Unqork
Unqork specializes in no-code app development for large companies. Its platform enables users to quickly create complex features using a visual tool. I joined Unqork in June 2020 and led multiple pillars during my 3.5 years of tenure: Module Builder (visual IDE application builder), Business Process Automation (aka Workflow), Creator Productivity, Runtime Engine, and UDesigner (building Unqork with Unqork). I also managed two associate designers and served as Interim Head of Design for a time.
Case Study: Closing the gap between No-Code and Styling
Is Unqork truly 'No-Code'? Not for modern interfaces.
Unqork empowers “Creators” to build enterprise-grade applications using pre-packaged no-code components for UI, logic, and data. But while the platform promised speed and flexibility, it fell short on one critical expectation: styling. For customers, ranging from global banks to insurance tech startups, brand identity wasn’t optional. The inability to customize the look and feel of their applications without diving into raw CSS became a major blocker. Some refused to sign contracts. Others flooded internal teams with bespoke requests, creating mounting technical debt and eroding trust in Unqork’s no-code promise.
Styling was consistently cited as a top complaint across users and internal teams alike. I led a full discovery process to reimagine what styling could look like if it were truly self-service. Grounded in research, internal feedback, and roadmap reviews, I crafted a vision for WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) and evolved it into something bolder: “What you design is what you get.” This work not only shaped our roadmap, but was championed by the CEO and CTO at Unqork’s annual conference as a signal of our evolving product vision.
Understanding a core technical constraint
Interviews with technical leaders revealed that Unqork’s components are built from monolithic structures, making them hard to edit and style. They prefer a more granular, atomic approach to reduce tech debt and improve component styling. Thus, I explored scaling granular systems, starting with re-reading Brad Frost's “Atomic Design”, and I created documentation to help teams understand how Unqork might ingest design system concepts. I hypothesized that if Unqork assets were defined atomically, any component could be built from atomic units, and atomic units could be accessed from any hierarchy level.
Collaborative discovery to surface high-impact roadmap opportunities
To reimagine how managing UI worked in Unqork, I mapped the end-to-end customer journey alongside stakeholders across design, engineering, and product management. I facilitated collaborative workshops, and we collectively identified key Jobs-to-Be-Done such as enabling non-technical Creators to quickly build interfaces, apply consistent branding, and ensuring compliance. These activities exposed clear opportunity areas where we could make bold bets on our future roadmap.
Storytelling to drive roadmap investments
To help define and drive roadmap investments, I partnered closely with Product and Engineering to validate ideas and demonstrate the value of atomic composition within Unqork. I mapped out key moments in the user journey and translated them into visual narratives and interactive prototypes. These artifacts helped bring customer pain points to life and made the case for productized styling solutions. By pairing storytelling with tangible examples, I aligned stakeholders and senior leaders around a shared vision for simplifying the styling experience.
Driving outcomes
After socializing and iterating on solutions, I was pleased to see concepts become reality. Senior leaders from Unqork and our customers were excited about easily styling their applications. Our teams appreciated a solution grounded in Atomic Design. The ‘Self-Service Styling’ initiative became a major investment, currently being developed by our cross-functional teams.
Case Study: Multi-Player Orchestration
Role: I was the Lead Product Designer for Workflow for ~15 months. During that time, I collaborated closely with partners in Product and Engineering. My thought partners in developing experiences included internal SMEs and customers.
Understanding the current state
Workflow is an Unqork tool for crafting business processes via a visual drag-and-drop interface, managing user journeys, data routing, and API connections. Previously, Unqork workflows were linear, non-collaborative, and inefficient, requiring multiple roles to wait for task completion.
Listening to customers revealed a desire for workflows that enhance collaboration among roles in business processes. End-users should work in parallel with automation to assist their tasks.
Exploring solutions
I worked with Product and ENG to develop solutions for customer needs. The main workflow issue was the inability to bifurcate submission data. We created the “Inclusive Gateway” and “Parallel Gateway” to address this, and I illustrated these concepts to align teams on next steps.
Continuous learning drives final product delivery
As ENG developed the MVP for the feature set, my Product partner and I engaged with customers and internal stakeholders. We recognized that multiple parallel users relied on each other within the workflow. Although users could work simultaneously, guardrails were necessary to prevent delays in the business process due to dependencies.
Impact:
Account teams marketed the Parallel Execution features in the subsequent sales cycles and noted a high adoption rate from customers. Read more about Parallel Execution from Unqork’s marketing materials.