People, process and practise to enable a design-first organisation.
Airmeet is a virtual events platform for marketers. Online events for hosting conferences, workshops, trade fairs, etc were a nascent space where multiple new players competed. Airmeet was an early challenger and among the top three leaders. Airmeet wanted to be a design-driven organisation where design stood out as the product USP.
Culture takes years to cultivate. Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash
Enabling Design-Culture
User research enabled the discovery of marketers' needs and aspirations. A future focus team was created to work on exploratory concepts to build a competitive advantage. Bi-weekly design reviews helped bring visibility into the design process, communicating the design rationale and justification of the desired outcomes. It democratised participation in the ideation and final decisions on implementation.
Below is a detailed presentation of the people, process, execution and learnings.
The initial focus was to resolve issues with learning, adoption, & ease of use. The event setup was redesigned to aid easy understanding and quick adoption. Templates were introduced to show utility and increase the frequency of use. Backstage Studio and Live event were enhanced with features to increase attendee engagement during a live event.
Achievements
Increased activation rates by reducing the learning curve The time to set up a conference dropped from 45 to 15 days. The time to set up a shorter format of events was reduced from 15 days to 3 days. 70% of active users migrated to the new design and gave an average rating of 4 out of 5.
Increased product utility & reduced dropoff The introduction of templates helped users discover & create other event usescases. 62% of new users used templates & 40% of events were of types other than webinar & conference.
Aligned product to marketers’ aspirations Brand customisation options made it compelling for marketers wanting to promote their brand.
Restructured the design team as a visioning function Reduced the design team cost by 50%. Created a Future focus team that led the discovery & ideation of new product features to deliver competitive advantage.
Team members on a visit to the 'Museum of Goa' during a team outing.
"Thank you for making work fun." - Nitesh Soni
I nurtured a high-performance team of 21 designers (2 researchers, 5 visual designers, 11 interaction designers, and 5 contractors) who collectively delivered across user research, information architecture, design principles and design language. The implementation spanned across the web, mobile web & mobile apps (iPad, iOS & Android).