ACCOUNTING WORKFLOW OVERHAUL
Period End Close
// Workday
/ Workday
/ Workday
Project Overview
The Topic
The project I worked on as an intern at Workday was based on improving the period end close process. Period close is the process that accountants go through at the end of the month to close the books and make sure all the money is accounted for. If you have ever gotten an email from an accountant to submit payroll hours, it is because they are trying to keep this process on track.
The Problem
Before arriving at Workday, the period close process was split between 4 separate products that did not interact well with one another, with only 3 of them being built. This causes frustration among accountants as they go through the period close process, as they constantly have to go in and out of various applications. This problem was so severe that customers often elected to use Excel over Workday's services as they complete the close cycle.
The Task
I worked as a Product Designer alongside a Product Manager intern to come up with a vision to streamline and improve Workday’s period close process. Our result was presented to around 2000 of Workday’s customers at their annual Rising conference in Las Vegas on October 2018.
I worked as a Product Designer alongside a Product Mananger intern to come up with a vision to streamline and improve Workday’s period close process. Our result was presented to around 2000 of Workday’s customers at their annual Rising conference in Las Vegas in October 2018.
DISCOVERY
Weeks 1 and 2
Action Items
1
SME Sessions to learn about the current state of the projects
2
Chatting with Researchers to begin understanding the users
3
Lots and Lots of Videos to learn more in depth about accounting
To help guide future decision making, I created the following artifacts based on my research
Persona
Journey Map
ALIGNMENT
Weeks 3 and 4
As I was going through the design process, I realized that there were quite a few stakeholders that had very different perspectives and opinions on how the future of period end close should look like. I discussed this with my manager, and we decided to plan and hold a two-hour-long workshop that brought together the stakeholders so they can talk amongst themselves and figure out what should be prioritized as we think through the period close.
Details
7 Participants, completed remotely through Google Drawing
Goal
Gain a common understanding and leave with action items to move forward
Method
- Give participants 10 minutes to brainstorm and write each idea on its own sticky note
- Go around each participant and ask them to read their sticky notes. If someone has a similar idea, they group it together in the middle and label it with a theme.
- After all stickies are read and themed, participants were given the opportunity to discuss and change themes and groupings.
- Once every item was settled, each participant was given 3 votes on the themes of what needed to be prioritized.
Key Takeaways
1
ALIGNMENT
There were many different opinions among stakeholders, so they had the opportunity to discuss their thoughts and come to a common understanding.
2
PRIORITIZATION
They were given three dots to vote on the most important themes, which gave insight into what features needed to be included.
They were given three dots to vote on the most important themes, which gave insight into what features needed to be included
3
ADDITIONAL INSIGHT
There were factors that were brought up that have not been said before that turned out to be important later on.
IDEATE
Week 5
After the brainstorming session, I came to the conclusion that we will need a script for the Rising presentation before going into depth with screens, so the PM I was working with and I had a whiteboarding session to come up with a story of Julie going through the improved period close process.
After the brainstorming session, I came to the conclusion that we will need a script for the Rising presentation before going into depth with screens, so the PM I was working with and I had a whiteboarding session to come up with a story of Julie going through the improved period close process
After the brainstorming session, I came to the conclusion that we will need a script for the Rising presentation before going into depth with screens, so the PM I was working with and I had a whiteboarding session to come up with a story of Julie going through the improved period close process
Once we had a story to go off of, we started ideating and coming up with different ways of solving each step of the problem.
Once we had a story to go off of, we started ideating and coming up with different ways of solving each step of the problem.
Once we had a story to go off of, we started ideating and coming up with different ways of solving each step of the problem.
My Sketches
The leaders at Workday liked having very low fidelity mockups completed in Sketch, so I replicated some of my sketches to get feedback on.
The leaders at Workday liked having very low fidelity mockups completed in Sketch, so I replicated some of my sketches to get feedback on.
The leaders at Workday liked having very low fidelity mockups completed in Sketch, so I replicated some of my sketches to get feedback on.
The leaders at Workday liked having very low fidelity mockups completed in Sketch, so I replicated some of my sketches to get feedback on.
Low Fidelity Mockups
LEARNING EXPERIENCES
Weeks 6 and 7
In Need of Information
At this stage of my internship, it began to dawn on me that there were large gaps in my knowledge about the accounting processes surrounding period end close. I knew the beginning states and the end states of most of the processes, but I was hazy about what had to happen in the middle to reach the desired goal.
Through the internship, I was not able to get these specific questions answered, and I was not able to find accountants to be able to observe them going through the process, as the accountants at Workday were unable to accommodate the time.
To solve this problem, I reached out to the PM intern I was working with and expressed how important it was to get these questions answered. He was able to find a PM who worked as an accountant for 12 years before making a career change, and she was able to thoroughly answer my questions and continued to be a great resource throughout the rest of my internship.
Using the information that the former accountant gave me, I felt more confident in designing some of the processes. Simultaneously, I was being pressured to create higher-fidelity mockups to show the VP who was going to present the vision at Rising.
Using the information that the former accountant gave me, I felt more confident in designing some of the processes. Simultaneously, I was being pressured to create higher-fidelity mockups to show the VP who was going to present the vision at Rising.
Using the information that the former accountant gave me, I felt more confident in designing some of the processes. Simultaneously, I was being pressured to create higher-fidelity mockups to show the VP who was going to present the vision at Rising.
Using the information that the former accountant gave me, I felt more confident in designing some of the processes. Simultaneously, I was being pressured to create higher-fidelity mockups to show the VP who was going to present the vision at Rising.
Presenting Stories, Not Screens
One of the most valuable lessons I learned from my internship is how to present to a Vice President who has a lot on their plate and does not know the context around all the projects going on around the company. Week 7 of my internship was when I first interacted with him in person, I mistakenly approached it as just showing him the screens and our thought process, and then trying to get feedback.
What I SHOULD have done was lead him through the whole story of my persona, starting from who the persona is, to how they get into the application, all the way until the goal is complete. Without the context, the Vice President was not able to completely wrap his head around what we were trying to convey, and he overall was not satisfied with the work we have done. While this was a hard lesson to learn, once we altered our approach to presenting to him we were able to go down a path where he could provide insightful and valuable feedback and push us in the right direction.
BACK ON TRACK
Weeks 8 and 9
With a lot of brainstorming, sketching, and ideating, we were able to bring together visuals for the whole story of Julie and her manager going through a portion of the period close process for the next time we presented to the VP
With a lot of brainstorming, sketching, and ideating, we were able to bring together visuals for the whole story of Julie and her manager going through a portion of the period close process for the next time we presented to the VP
With a lot of brainstorming, sketching, and ideating, we were able to bring together visuals for the whole story of Julie and her manager going through a portion of the period close process for the next time we presented to the VP
Full Workflow
WRAPPING UP AND REFLECTION
Week 10
The last week of my internship was spent presenting to people in the UX organization and taking final notes to pass onto the next designer taking over the project. During this time, I was also reflecting on what I would do differently to improve the outcome of my project in the 10-week timeframe.
The last week of my internship was spent presenting to people in the UX organization and taking final notes to pass onto the next designer taking over the project. During this time, I was also reflecting on what I would do differently to improve the outcome of my project in the 10 week timeframe.
The last week of my internship was spent presenting to people in the UX organization and taking final notes to pass onto the next designer taking over the project. During this time, I was also reflecting on what I would do differently to improve the outcome of my project in the 10 week timeframe.
The last week of my internship was spent presenting to people in the UX organization and taking final notes to pass onto the next designer taking over the project. During this time, I was also reflecting on what I would do differently to improve the outcome of my project in the 10 week timeframe.
Do Differently
1
1
ASK MORE QUESTIONS
It took a lot of time to go back and correct the mistakes I made because I did not know the process well enough. I should have made sure my questions got answered and resisted going higher fidelity so early in the process. This would have saved time in the long run.
2
WATCH THE PERIOD CLOSE PROCESS
WATCH THE PERIOD CLOSE PROCESS
Being able to shadow an accountant would have been incredibly helpful in learning about the context the application would be used in. I felt lost a lot of the time when trying to think about accountants’ needs, but seeing them in action would have cleared things up.
3
USER TESTING
Time and resources did not permit me to do user testing on the process. Since this was meant for a showcase to show customers and get them excited about Workday’s future, user testing did not take priority. However, my designs would have been stronger if I could get feedback and make data-backed decisions.
© Copyright 2022 Bea Wagner-Wilkins