Global Approval System

Context

I was the sole product designer on this project. Feedback from customers, sales, and customer experience teams highlighted the need for flexible approval workflows with multiple levels. Our team worked on the core product and shared building blocks, so we needed to support both customers and internal product teams.

Problem

An inflexible approval system was among the top three reasons for churn and lost deals. A new expense management product also needed a robust approval system before it could launch.

Each product had its own approval implementation. Time off and time tracking both supported only one approver and one step, with approval limited to a manager or administrator.

This initially met the needs of our main market, Spain. As we expanded across Europe and the US, we encountered customers with more complex company structures who needed greater flexibility.

Research

HR needs vary by country, company size, industry, and culture. We spoke with customers who had left, those at risk of leaving, and those happy with the product. Each had a different approval process.

A time off request might need only a manager's approval, while an expense could need approval from a manager, HR, and then finance.

Companies needed multiple approval steps. An approver could be a specific person, someone in a role relative to the requester, such as their manager or team leader, a team member, or an administrator.

Requesters also needed visibility into approval status so they could follow up with the right person if a request was delayed.

Solution

We separated approval workflows from existing policies, such as time off allowances. This let companies change who approves a request without duplicating policies just to adjust one condition.

We first validated the shared system with time off, the most important use case and the one generating the most churn.

The system follows a simple flow: it checks a request and its metadata against the configured conditions, then notifies the approvers for the first step. Once approved, the request moves to the next step until the process is complete. If it is rejected at any point, the requester is notified.

Key Features

• Reusable approval groups across product teams
• Multiple approval groups based on employees' country, team, or specific needs
• Multiple approval levels with approvers assigned by person, team, or role relative to the requester
• Backup approvers in case the approver is unavailable or on vacation

Notifications were essential to the workflow, so we also built a shared in-app notification system for approval requests.

Success

All teams that needed approvals adopted the new system, and churn and lost deals fell by 90%.

After two months, requests approved through multiple steps accounted for 30% of the total.

Requests approved in a single step by someone other than a manager or administrator accounted for 20% of the total.