Worked equally well on Jilly & Tibbe, if by housetraining you mean training them to hold their bowel/bladder until they were taken outside. I haven't tried it on potty pad training but I guess theoretically it could work the same if they were only in the crate for short periods of time as young dogs & there were no pads in the crate for them to want to use. Dogs usually don't like to use slick surfaces to toilet on if they have a choice so if they knew their potty pad were across the room but the crate were slick, had no thicker surface to use, they would likely eventually want to hold their poo/urine until they had a preferred surface to go on & also prefer not to soil the area they were confined to for a short time. That is why I recommend leaving them in the crate only for very short periods when you can't watch them.
But if you are going to leave them crated or fenced into a confined area while you go to work, you will have to provide a larger crate or fence them into an area that has room for a potty pad at one end. Most dogs will then want to relieve themselves on the pad just like they use out in the house rather than the slick surface of the crate of floor or on their bedding where they sleep. But at first, especially, with prolonged time in any crate or fenced area, they may soil their bed or just go anywhere in their crate/area sometimes. But keep at it, eventually they will learn to use the potty pad in the larger crate/fenced area since that is what they use out in the house. They will eventually make that connection that the pad is the place to go.
I just prefer training a dog to go outside as it is natural for them & most love marking their scents outside for the world of other dogs to appreciate(
) & in my experience do adapt to that training much faster, learning to hold it much sooner so they can get outside & do their business where they can spread their scent. Plus, I just don't like the sight or the idea of potty pads in my house. However, if I were to move into an apartment or had no yard, I suspect I, too, would have to use them as I just do not see myself leashing my dog up for each & every potty session, especially on bitter cold days or nights or in driving rain! I would learn how to live with potty pads during bad weather or at night!!!