LAST UPDATED: JUNE 2025

DevRev's

Workflow Engine

About

The Workflow Engine is a no-code builder that lets teams automate internal processes without middleware. With drag-and-drop logic, reusable blocks, and built-in integrations, it enables fast, scalable automation across support, ops, and product workflows.


Designed for clarity and control, it helps teams streamline tasks, reduce manual effort, and move faster with precision.


Details

Timeline

8 Months

My Role

Lead Designer

User Research

Usability Testing

Team

Shashank Singh PM

Shivam Budhia Eng

Satej Bidvai Eng

Pranay Varshney Eng

Umang Malik Eng

Impact

The Workflow Engine has become a mission-critical tool used by thousands of DevRev's customers globally.


The Workflow Engine runs over 33,000 workflows daily, with more than 4 million monthly executions and over 2.8 million total workflows created to date. It's powering 11 million+ automated operations across top organizations, with high-frequency usage of logic and ticketing steps.

Problems

  • Internal teams relied heavily on manual, repetitive tasks like ticket triage, escalations, and customer updates.

  • Each organization had unique operational processes, but existing tools offered rigid, one-size-fits-all workflows.

  • No unified system existed to automate tasks across product, support, and operations without engineering involvement.

  • Relying on middleware or stitching together tools created complexity, delays, and brittleness.

  • Business users lacked the flexibility and control to create, modify, or debug their own automations.

Getting Started

I set out to design a visual workflow builder that could meet the needs of fast-moving, cross-functional teams - without the complexity of traditional automation tools. The first step was to get the concepts clear, understanding rule builders and conditions.

For this, I decided to conduct a competitor analysis focusing on some of the most prevalent and well-known workflow engines and automation builders in the market, like Attio, Tray.io, Zapier, Microsoft BI, etc.

a snippet of the FigJam documenting the analysis - for each platform, I took screenshots of different parts of the user journey to compare how tasks were carried out on each of them.

After reviewing leading workflow and automation platforms, I began visualizing the foundational layout of our builder. I wanted the interface to feel intuitive yet powerful, segmenting the workspace into clear, functional zones.


An early structure helped define the spatial architecture of the product:

Area

Purpose

Key Features

Canvas

The central space where users construct and visualize their automation flows.


- Drag & drop building blocks
- Node connectors (e.g. "+" button)
- Zoom, branch logic, playback, and flow animation

Node Library

Left-side panel providing the user with flow components and integrations.


- Searchable list of available triggers, conditions, actions
- Third-party integrations
- Suggested templates


Properties Panel

A right-side panel for configuring specific node settings.

- Dynamic configuration based on node type
- Form inputs like dropdowns, text fields, JSON views


Header

Global utility panel across the builder


- Search, edit, save, and test actions
- System status & updates


Tools

Quick access to most frequent actions


- Undo, redo, zooming in and out, duplication, etc.