Role
Product Designer
A structured estimation platform replacing Excel-based workflows for a BIM estimation team — tracking RFQs from arrival through qualification, commercial setup, technical estimation, review and approval.
Replacing an Excel-driven estimation process at a BIM consultancy with a structured pipeline for 9 engineers across two offices. I built it in four stages — brief, system, screens, refinement.
Gathered requirements directly from stakeholders — workflows, edge cases, domain terminology — and consolidated everything into a single living markdown brief.
Built a brand-aligned design system from scratch — tokens, typography, components, states — so every screen that followed would feel cohesive.
Used the brief and the design system together to generate the full breadth of screens as interactive HTML prototypes.
Walked through each screen with the team, surfaced issues, refined flows and tightened the visual language until every view was production-ready.
JES Estimation is an RFQ pipeline and calculation engine for Joseph Group's estimation team. It replaces the current Excel-based estimation process with a structured system that tracks every RFQ from arrival through qualification, commercial setup, technical estimation, multi-level review and final approval — ready for the Proposal Creator to build the client proposal.
Every RFQ was estimated in a web of Excel sheets. No visibility into where each one sat, no SLA tracking, no load balancing across engineers, no single place to see pipeline health, and no audit trail for commercial parameters or reviews.
A two-layer system — a Kanban pipeline manager for visibility and a structured estimation engine that replaces the spreadsheets. Every working area is a filtered view of the same RFQ table, so the work IS the move: finish a step, the card shifts columns automatically.
Five distinct roles drive the flow: Sales Admin creates the RFQ → Estimation Manager checks inputs and sets commercial parameters → Estimation Engineer does the calculations → EM reviews → OM approves → Proposal Creator ships the client proposal.
EMs see the whole pipeline — what's on track, what's overdue, what's stuck. SLA clocks, priority flags and on-hold handling are built in. Engineers work inside a structured estimation window instead of scattered sheets, and every number is reviewable, auditable and reusable.
Creates new RFQs in the system, attaches scope docs and NAS links, tracks submitted RFQs read-only through the pipeline and adds notes as things change with the client.
The pipeline owner — reviews incoming RFQs, qualifies or disqualifies, sets up commercial parameters, assigns engineers, runs Level-1 reviews and manages hold, priority and rework.
Does the actual estimation — selects deliverables, builds line items, disciplines, packages and sheet counts, auto-calculates manhours and pricing inside the structured estimation window.
Final approval gate — reviews EM-reviewed estimates, signs off, handles disqualification approvals and releases the RFQ to the Proposal Creator.
Picks up approved estimations from the queue, builds the client-facing proposal deck and tracks it through Proposing → Proposal Sent.
Login and the role-specific dashboards — one landing page per persona, filtered to what that role actually needs.
How RFQs enter the system, get checked for completeness and set up with commercial parameters.
The core estimation work — line items, pricing, reviews and rework handling.
OM approvals, hold and cancel flows, and moving RFQs through the pipeline lifecycle.
Proposal Creator handoff, views and system settings.