All your clients. Every platform.
One workspace.
User Research
To understand how freelancers currently manage projects across multiple platforms and the challenges they face, I conducted user interviews with 8 participants (4 who actively use freelance platforms like Fiverr or Upwork, and 4 who primarily work with direct clients through social media or referrals). Additionally, I collected quantitative insights through surveys answered by 60 freelancers from online freelance and creative communities to identify common workflow pain points, tool usage patterns, and platform frustrations.
Key Insights
Freelancers struggle to manage projects scattered across different platforms.
Most track work manually using spreadsheets or chats, leading to disorganization.
Two key user types: platform-based and independent freelancers.
Communication is fragmented across WhatsApp, Fiverr chat, and email.
Users want one dashboard for tasks, payments, and client messages.
Daily progress and payment tracking feel tedious across multiple tools.
Clear milestone and payment visibility is a major need.
Ideation
After defining the problem, the focus shifted to framing key “How Might We” questions:
How might freelancers manage projects from multiple platforms in one place?
How might communication with clients be simplified and centralized?
How might tracking payments, deadlines, and milestones feel effortless?
These questions guided the identification of core features such as a unified dashboard, cross-platform messaging, milestone tracking, and payment management — which formed the foundation of MakersBox.
Unified Dashboard
Users get a complete overview of their freelance business — project statuses, upcoming deadlines, payments, and unread messages — all in one glance.
My Tasks
A centralized task list lets freelancers track what’s in progress, upcoming, or pending, with priority labels, deadlines, and progress indicators.
Project Management
Manage all projects — from platform-based gigs to direct client work — with milestones, subtasks, client details, platform tags, and payment tracking, reducing fragmented workflows.
What I learned
Building MakersBox revealed how fragmented freelancers’ workflows really are. Users don’t just want tools—they want a single space to manage projects, communicate with clients, and track payments effortlessly. The biggest takeaway was that clarity, simplicity, and seamless cross-platform integration matter more than adding every possible feature.
Freelancers juggle projects, clients, and payments across multiple platforms, causing disorganization and missed updates. There’s no unified workspace to manage everything in one place.
Problem Statement
Let's discuss
akshahyathiyadath@gmail.com
©akshayathiyadath, 2026. All rights reserved.
Journey Mapping
Journey maps illustrate how freelancers move from receiving a project to completing it across multiple platforms. They highlight user emotions and friction points such as lost messages, missed deadlines, or scattered payments guiding design decisions for a smoother, more efficient workflow.
