I spent a year rebuilding Kelick from scratch. Started by talking to existing customers to understand what was broken. Designed new onboarding flows, revamped the entire UI, and mapped out the backend infrastructure. Then I ran a challenge for 800+ engineers to find the right technical lead, hired the best one, and we shipped the MVP together. Set up the tech stack (NeonDB, Clerk, Railway, Shadcn), defined pricing strategy, wrote product specs in Linear, and onboarded new clients. The result? Significant drop in churn and a product that customers actually wanted to use.
We had a product with paying customers, but no one who could bridge design, product strategy, and client management. The existing system was clunky, built without proper user research or product thinking. We needed someone who could talk to customers, redesign the entire experience, rebuild the infrastructure, and manage the development process end-to-end. Basically, he needed someone to own the product completely.
Design Process
Understanding the mess
The first two months were spent understanding why customers were frustrated. Talked to SME owners, HR admins, employees, basically anyone who touched the product. Realized the core issue wasn't missing features, it was that the entire flow was built without considering how people actually work. Payroll was confusing, leave tracking was manual, and the mobile experience didn't exist.
Rebuilding the foundation
Once I knew what needed fixing, I mapped out the entire product ecosystem. How the admin platform, employee app, and mobile experience should work together. Created wireframes and prototypes, got them in front of users early, and iterated based on feedback. This wasn't about making things pretty, it was about making HR tasks actually efficient.
Building the right team
Ran a hackathon-style challenge with 800+ software engineers to find someone who could execute the vision. Hired a lead engineer who got it. We worked closely, me writing specs, designing interactions, managing stakeholders, him building it. Weekly syncs with our internal HR tester kept us honest about whether we were actually solving real problems.
Launching and learning
Shipped the MVP, onboarded clients, watched how they used it. Made changes based on real usage, not assumptions. Set up analytics to track where people got stuck. Kept iterating until retention improved significantly.
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