Loop Team

Role:

Senior Product Designer

Founding designer, 7 ~ engineers

Team:

Scope:

Desktop app, end-to-end

Brief:

0 to 1 desktop app

What was Loop Team?

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, remote work was on the rise. Despite this, few tools were tailored to the remote worker’s experience. As a remote worker, you could not see the comings and goings of people, who was speaking with whom, what meetings were happening, etc. You missed out on serendipitous conversations, and were often informed of key decisions being made without context.

 

My work on Loop Team aimed to change all of this—by designing a product to make distributed teams feel more connected to both what is happening right now and what happened in the past.

Early Ideation

Loop Team was not focused on the remote worker experience at the outset. Our original goal was to build a product that automatically generated meeting notes. To do this, we needed a way to categorize meetings while also reducing the hassle of constantly generating new meeting URLs, so we introduced a channel system (Rooms) similar to Slack and Slite.

 

Unfortunately, our users found the automatically generated notes to be lackluster. However, remote workers in our alpha testing group found delight in seeing who was meeting in which room and when. While we wouldn’t drop the AI aspect of the app, we shifted our focus towards developing an ideal experience for distributed teams.

Major Product Iterations

Early Loop Team Wireframe

A more formalized early wireframe, where channels were introduced to categorize meetings. Here we had high level meeting minutes that mapped directly to recorded meeting audio, as well as transcript in the fourth column. However, issues regarding the quality of the meeting notes and transcript negatively impacted the usefulness of this UI.

Beginning to visualize the remote office

In this version you can start to see the increased focus on user status. We realized around this time that the app was at a bit of a crossroads--the sidebar navigation was proving to be very delightful to our users but the notes side was still struggling and was too complex.

Sidebar becomes the king

We started building content previously featured exclusively in the notes column into the sidebar navigation. Notes and transcript were deprioritized and the need to have deep drill downs into individual rooms was becoming unnecessary as a result.

An app for remote presence

A reimagined Loop Team. The left column was made more vibrant and attractive as it was playing a more central role in the product. The right hand column became purely high level summary information of all meetings in the org and largely removed meeting transcripts.

Loop Team Key Features

Real-time awareness

In a physical office, you notice coworkers heading to meetings, giving you clues about their discussions. You might even join in if they’re speaking openly. We aimed to create real-time awareness in the digital workplace, allowing you to see conversations as they happen. For instance, you can spot Jag, Mauro, and Vasish in the Engineering room, along with keywords and screenshots from their screen share. You can also see my 1:1 chat with Raj, reflecting the dynamics of a physical office while maintaining privacy.

Real-time context

In a physical office, it's easy to see who is focused and busy by the sounds of typing or silence. This helps you decide whether to interrupt someone.

 

We created a concept called “activity presence,” which enhanced online status by showing not just if a user was busy, but what they were doing. We kept it high level, avoiding app names and using statuses from popular productivity tools, as we didn’t want to monitor employees.

 

If a user spent enough time in an app, they would show a ‘focused’ status, indicating they were in flow. You could also see their local time to know if they were nearing the end of their day.

Real-time people access

In a physical office, chatting is instant—you can jump into conversations without waiting for an invite. We prioritized speed, aiming for quick connection times of 1-2 seconds. Keyboard shortcuts allow advanced users to start chats without a mouse. While we kept the conferencing experience largely the same, we designed a minimalistic UI that can stay on top of other windows, helping users stay engaged even while multitasking.

Try the prototype!

Loop Team Prototype

Results and Reflection

Left: Loop Team public beta available today

 

I was laid off during the Covid-19 pandemic and missed the public beta launch of Loop Team. However, my design work influenced the final product. A key change was the removal of the transcript and some AI features that didn't meet our accuracy expectations.

 

The product evolved into Pulse, designed for sharing user presence. It integrated with Slack, Teams, and Discord to update real-time status. Although Pulse was successful, it was eventually shut down after being acquired by Mozilla.

< RoundGlass

Mojio Motion >

© Tom Bergman 2025

All Rights Reserved

< RoundGlass

Motion 2.0 >

Loop Team

Role:

Founding designer, 7 ~ engineers

Senior Product Designer

Scope:

Desktop app, end-to-end

Team:

Brief:

0 to 1 desktop app

What was Loop Team?

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, remote work was on the rise. Despite this, few tools were tailored to the remote worker’s experience. As a remote worker, you could not see the comings and goings of people, who was speaking with whom, what meetings were happening, etc. You missed out on serendipitous conversations, and were often informed of key decisions being made without context.

 

My work on Loop Team aimed to change all of this—by designing a product to make distributed teams feel more connected to both what is happening right now and what happened in the past.

Early Ideation

Loop Team was not focused on the remote worker experience at the outset. Our original goal was to build a product that automatically generated meeting notes. To do this, we needed a way to categorize meetings while also reducing the hassle of constantly generating new meeting URLs, so we introduced a channel system (Rooms) similar to Slack and Slite.

 

Unfortunately, our users found the automatically generated notes to be lackluster. However, remote workers in our alpha testing group found delight in seeing who was meeting in which room and when. While we wouldn’t drop the AI aspect of the app, we shifted our focus towards developing an ideal experience for distributed teams.

Major Product Iterations

Early Loop Team Wireframe

A more formalized early wireframe, where channels were introduced to categorize meetings. Here we had high level meeting minutes that mapped directly to recorded meeting audio, as well as transcript in the fourth column. However, issues regarding the quality of the meeting notes and transcript negatively impacted the usefulness of this UI.

Beginning to visualize the remote office

In this version you can start to see the increased focus on user status. We realized around this time that the app was at a bit of a crossroads--the sidebar navigation was proving to be very delightful to our users but the notes side was still struggling and was too complex.

Sidebar becomes the king

We started building content previously featured exclusively in the notes column into the sidebar navigation. Notes and transcript were deprioritized and the need to have deep drill downs into individual rooms was becoming unnecessary as a result.

An app for remote presence

A reimagined Loop Team. The left column was made more vibrant and attractive as it was playing a more central role in the product. The right hand column became purely high level summary information of all meetings in the org and largely removed meeting transcripts.

Loop Team Key Features

Real-time awareness

In a physical office, you notice coworkers heading to meetings, giving you clues about their discussions. You might even join in if they’re speaking openly. We aimed to create real-time awareness in the digital workplace, allowing you to see conversations as they happen. For instance, you can spot Jag, Mauro, and Vasish in the Engineering room, along with keywords and screenshots from their screen share. You can also see my 1:1 chat with Raj, reflecting the dynamics of a physical office while maintaining privacy.

Real-time context

In a physical office, it's easy to see who is focused and busy by the sounds of typing or silence. This helps you decide whether to interrupt someone.

 

We created a concept called “activity presence,” which enhanced online status by showing not just if a user was busy, but what they were doing. We kept it high level, avoiding app names and using statuses from popular productivity tools, as we didn’t want to monitor employees.

 

If a user spent enough time in an app, they would show a ‘focused’ status, indicating they were in flow. You could also see their local time to know if they were nearing the end of their day.

Real-time people access

In a physical office, chatting is instant—you can jump into conversations without waiting for an invite. We prioritized speed, aiming for quick connection times of 1-2 seconds. Keyboard shortcuts allow advanced users to start chats without a mouse. While we kept the conferencing experience largely the same, we designed a minimalistic UI that can stay on top of other windows, helping users stay engaged even while multitasking.

Try the prototype!

Loop Team Prototype

Results and Reflection

Left: Loop Team public beta available today

 

Unfortunately, I was laid off due to the Covid-19 pandemic and was no longer an employee when Loop Team’s public beta shipped. However, much of my design work and thinking feature prominently in the final product. One of the most significant changes was the removal of transcript and much of the AI learnings which had not provided the accuracy we had originally hoped for.

 

The product eventually evolved and became Pulse, which was purely a product for sharing a user’s presence. Pulse ultimately integrated with other products such as Slack, Teams, and Discord to dynamically update and share your real-time presence status. Pulse was successful and growing but ultimately shut down after being acquired by Mozilla.

< RoundGlass

Mojio Motion >

© Tom Bergman 2025 All Rights Reserved

Loop Team

Role:

Founding designer, 7 ~ engineers

Team:

Senior Product Designer

Scope:

Desktop app, end-to-end

Brief:

0 to 1 desktop app

What was Loop Team?

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, remote work was on the rise. Despite this, few tools were tailored to the remote worker’s experience. As a remote worker, you could not see the comings and goings of people, who was speaking with whom, what meetings were happening, etc. You missed out on serendipitous conversations, and were often informed of key decisions being made without context.

 

My work on Loop Team aimed to change all of this—by designing a product to make distributed teams feel more connected to both what is happening right now and what happened in the past.

Early Ideation

Loop Team was not focused on the remote worker experience at the outset. Our original goal was to build a product that automatically generated meeting notes. To do this, we needed a way to categorize meetings while also reducing the hassle of constantly generating new meeting URLs, so we introduced a channel system (Rooms) similar to Slack and Slite.

 

Unfortunately, our users found the automatically generated notes to be lackluster. However, remote workers in our alpha testing group found delight in seeing who was meeting in which room and when. While we wouldn’t drop the AI aspect of the app, we shifted our focus towards developing an ideal experience for distributed teams.

Major Product Iterations

Early Loop Team Wireframe

A more formalized early wireframe, where channels were introduced to categorize meetings. Here we had high level meeting minutes that mapped directly to recorded meeting audio, as well as transcript in the fourth column. However, issues regarding the quality of the meeting notes and transcript negatively impacted the usefulness of this UI.

Beginning to visualize the remote office

In this version you can start to see the increased focus on user status. We realized around this time that the app was at a bit of a crossroads--the sidebar navigation was proving to be very delightful to our users but the notes side was still struggling and was too complex.

Sidebar becomes the king

We started building content previously featured exclusively in the notes column into the sidebar navigation. Notes and transcript were deprioritized and the need to have deep drill downs into individual rooms was becoming unnecessary as a result.

An app for remote presence

A reimagined Loop Team. The left column was made more vibrant and attractive as it was playing a more central role in the product. The right hand column became purely high level summary information of all meetings in the org and largely removed meeting transcripts.

Loop Team Key Features

Real-time awareness

In a physical office, you notice coworkers heading to meetings, giving you clues about their discussions. You might even join in if they’re speaking openly. We aimed to create real-time awareness in the digital workplace, allowing you to see conversations as they happen. For instance, you can spot Jag, Mauro, and Vasish in the Engineering room, along with keywords and screenshots from their screen share. You can also see my 1:1 chat with Raj, reflecting the dynamics of a physical office while maintaining privacy.

Real-time context

In a physical office, it's easy to see who is focused and busy by the sounds of typing or silence. This helps you decide whether to interrupt someone.

 

We created a concept called “activity presence,” which enhanced online status by showing not just if a user was busy, but what they were doing. We kept it high level, avoiding app names and using statuses from popular productivity tools, as we didn’t want to monitor employees.

 

If a user spent enough time in an app, they would show a ‘focused’ status, indicating they were in flow. You could also see their local time to know if they were nearing the end of their day.

Real-time people access

In a physical office, chatting is instant—you can jump into conversations without waiting for an invite. We prioritized speed, aiming for quick connection times of 1-2 seconds. Keyboard shortcuts allow advanced users to start chats without a mouse. While we kept the conferencing experience largely the same, we designed a minimalistic UI that can stay on top of other windows, helping users stay engaged even while multitasking.

Try the prototype!

Loop Team Prototype

Results and Reflection

Left: Loop Team public beta available today

 

I was laid off during the Covid-19 pandemic and missed the public beta launch of Loop Team. However, my design work influenced the final product. A key change was the removal of the transcript and some AI features that didn't meet our accuracy expectations.

 

The product evolved into Pulse, designed for sharing user presence. It integrated with Slack, Teams, and Discord to update real-time status. Although Pulse was successful, it was eventually shut down after being acquired by Mozilla.

< RoundGlass
Mojio Motion >

© Tom Bergman 2025 All Rights Reserved

< RoundGlass

Motion 2.0 >