From spreadsheets to fully designed HR platform
FinTech platform
UI/UX
Service Design
Product Design
McKinsey & Company
From spreadsheets to fully designed HR platform
Famaash was running an international recruitment operation on Excel sheets. The product didn't exist yet. The company was close to failing. We designed the full platform with compliant onboarding, HR management and payroll.
Client
McKinsey & Company
Released
Timeframe
8 months
Project Type
FinTech platform
Technology
Figma
McKinsey & Company
Overview
We designed the product: every flow, every screen, every data visualisation that took Famaash from a spreadsheet operation to a working platform their users could use together. We also did the branding part for them including web design.
Famaash is an international recruitment platform built to handle the parts of HR that tend to break at scale: employee onboarding across countries, compliance with local legislation, and payroll in one place. The vision was clear. The execution didn't exist yet. When we came in, the team was tracking everything manually in Excel and the company was under real financial pressure. The design had to move fast and get it right.
McKinsey & Company
The Challenge
The data was the problem. Not just the volume of it, but the complexity. Multiple user roles, local compliance requirements across different countries, payroll rules that vary by jurisdiction. All of it needed to be translated into flows that different types of users could move through without making errors.
Data visualisation added another layer. The platform needed to surface financial and HR data in a way that every user type would read the same way, regardless of their background or role. An HR manager and a finance director looking at the same screen needed to reach the same conclusion. Designing for that kind of consistency, across that much data, is where most products get it wrong.
McKinsey & Company
The Solution
We worked through the full product systematically: mapping all user roles, designing flows for each, and building a visual language for the data that held together across the whole platform.
Figma
Every screen was designed around how the user actually needed to work, not around what the data looked like in Excel. Compliance requirements were built into the flows rather than added as a layer on top. The data visualisations were standardised across the platform so that numbers meant the same thing wherever they appeared.
McKinsey & Company
McKinsey & Company
Results
Famaash raised $450K in funding and closed their first enterprise clients shortly after launch. A company that was weeks away from failing shipped a product that now scales on real user feedback, not spreadsheet assumptions.
Screens
That has been designed
Funding $
Raised after the platform launched
Hours
Of design work across the full product
The team went from managing everything in spreadsheets to running an international HR platform with compliant onboarding, centralised HR management and payroll in one place.
McKinsey & Company
Final thoughts
Famaash came to us with a vision, a deadline and Excel sheets. The complexity of what needed to be built multiple roles, cross-border compliance, financial data that had to read clearly for everyone, meant there was no room for vague design decisions. Every screen had to work.
McKinsey & Company
Credits
Faisal Shabir
Mehreen Khan
Consultant at McKinsey & Company
Consultant at McKinsey & Company
Previous Project
Next Project
From spreadsheets to fully designed HR platform
FinTech platform
UI/UX
Service Design
Product Design
McKinsey & Company
From spreadsheets to fully designed HR platform
Famaash was running an international recruitment operation on Excel sheets. The product didn't exist yet. The company was close to failing. We designed the full platform with compliant onboarding, HR management and payroll.
Client
McKinsey & Company
Released
Timeframe
8 months
Project Type
FinTech platform
Technology
Figma
McKinsey & Company
Overview
We designed the product: every flow, every screen, every data visualisation that took Famaash from a spreadsheet operation to a working platform their users could use together. We also did the branding part for them including web design.
Famaash is an international recruitment platform built to handle the parts of HR that tend to break at scale: employee onboarding across countries, compliance with local legislation, and payroll in one place. The vision was clear. The execution didn't exist yet. When we came in, the team was tracking everything manually in Excel and the company was under real financial pressure. The design had to move fast and get it right.
McKinsey & Company
The Challenge
The data was the problem. Not just the volume of it, but the complexity. Multiple user roles, local compliance requirements across different countries, payroll rules that vary by jurisdiction. All of it needed to be translated into flows that different types of users could move through without making errors.
Data visualisation added another layer. The platform needed to surface financial and HR data in a way that every user type would read the same way, regardless of their background or role. An HR manager and a finance director looking at the same screen needed to reach the same conclusion. Designing for that kind of consistency, across that much data, is where most products get it wrong.
McKinsey & Company
The Solution
We worked through the full product systematically: mapping all user roles, designing flows for each, and building a visual language for the data that held together across the whole platform.
Figma
Every screen was designed around how the user actually needed to work, not around what the data looked like in Excel. Compliance requirements were built into the flows rather than added as a layer on top. The data visualisations were standardised across the platform so that numbers meant the same thing wherever they appeared.
McKinsey & Company
McKinsey & Company
Results
Famaash raised $450K in funding and closed their first enterprise clients shortly after launch. A company that was weeks away from failing shipped a product that now scales on real user feedback, not spreadsheet assumptions.
Screens
That has been designed
Funding $
Raised after the platform launched
Hours
Of design work across the full product
The team went from managing everything in spreadsheets to running an international HR platform with compliant onboarding, centralised HR management and payroll in one place.
McKinsey & Company
Final thoughts
Famaash came to us with a vision, a deadline and Excel sheets. The complexity of what needed to be built multiple roles, cross-border compliance, financial data that had to read clearly for everyone, meant there was no room for vague design decisions. Every screen had to work.
McKinsey & Company
Faisal Shabir
Mehreen Khan
Consultant at McKinsey & Company
Consultant at McKinsey & Company
Previous Project
Next Project
From spreadsheets to fully designed HR platform
FinTech platform
UI/UX
Service Design
Product Design
McKinsey & Company
From spreadsheets to fully designed HR platform
Famaash was running an international recruitment operation on Excel sheets. The product didn't exist yet. The company was close to failing. We designed the full platform with compliant onboarding, HR management and payroll.
Client
McKinsey & Company
Released
Timeframe
8 months
Project Type
FinTech platform
Technology
Figma
McKinsey & Company
Overview
We designed the product: every flow, every screen, every data visualisation that took Famaash from a spreadsheet operation to a working platform their users could use together. We also did the branding part for them including web design.
Famaash is an international recruitment platform built to handle the parts of HR that tend to break at scale: employee onboarding across countries, compliance with local legislation, and payroll in one place. The vision was clear. The execution didn't exist yet. When we came in, the team was tracking everything manually in Excel and the company was under real financial pressure. The design had to move fast and get it right.
McKinsey & Company
The Challenge
The data was the problem. Not just the volume of it, but the complexity. Multiple user roles, local compliance requirements across different countries, payroll rules that vary by jurisdiction. All of it needed to be translated into flows that different types of users could move through without making errors.
Data visualisation added another layer. The platform needed to surface financial and HR data in a way that every user type would read the same way, regardless of their background or role. An HR manager and a finance director looking at the same screen needed to reach the same conclusion. Designing for that kind of consistency, across that much data, is where most products get it wrong.
McKinsey & Company
The Solution
We worked through the full product systematically: mapping all user roles, designing flows for each, and building a visual language for the data that held together across the whole platform.
Figma
Every screen was designed around how the user actually needed to work, not around what the data looked like in Excel. Compliance requirements were built into the flows rather than added as a layer on top. The data visualisations were standardised across the platform so that numbers meant the same thing wherever they appeared.
McKinsey & Company
McKinsey & Company
Results
Famaash raised $450K in funding and closed their first enterprise clients shortly after launch. A company that was weeks away from failing shipped a product that now scales on real user feedback, not spreadsheet assumptions.
Screens
That has been designed
Funding $
Raised after the platform launched
Hours
Of design work across the full product
The team went from managing everything in spreadsheets to running an international HR platform with compliant onboarding, centralised HR management and payroll in one place.
McKinsey & Company
Final thoughts
Famaash came to us with a vision, a deadline and Excel sheets. The complexity of what needed to be built multiple roles, cross-border compliance, financial data that had to read clearly for everyone, meant there was no room for vague design decisions. Every screen had to work.
McKinsey & Company
Faisal Shabir
Mehreen Khan
Consultant at McKinsey & Company
Consultant at McKinsey & Company
Previous Project
Next Project
Let’s unlock what’s
possible together.
Start your project today or book a 15-min one-on-one if you have any questions.
Let’s unlock what’s
possible together.
Start your project today or book a 15-min one-on-one if you have any questions.
Let’s unlock what’s
possible together.
Start your project today or book a 15-min one-on-one if you have any questions.