Capbase is a company that understands the challenges and complexities of running a business, especially for startups. With the core belief that every company needs a single system to manage all aspects of their legal and financial back office, Capbase offers a comprehensive solution to help startups navigate the cumbersome and expensive processes of running a business.

In the Stock Plan section project, our goal was to provide a comprehensive solution for managing a company's stock pool. As companies grow and mature, managing their stock pool becomes increasingly complex and time-consuming. With our Stock Plan section, we aim to simplify this process by providing a user-friendly interface that allows businesses to easily manage their stock pool and keep track of their equity.

This section will be a valuable addition to Capbase's suite of tools, enabling us to provide ongoing support to businesses at every stage of their journey, from incorporation to exit.

My role

As the sole designer for this project, I was responsible for leading the entire design process from start to finish, including working closely with stakeholders and the engineering team. Given the technical nature of the project, it was important to have a deep understanding of the stock plan and all of the edge cases involved in its operation.

To ensure that the design accurately reflected these requirements, I worked collaboratively with stakeholders to develop a comprehensive list of requirements and held multiple design reviews to ensure that everyone was on the same page. I'm excited to see the impact this project will have on our users once it's implemented and to continue refining and improving upon it over time.

How do we support companies as they grow?

The Stock Plan Section project is highly relevant to companies as they evolve, because managing stock plans is an important aspect of company ownership and governance. As companies grow and mature, they typically issue more stock options, restricted stock units, and other equity-based compensation to employees, contractors, and advisors. This can become a complex process that requires careful management to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and alignment with the company's business goals.

By offering a comprehensive tool for managing stock plans, Capbase can support companies not only at the beginning of their journey but as they continue to scale and evolve. With the Stock Plan Section, Capbase is further positioning itself as a valuable partner for companies at all stages of their growth.

My approach - How I work

Each project is unique so my process differs as well. Presented below are the steps that I followed for this project:

Research

• To understand the problem space, potential solutions, and users, thorough research was conducted. In the case of this project, the research involved comprehending the technical challenges, identifying the changes a stock plan goes through as the company grows, and analyzing customer support requests.

Principles

• Creating design principles helped guide project decisions and ensured alignment among the team. For this project, the principles were developed through workshops with stakeholders and inspired by the issues identified in the research phase.

Design exploration

• To explore a range of potential solutions, a wide range of design ideas were generated. The designs were iterated upon, and discussed to find the most effective solution.

Design Refinement

• After selecting a direction, the chosen design was refined and the visual design was polished. I prepared the designs for handoff to the engineering team and documented the decisions made throughout the process.

Handoff

• Collaborating closely with engineering ensured a successful handoff and implementation process. Detailed documentation was created for developers, including all necessary information. The implementation process started with a kick-off session, and as the designer, I approved each component developed. Before releasing it into production, a user acceptance testing session took place to review the implementation.

What are the current problems faced by our users?

Research is a crucial part of the design process, as it helps designers gain a deep understanding of the problem space, potential solutions, and the users they are designing for. Through research, designers can identify pain points and opportunities, test assumptions, and validate their design decisions.

In this project, I took a unique approach to research by collaborating closely with customer support to gain insights into the issues and requests that users had with the current stock plan functionality. This allowed me to better understand the users' needs and behaviors, which informed the design principles and decisions throughout the project. By conducting this type of research, I was able to ensure that the final design solution was tailored to the users' specific needs and pain points, resulting in a more effective and successful product.

Stakeholder Consultation and Prioritization

One crucial step in the design process is consulting with stakeholders to determine the functionalities that will be covered by the product and setting priorities on what is urgent and what can be deferred to future iterations.

In my approach, I always aim to deliver the most advanced version of the designs possible, but I also structure the design as building blocks so that the basic functionality can be released first, with additional features added in subsequent iterations. This approach allows us to get a sense of how the final product will look like when all features are implemented and ensures that the design of the section is consistent. Additionally, by having all functionalities thought out as a whole rather than a late addition, we can prevent potential conflicts between features and ensure that everything is well-integrated.

By working closely with stakeholders, I ensure that their requirements and needs are taken into account, and their feedback is incorporated throughout the design process. This collaborative approach helps to ensure that the final product is both useful and usable, meeting the needs of both the business and its users.

Key principles

The design of this new feature followed several principles and ideas that guided our approach to creating a successful product. These principles included:

• Educate users in context: Many of the concepts related to the stock plan and issuing share grants are new to founders and entrepreneurs. To help users better understand these concepts, we focused on providing educational resources and information within the context of the product. This included providing explanations and definitions of key terms and concepts, as well as clear instructions on how to perform specific tasks.

• Guide the user on the right path: We also recognized that many actions performed by users in the stock plan would trigger additional changes or events that needed to be addressed. To help guide users through these complex processes, we provided clear and concise information about what would happen next and what steps needed to be taken.

• Visualization of complicated concepts: To make complex concepts such as the distribution of shares and vesting of shares more approachable and understandable, we utilized visual aids and diagrams to help illustrate the various processes and steps involved.

• Keep the user informed on the progress: Finally, we recognized that users needed to be kept informed about the progress of tasks and what steps they needed to take next. To address this, we provided regular updates and notifications to users, letting them know the status of their tasks and any actions they needed to take to complete them successfully.

Dedicated product section

For the Stock Plan section, I designed a main page that presents all relevant information regarding the user's stock plan. The page includes clear call-to-action (CTAs) for users to modify that information.

This section evolves with the growth of the user's company, presenting the history of the stock plan in an easy-to-understand manner.

🎲 A critical aspect of my design is that I made sure to consider all states for the page and its elements. By presenting all of these states, developers can more easily understand how the page and its elements should behave in each situation. This helps to ensure that the implementation of the design is consistent and user-friendly, even in situations that may not have been anticipated during the design phase.

Each action presented on the Stock Plan page - Manage Stock pool, Set FMV, and Issue Share grant - had a dedicated flow where the user was prompted to provide all the relevant information.

I decided to go with the full-page flow because it allows the user to focus solely on the task at hand without any distractions. By having all the necessary fields on the same page, it ensures that the user can provide all the required information in one go, instead of having to jump back and forth between a modal and the main page.

One key aspect that I aimed to cover in designing the Stock Plan page was to provide all of the relevant information that we had in our system to help the user make informed decisions. For instance, when issuing a share grant to an employee, the user would see all of the details regarding that employee, including current grants and vesting schedules. By presenting this curated information at the right time, the user could get an overview of the employee's stock plan and make better decisions.

Additionally, a Benchmark section was added for the Issue share grant to guide the user when issuing a new grant to the employee. This section would display the grant size distribution for similar employees in the company, including the Bottom 25%, Median, and Top 25%. By having this benchmark data, the user could ensure that their grant size is competitive and aligned with the market.

A Rewarding Project that Supports the Growth of Companies' Stock Plans

In conclusion, this project was a lot of work, but it was also incredibly rewarding. I am proud of the end result, and I believe that this is a big step forward for the product.

By creating a flexible and intuitive Stock Plan section, we are better able to support companies as they grow and develop. With this suite of functionalities, companies can easily manage their stock plans and make informed decisions about granting equity to their employees. I look forward to seeing how this new feature will benefit our users and help them achieve their goals.