Inspired by Photoshop Actions, Action Replay lets ProjectPlace users record, save, and replay multi-step workflows across their Kanban boards. Set a trigger, define the actions, and let the automation handle the rest — freeing teams to focus on the work that actually matters.
The concept was mine from the start, directly inspired by how Photoshop Actions let users record, save, and replay complex sequences with a single click. I asked: what if ProjectPlace users could do the same for their workflows? I led every stage — identifying team pain points, building personas, designing the interaction model, running brainstorming sessions, and presenting the final product to the VP of Product, Directors, and the Development Team.
I worked alongside Lawrence Croiden Lobo on the competitive assessment, evaluating how automation features worked across competing project management tools. We also explored available APIs that could support the underlying trigger-action architecture — keeping the technical feasibility grounded throughout the design process.
"Is there a more effective approach to manage cards?"
— Lucas Simões, Software Engineer personaWe evaluated four leading automation tools to understand the landscape before designing anything: Zapier, Monday.com Automations, Trello Butler, and Jira Automation.
What they got right. Zapier's trigger-action model was the clearest mental model we found — users immediately understood "if this, then that" without needing to read documentation. Monday.com's automation recipes were visually intuitive and required no technical knowledge, which drove strong adoption across non-developer users. Trello Butler showed that automations embedded directly inside the tool (rather than in a separate app) felt significantly more trustworthy and were used more frequently.
Where they fell short. Every tool we assessed required users to configure automations upfront from scratch — there was no way to simply do the thing first and then save it as a workflow. This created a steep cognitive barrier: users had to anticipate their workflow abstractly before experiencing it. For a project management context where workflows emerge naturally over time, this felt backwards. Additionally, none of the tools stored automations at a shared project level — they were either per-user or required admin-level setup, making team-wide adoption fragile.
What we decided to do differently. Action Replay flipped the model entirely. Instead of configuring automation rules upfront, users simply perform the actions they'd normally do — and the system records them. The recording becomes the automation. This removed the cognitive barrier completely and made the feature accessible to users who would never describe themselves as "power users." Shared project-level storage was also a deliberate differentiator, ensuring that once one team member created a workflow, everyone benefited.
Users define a trigger — an action or event in ProjectPlace — and then specify a sequence of follow-on actions to execute automatically. Simple automations like adding a tag, or complex chains like assigning, labelling, and moving a card all at once.
Automation instructions are saved at the project level, making them available to any team member with access. No more individual workarounds — shared automations that any user can trigger with a single click.
Users can select multiple cards and apply a saved action in one interaction — collapsing what used to be dozens of repetitive steps into a single, confident action.
The feature was designed with reusability in mind from the start — built so that other Planview products could adopt the same automation framework in the future without starting from scratch.
The central design question wasn't just "how do we automate tasks?" — it was "how do we make automation feel approachable to users who've never thought of themselves as power users?" The record-and-replay mental model was key: instead of asking users to configure abstract rules, we let them simply do the action once, save it, and replay it. The complexity lives under the hood.
Time was the most significant constraint throughout the hackathon. Despite that, we ran multiple structured brainstorming sessions, developed personas based on real user profiles, mapped interaction flows from trigger to execution, and iterated through multiple rounds of product team feedback before the final presentation.
This project deepened my understanding of product management, data analysis, and how to make smart scope decisions under pressure — skills that extended well beyond the design work itself.
I led design and owned the product vision throughout the sprint, working closely with Lawrence Croiden Lobo on competitive research and frontend feasibility. Every design decision was stress-tested against what could realistically be built within the hackathon window — keeping ambition in check without losing the core idea.
The biggest learning from this project wasn't a design pattern or an interaction model. It was how to move fast without cutting corners on thinking — and how to communicate a bold idea clearly to a senior audience who hadn't seen it coming.