B2B
Desktop
Product Design
Product Strategy
Helping organisations solve the problems of employees working remotely across borders. Showcasing how I break down complex problems into user-friendly solutions.
Secured $100K+ ARR in pilot deals based on design prototypes alone
Launched a remote work product used by major enterprise clients
Reduced HR workload by auto-approving ~50% of requests
Remote work solution responsible for 1/3 of new business pipeline
Role
Design Lead
Collaborators
Visual Designer
Content Designer
Chief Product Officer
Product Manager
Tool stack
Figma
Confluence
JIRA
Mixpanel
I led the full product design effort for Topia's remote work platform, spanning discovery through delivery:
Shaped product vision and strategy in close collaboration with CPO and PMs
Conducted user research and facilitated ideation with cross-functional teams
Created high-fidelity sales prototypes to validate direction
Documented flows, logic, and edge cases to align internal and external stakeholders
Worked closely with engineering to launch on tight timelines
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic created a surge in distributed work, but it left companies with a legal and logistical mess. Where were employees working from? What were the tax and compliance risks? Many businesses didn’t have answers.
Topia saw this as a strategic opportunity. With the right tech already in place, we pivoted to build a platform that could help companies stay compliant while letting employees work from anywhere.
Corporate Portal
HR or mobility teams can use the portal to monitor and be alerted to legal issues related to employees working remotely, as well as review and take action on any new requests that come in.
Employee Portal
Employees can find out where they’re allowed to work remotely under company policy and submit requests for review.
Approach
Step 1 Hypothesise about the future of remote working
The idea came from sales. I partnered with product and sales leadership to build early clickable prototypes that could test the market before a single line of code was written.
These prototypes opened up new conversations. Prospects saw our designs and immediately recognised their value.
We signed $100K+ in ARR deals based purely on clickable prototypes.
Step 2 Iterate, iterate, iterate
We secured pilot customers early and engaged in deep weekly calls to understand their policy rules, needs, and blockers. This gave us rapid feedback loops.
My focus was simplification: the product needed to feel empowering, not overwhelming. I wanted employees to feel like the world was their oyster — not like they were filling out tax forms.
Step 3 Make it realistic
I am always a firm believer that the first version of anything is terrible. I live by Hemingway’s quote.
The first draft of anything is shit.
— Ernest Hemingway
Remote work policies are deeply complex: role-based rules, per-country restrictions, trip duration limits, etc. I mapped edge cases, created detailed specs, and used journey diagrams to keep everyone aligned.
To speed up dev, I leaned heavily on our design system and reused patterns where possible, focusing energy on flows that needed bespoke thinking.
The amount of documentation created to articulate the complexity of the problem.
A small snippet of the user journey during the remote work request process.
Step 4 Build and launch
Once confident in the direction, I supported engineering with detailed prototypes and phased delivery plans. We launched in August 2022 with no critical issues and a solid adoption curve.
In the first week, ~20% of eligible employees explored the platform.
An example of the spec outlining the task workflow’s various phases throughout the project
Impact
We successfully went live in early August 2022, with around 20% of the customers’ employees logging in and exploring the system in the first week. There were no significant design or technical issues, which was an outstanding achievement.
Approximately half of all requests were auto-approved by the system, significantly reducing the burden on mobility teams. This efficiency was particularly impactful for organisations with tens of thousands of employees, resulting in significant time savings.
Our product received widespread acclaim from users and the market alike. Notably, over a third of our new customers and pipeline stemmed from the remote working solutions.
Key screens and results
The launch exceeded expectations. Within the first week, 1 in 5 employees had used the tool. Over half of all requests were auto-approved — saving hours of admin per case.
Most importantly, remote work features became a strategic differentiator: more than 30% of new business stemmed from this product.
Remote work request workflow management
Reviewing requests, legal assessments, policy alignment, and multi-level approvals
Interactive map and complex forms made simple
Discover remote work locations, understand limitations, and request to remote work
Learnings
Selling with design works: clickable prototypes can close real deals
Simplifying complex logic is a superpower in enterprise UX
Creating alignment across sales, product, and engineering early unlocks speed later
What happened next
I continued leading product design at Topia, scaling design systems and mentoring teammates while shaping other complex enterprise experiences like policy builders and compensation flows.