gener8tor
Overview
gener8tor is a startup accelerator and venture capital firm with programs spanning across the globe. Their goal is to educate individuals and teams on entrepreneurship in a wide variety of markets.
gener8tor needed to increase design efforts on their internal software dashboard that the engineering team was building. The dashboard was going to be used as a one-stop shop for all programs, stakeholders, and knowledge every offering. I was added to the team to build a design system and high-fidelity prototypes in Figma. I also worked with the gener8tor Music team to streamline sponsorship messaging, so we built a customized deck for conversations.
Discovery
When getting involved with this engineering project, it was about 20% complete. I needed to become familiar with the intricacies of the system in its current state. The project was not fully flushed out, so I also needed to understand where I could fill any gaps.
As for the partnership deck, the Music team did not have collateral to use in general conversations. The team would have one-on-one meetings with potential sponsors and was not able to send anything substantial after.
Before we began designing, the engineering lead wanted to further understand how a low-fidelity prototype landed with users. We decided to conduct user interviews to predict future failures in the dashboard. The interview subjects were current employees from each product line. Doing so allowed me to fully realize the root cause and understand next steps.
The gener8tor Music team needed a resource to share in conversation about the program's success. It was important to continue reminding the potential sponsors why they should help fund the program and artists involved.
Delivery
We decided that we should create reusable components for engineers to copy and paste code for each section. This allowed us to swiftly create the necessary pieces. The brand elements were already created in Figma, which also made the creation process simpler.
We created the gener8tor Music partnership deck in Adobe Illustrator to ensure customization. Luckily, the team had experience in Adobe, so they could edit the document themselves.
After designing further, we conducted additional user testing with the same set of employees and others from similar product lines. From these, at a high-level, we validated the need for the product. We also learned that the prototype was time-conscious and required continued learning.
Instead of iterating the prototype based on user testing, the engineering team went ahead with development of the initial product. Then, we conducted pilot testing to implement the first phase of the project.
We had in-depth conversations with the Music team to edit the partnership deck based on their previous experience and past conversations.
Results
Our team was able to finalize the design system in Figma. Unfortunately, the project and engineering lead left the company before our team could finish developing the dashboard, and the company decided not to continue development.
We were able to finalize the partnership deck, see below. It was important to synthesize messaging into concise and generalized information. The gener8tor Music team continues to utilize this deck during sponsorship conversations.
