Internal Ops Tool – Project Lifecycle Management Platform

Lifecycle Management

Process Automation

Cross-country Scale

MVP in 60 Days

Challenge

We were managing over 400 active research projects across Brazil, Colombia, and the U.S. — all tracked through email threads, spreadsheets, and disconnected tools. This led to:

Communication Breakdowns

Between sales, project management, and finance

Late Handoffs

Duplicated work, and lack of accountability

No Visibility

Inability to monitor team performance or revenue at project level

We needed a centralized system to coordinate every phase: sales → setup → execution → billing.

Research Conducted:

Shadowed 8 project managers across 3 countries to map end-to-end workflows
Analyzed 200+ email threads to identify the most common bottlenecks
Ran workshops with sales, ops, and finance to define key pain points and reporting needs

Goals / KPIs

📉Reduce email volume by 50% between teams

✅Achieve >90% task completion rate on-time

🔁Standardize project setup and billing processes across countries

📊Track team and project-level KPIs in real time

🚀Deploy MVP in under 60 days

Process

Discovery & Scoping

Created process maps for all internal handoffs (sales → ops → billing). Defined key object types: Projects, Tasks, Milestones, Stakeholders, SLAs. Identified 3 top automation opportunities: status updates, cost approvals, and handoff alerts.

Prioritization

Applied MoSCoW method: Must-haves: project overview, task tracking, SLA deadlines. Should-haves: approval flow, invoice generation. Could-haves: custom dashboards, API integrations. Trimmed non-critical billing logic to Phase 2 to hit MVP timeline.

Team Collaboration

2 engineers, 1 designer (UI system + flows), 1 QA. Weekly syncs with leadership, PMs, and finance. Used Jira + Confluence to document workflows and rollout plans. Embedded in Slack to get live feedback post-launch.

Technical Tradeoffs

Built the tool as a web app on internal server to skip infrastructure delays. No external auth: used internal SSO to simplify rollout. Didn't implement in-app dashboards to save time.

Outcomes

70%

Reduced email volume across all operational workflows

20%

Cut average project delivery time

Real-time

Tracking of all active projects, tasks, and blockers

C-Level

Dashboards for billing pipeline and ops performance

9.4/10

Average internal satisfaction score from PMs within 3 months

Learnings

Prototype for Buy-in

Getting buy-in was easier by building a prototype in 2 weeks and demoing to C-levels.

Standardize Terminology

Cross-country terminology was inconsistent. We required standardizing naming conventions.

Auto-reminders Drive Adoption

Usage skyrocketed after we added auto-reminders and alert triggers for deadlines.