Fraction case study

The challenge

Most workforce tools today are rooted in outdated systems; extensions of ERP software built to track budgets, assign departments, and ensure payroll accuracy. While functional, they’re not designed to reflect how modern work actually happens.

This leaves companies flying blind when it comes to understanding their teams. Without visibility into how people collaborate across roles, projects, and priorities, leaders struggle to answer basic questions, like who’s working on what, where resources are blocked, or how to best support career growth.

Fraction set out to shift this paradigm, from static, top-down structures to more agile, dynamic models of work.

Approach

To ground the product in real-world needs, we conducted over 100 discovery conversations with companies across different industries. These sessions helped us unpack the limitations of existing tools and gave us a clearer picture of how teams actually work beyond what traditional org charts and ERP systems reveal. We used these insights to explore new ways of solving core workflow and visibility challenges.

We then partnered closely with four companies to validate our assumptions and pressure-test early ideas. Through iterative cycles of sketching, prototyping, and feedback, we narrowed the scope of the product, clarifying who it’s for, what it needs to do, and how it fits into existing workflows. This collaborative process helped shape a more focused, impactful solution.

Solution

Fraction is a workforce planning platform designed to give companies a live view into how work actually gets done. By centralising employee data from core systems, it helps teams visualise how their organisation operates in practice surfacing people gaps, highlighting risks, and aligning work to business outcomes.

With Fraction, customers can build hiring plans, model resourcing scenarios, spin up new teams, track budgets, and optimise how talent is allocated across the business. The product supports both high-level planning and day-to-day operational clarity.

Approach

In the foundational phase, I developed a design strategy from the ground up, collaborating closely with engineering and product to ensure technical feasibility and timeline alignment. We conducted competitor mapping, architecture, and wireframe development, along with extensive research. By engaging with DevOps engineers and the community, we addressed key pain points and set the foundation for a successful Beta version.

Designing the interface required balancing flexibility with focus. Given the customisable nature of the platform, the UI needed to adapt to complex org structures, support an infinite canvas for team planning, and enable direct manipulation of data across interactive tables, dynamic org charts, and contextual analytics. We leveraged components from ANT Design for foundational elements, but built a largely bespoke system to serve Fraction’s unique feature set and usability goals.

Throughout, we anchored the experience around three core principles:
Lightweight and snappy. Built for everyday use. Designed for direct manipulation.