Imagine Impact
THE BRIEF
Design an app for Imagine Impact’s screenwriting accelerator that showcases and sells scripts to distinguished studio buyers.
THE CHALLENGE
An easy-to-navigate marketplace that cuts out the need for agents by making it efficient and fun to find new content and creators.
MY ROLE
Research, interview, strategize, wireframe, and prototype. Designs included iOS, Android, Web, and Tablet.
THE RESULT
After launching the app in June 2019, Impact secured its Series A funding from VC firm Benchmark in September 2020.
User Research
I conducted interviews with studio buyers and creators (script writers) who helped us understand their goals/needs at the end of Impact’s accelerator. Both personas had distinct tasks to complete - creators needed visibility and sales, and buyer’s needed content.
I learned the industry currently relies heavily on agents, assistants, and low-level executives to curate creators. Our goal was to rid the need of these gatekeepers between the two personas, and create a two-sided marketplace where creators could find work, and buyers could find content.
Competitive Landscape
After conducting the user research, my next step was to look at existing products on the market that intuitively catered content and people to users. My goal in looking at these products was to identify the core feature needs to succeed in a saturated market.
I looked at entertainment websites like the Blacklist and social networking platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram to compare different ways of presenting people to the public. I also looked at streaming services like Netflix and Hulu to understand how content can be easily searched and consumed.
Lastly, I took notes from IMDB, which buyers used as their main source of truth to view new hires’ backgrounds/resumes.
Making Creators Stand Out
Imagery & Tag Line
Text heavy cards proved visually overwhelming. To help scripts stand out amongst others, I encouraged creators to add movie posters and write a succinct 1-2 sentence synopsis of their script.
Profiles Page
Buyers wanted to see Creator’s industry representation, portfolio, and work experience before reaching out to them. I designed a scalable profile that encourages buyers to get in contact.
The Product
Home.
The home screen is a dedicated space in the app for the Impact team to curate new content to buyers based on their preferences and past views. Project listings are presented here along with tags that indicate their sale status and popularity.
Discover.
The discovery tab is where buyers can quickly search and/or filter content and creators. The buyer’s I spoke to typically searched scripts by genre, and searched creators by their agency.
Optimizing Buying.
Fixed to the bottom of the project listing is a button to ‘Request Script’ which sends a script to the buyer’s email. This request sets off a series of alerts to help facilitate the sale. From a data standpoint, this button enabled us to capture buyer’s interest and measure likelihood of purchase.
