Allowing freelancer leads to earn a margin

Initial problem

Vico lead (freelancer lead of a project) has to do some workarounds to set up project scope to earn a margin on a project (eg. create engagement type of scope).

Intended solution

We want to solve this problem by enabling the Vico lead to sell their freelance resources with an added margin → allow setting up an internal (visible to freelancer) and external (visible to the client) rates.

Business value

By allowing Vico lead to sell their freelance resources with a margin, Vico lead would be enabled to earn more money on each project which in turn should make Vicoland more attractive to Vico leads. New functionality should also encourage Vico leads to add their freelancer resources to the platform.

Discovery

I start with conducting internal stakeholder and external user interviews using a prepared-in-advance list of open-ended questions. Here I’m trying to understand how people operate when setting rates for the project before it is launched. I place each insight on a sticky note. After a number of interviews I collect insights on a board.

Collected insights are grouped into categories…

…and some conclusions could be drawn:

• Defining a rate with the client first is a slightly more common approach. However setting rate should be flexible.
• Typical margin is around 20% but could be higher.
• Margin is not placed on the whole project, rather singular scope items.

User stories are then created and aligned with stakeholders and developers.

Developing solutions

Currently Freelancer project lead (Vico lead) can set a single rate on a scope item. This results in 2 separate numbers shown to different roles in the platform:

• Freelancer - will see a set rate without a platform fee included
• Client - will see a set rate with a platform fee included

The new addition that is going to be introduced is that Vico lead (freelancer project lead) could reduce the Freelancer rate and by doing so, increase the margin for a particular scope item. Margin will be transferred to the Vico lead account after successful completion of the scope item.

I take into consideration the limitation of the current state of the product. I determine flows, page architecture, types of content to be shown on a page, etc. and produce user flows.

I quickly prepare some high fidelity UI options using design system components.

Developed ideas are aligned internally between head of product, other designers and developers ensuring that design decision are within the limitation of time resources in terms of development and style/logic of the existing product. Selected option is developed further. Several options are provided.

The selected option was further improved and the whole flow was turned into a prototype, showcased to external users to validate the proposed solution.

Result

After couple iterations a solution was proposed to handle assignee/client rate definition via the dropdown that allows Vico lead (freelancer project lead) to provide 2 rates for freelancer & client as well as see a margin rate that will be earned by the Vico lead.

Prototype: preview prototype 🔗

Rest of the screens are placed in the Figma Handoff page for engineers to refer during the development phase. You can see a detailed view here: preview all wireframes 🔗