Experience Strategy & Product Design for a Freelance Talent Marketplace Platform

Product Strategy · Concept Development · User Flows · Information Architecture · UX/UI Design · Design Systems

Torchlite is a SaaS-based on-demand freelance marketplace that connects businesses with vetted marketing professionals, enabling seamless project management, collaboration, onboarding, and payment processing. The platform served three key user groups: Businesses (Customers), Freelancers (Experts), and Marketplace Admins — each requiring tailored workflows to support project posting, service delivery, partner engagement, and financial transactions within a scalable marketplace ecosystem.

The marketplace experience evolved alongside Torchlite’s broader Salesforce-connected SaaS ecosystem, supporting marketplace growth, onboarding workflows, partner collaboration, and scalable engagement between businesses, agencies, freelancers, and platform administrators.

I helped shape product direction and led experience strategy, concept development, user journeys, information architecture, wireframes, and end-to-end UX/UI design for the platform. My work focused on streamlining how customers discover and hire experts, how freelancers showcase their expertise and manage projects, and how admins oversee the marketplace ecosystem through scalable, user-centered workflows and responsive interface systems.

Product Vision & Concept Development

Before defining workflows and interfaces, the work focused on shaping how Torchlite’s marketplace should operate as an experience — not just as a collection of screens.

The challenge involved balancing the needs of three distinct user groups — businesses, freelancers, and administrators — while creating a platform that felt intuitive, scalable, and commercially viable as the product evolved.

Concept exploration focused on:

• Defining the marketplace experience and value exchange between audiences

• Exploring onboarding and activation approaches across user types

• Establishing the platform’s information model and behavioral patterns

• Designing for trust, transparency, and reduced friction throughout the customer journey

• Creating a modular framework that could support future product growth

This early concept work established the foundation for the user flows, information architecture, and UX/UI system that followed.

Key UX Contributions

User Flow & Journey Mapping

• Designed end-to-end user flows for businesses, freelancers, and marketplace admins to ensure frictionless onboarding, project management, collaboration, and payment transactions.

• Defined guided workflows for project requests, expert discovery, onboarding, proposal review, and payment approvals, improving efficiency for both clients and freelancers.

• Mapped scalable engagement workflows supporting freelancer participation, partner referrals, and marketplace ecosystem growth.

Sitemap & Information Architecture

• Created an intuitive platform architecture, organizing key areas like customer dashboards, expert storefronts, admin controls, onboarding resources, and marketplace tools to enhance usability and discoverability.

• Ensured quick access to core features such as project management, invoicing, reporting, collaboration tools, communication systems, and workflow visibility to improve engagement and operational efficiency.

• Structured scalable navigation systems that supported platform growth as the marketplace expanded its freelancer network, service offerings, and onboarding functionality.

Wireframes & UX/UI Design

• Created wireframes, UX flows, and high-fidelity UI concepts supporting scalable marketplace experiences across desktop and responsive environments.

• Designed reusable UI systems and modular interface patterns supporting:

  • Freelancer & Agency Profiles — Enabling users to showcase expertise, services, portfolios, and partner capabilities.

  • Service Discovery & Marketplace Navigation — Supporting search, filtering, category exploration, and scalable partner discovery workflows.

  • Project Collaboration & Engagement — Helping vendors and partners connect with freelancers, agencies, and service providers through structured engagement workflows.

  • Marketplace Ecosystem Integration — Supporting seamless interaction between the marketplace, partner engagement platform, onboarding resources, and CRM-connected workflows.

• Developed scalable design systems and reusable UI components to maintain consistency across evolving marketplace and SaaS product experiences.

Freelancer Portal Enhancements

• Designed personalized storefront experiences for freelancers to showcase their skills, ratings, services, portfolios, and expertise.

• Created flexible project management dashboards allowing freelancers to track progress, communicate with clients, manage deliverables, and oversee ongoing engagements efficiently.

• Developed time-tracking, invoicing, and payment management systems that streamlined billing workflows and financial reporting.

Customer Portal Optimization

• Simplified service request workflows, allowing businesses to post projects, review expert proposals, onboard talent, and approve contracts in fewer steps.

• Designed utilization reports, billing dashboards, and workflow visibility tools giving businesses real-time insight into project spending, ROI, and engagement activity.

• Implemented self-service tools and scalable workflow systems, reducing support overhead and increasing efficiency for both customers and Torchlite admins.

Marketplace Admin Panel

• Developed admin dashboards for monitoring platform activity, approving expert applications, managing customer accounts, and overseeing marketplace operations.

• Designed content moderation, onboarding, customer support, and communication tools enabling marketplace admins to maintain platform integrity and workflow efficiency.

• Created system-wide messaging and notification features supporting announcements, maintenance notices, onboarding communication, and platform updates.

Impact & Results

• Scalable Digital Marketplace — Helped evolve the platform into a scalable two-sided SaaS marketplace, enabling 300+ freelancers within a few short weeks after launch to sell services while helping businesses quickly connect with vetted marketing talent.

• Optimized User Journeys — Reduced friction across expert discovery, onboarding, project requests, collaboration, and payment workflows, improving usability and engagement for both businesses and freelancers.

• Enhanced Business Efficiency — Designed scalable UX/UI workflows that simplified hiring, collaboration, invoicing, reporting, and payment management, allowing businesses to execute marketing initiatives more efficiently.

• Seamless Freelancer Experience — Developed intuitive freelancer interfaces enabling experts to manage projects, communicate with clients, track progress, submit deliverables, and handle billing within a centralized platform experience.

• Sales Enablement & Platform Growth — UX/UI workflows, mockups, and interface concepts were used in onboarding discussions, product demos, and platform presentations as Torchlite expanded its SaaS marketplace and partner engagement ecosystem.

Torchlite’s freelance marketplace platform required a highly adaptable UX/UI framework to support multiple user personas with distinct needs and workflows. My role focused on eliminating friction, improving engagement, and designing scalable experiences across customers, experts, and administrators. By implementing intuitive navigation, structured user flows, reusable interface systems, and scalable UX/UI patterns, I contributed to the successful growth and adoption of Torchlite’s digital marketplace ecosystem.

How this work applies to your project

If you’re planning a website or digital product redesign, this is the kind of strategic UX/UI thinking I bring to every project. Interested in working together?