Optimization at scale.
Clipping software took off with the rise of gaming content in the 2010s. Competition abounds, but Medal remained ahead — its lightweight clipping software works with minimal GPU usage, avoiding an impact to gaming (and general) performance, and its social feed set it apart from the crowd, giving gamers a place to share their moments and grow their audience.
My challenge at Medal was to tackle design improvements that touched the flows of over a million daily active users without breaking their muscle memory, which is key for the gaming industry where power users are the majority. I worked on simplifying their built-in video editor, the library — which at the time was extremely hard to navigate and lacked load optimization — expanded their then-simple profile pages, and set the foundations for their new mobile app, aimed to capture the mobile gaming and social media consumer market.
Cross-platform gamified growth.
As a Senior Product Designer, I paired up with a PM each sprint depending on the area to tackle — Mobile, Video Editor and Clipping, or Desktop. The PM and I would collaborate on user research and data analysis, mapping out potential ideas that would move meaningful metrics, follow the CEO’s weekly vision, and address direct user feedback. The first two days would be dedicated to intense, low-fi iterations and mockups, and the rest of the week would focus on rapid hi-fi iterations, spec writing, and discussions with the PM and engineering to ensure the project was ready for the next engineering sprint.
Four product areas carried most of it, plus an acquisition to absorb and a platform partner to design for.
Revamped the desktop feed, focusing on easier social interactions, commenting, and sharing. Surfaced profile recommendations.
Collaborated with my team of 4 designers and the engineering team in simplifying the editor, optimizing for faster performance, intuitive editing to be easily translatable into a later mobile version, and updating the trimming and overlay features.
One identity across PC, console and the then-new mobile app. Created a richer profile experience, introducing gamified badges, stats, cleaner clips section, and more easily editable banners.
Laid the groundwork for profiles and integrated profile previews within a modern vertical video feed. Created new onboarding from the ground up, reducing user friction on sign ups and sign ins.
Worked with the joining team (including the now-CEO) on product integration after the acquisition, harnessing their automated highlight-capture technology inside Medal's own capture software.
Designed mockups for the initial company agreements, working inside both companies' brand guidelines and feature-usage rules.
The work that wasn't a ticket.
As a Senior Product Designer working with a complex product, every design decision had to be made with consideration for the upkeep and scalability of our systems, and with a vision for rapid growth and expansion. Every week, regardless of sprint tasks, included:
- Emergent technology explorations with the CEO: NFTs, crypto, automation, AI
- Regular upkeep and updating of the design system
- Writing specs with the PMs for the development team
- Meeting engineers building my designs — answering questions, adapting where needed
- Feature concepts taken from ‘what if’ to something evaluable
- Brand-partner mockups that became commercial agreements
- Direct 1:1 discussions with the CEO on where the product could and should go