Mobile App Design, Strategy & Advising 2013

I helped a very early stage startup turn their early business model into a viable product, helping them to design and refine their first release, helping them to scale their team and ultimately get acquired by Yahoo.

Donna is a mobile personal assistant that helps you with your daily activities, including prepping for meetings, getting around town, and anticipating what you might need as support. 

When the Incredible Labs team approached me, they had a functional prototype of a product that landed them a first round of funding. I initially flew to San Francisco to lead an intensive two day workshop to layout the framework and assumptions that needed to tested for the initial minimum viable product. In 6 weeks, we created wireframes and visual designs for a first testable product and created a research plan to vet the product with real users, including executives, managers and personal assistants.

Over the course of a year, we continued to iterate on the product based on real data. In that time, a number of major competitors came into play, and we helped the company to pivot the new product while staying true to the original vision of a personal assistant that truly knows you. 

The product and the team that built it was acquired by Yahoo in Q1 of 2014.

ACTIVITIES:

// Ethnography

// Prototyping

// UX & Information Architecture

// Interaction Design

// Art Direction & Moodboarding

// Visual Design

// Usability Research

// UI Writing

// Brand Strategy & Identity

// Promotional Work