PRODUCT DESIGN CASE STUDY
PROJECT 300
Making FRONTSTEPS Manager the tool community managers open first and close last — moving the core daily and weekly workflows out of a legacy desktop app and into the browser.
ROLE
Lead Product Designer
PLATFORM
FRONTSTEPS Manager - Web and Mobile
TOOLS
Figma, Claude Design,
80%
of daily CAM workflows running in Manager
13/15
capability epics designed & built
500
daily active users — adoption target
July 31
target delivery milestone
OVERVIEW
What is Project 300?
Project 300 builds the FRONTSTEPS Manager capabilities needed to complete the core daily and weekly workflows for management-company staff — community management and accounting — so teams can run most of their CAM and accounting work inside Manager as their primary operating system.
The goal isn't total parity overnight. It's a tipping point: enough workflow coverage, reliability, and polish that Manager becomes the tool managers open first and close last — and that Sales can demo end-to-end without caveats.
BEFORE - CALIBER
A Legacy desktop dependency
Caliber is a legacy desktop application — harder to maintain, harder to evolve, and increasingly out of step with modern cloud software. Every billing, vendor, or reporting task pulled managers back out of the browser.
AFTER - MANAGER
One modern cloud workspace
Manager is cloud-based, accessible from any browser, and designed for the workflows managers actually run every day. Project 300 is what makes that real — not just promising — across the full workday.
SELECTED WORK
Full flows, built and shipped
The highest-frequency, hardest Caliber dependencies — designed end-to-end and moving through development as complete, self-serve web workflows inside Manager. A sample below.
Amenity Payments
Accounts Payable Invoices
Invoice review with payment summary, live risk flags, and a visible approval workflow — AP, Manager, and Board tiers tracked from Created to Ready to Pay. Documents auto-filled from email by ALLi.
BUILT
A resident-facing reservation checkout — timeslots, cancellation policy, a clear cost breakdown with convenience fee, security-deposit hold, and saved payment methods — with full manager-side configuration behind it.
Vendor Management
A batch run that lets CAMs select communities, set the period and due dates, apply owner filters, and deliver by PDF, email, or physical mail through the Print Center — with a live delivery summary.
BUILT
BUILT
A searchable, filterable vendor list backing full records — contacts, insurance, documents, work-order and invoice history, ACH, and 1099 data. Removes one of the most cited reasons managers returned to Caliber.
Homeowner Statements
BUILT
DELIVERY
Design is running ahead of delivery
July 31 is the engineering milestone — 80% of daily CAM workflows in Manager. The design track has stayed a step ahead the whole way: every built epic was designed, specced, and handed off before its ship window, including the August and September capabilities.
Design delivered ~2 months ahead of engineering
The Aug–Sept ship items — amenity payments, in-app messaging, and reporting — are already fully designed and in build, so engineering is never waiting on design and the July 31 milestone carries no design risk.
SCOPE
15 Capability Epics
Each epic moves a set of Caliber workflows into Manager. 13 of 15 are designed and built — only delinquency and cross-product notifications remain in flight.
the bottom line
A manager can run their entire workday — reviewing delinquencies, paying invoices, generating statements, producing board packets — entirely inside FRONTSTEPS Manager.