Overview
Pathable offered an online and mobile event app platform designed to engage attendees at physical events. Their product generated enough revenue to sustain the company since 2008.
In 2017, I was brought on board to lead the design of the next version of the product which we were building from scratch. After almost 6 years of hard work from everyone involved, the company grew from 25 to 130 people and the company's annual recurring revenue from around $1 million to an impressive $30 million.
My contribution
During my time here, I designed all major features, I collaborated closely with the engineers to ensure my designs were properly translated into working features, wrote or reviewed all the front-end code, and actively participated in shaping features with the product owners.
Later, I was entrusted to build a team, handpick talented individuals, and establish a dedicated unit responsible for designing all product features. This team will not only design he features but also handled front-end development and managed a component library essential for our product.
Product design
Over the years, I've had the opportunity to work on numerous features. In this section, I'll highlight one of them to provide insight into my design process. Since you might not be familiar with the product, please keep in mind that not all the decisions we made may be immediately evident to you.
The feature I'd like to showcase is called "Call Now." It was designed to facilitate communication between virtual trade show attendees and booth staff members.
The user story driving this feature was: "As a virtual trade-show attendee, I want to easily contact booth staff representatives so I can make purchases, sell my products, or establish connections to benefit my business."
Our initial step was research. While we understood the attendee's needs, we needed a deeper understanding of the organizations participating in the trade shows. We sought answers to questions like: How many representatives would typically handle calls during the "Live" hours? How long would they be available to manage virtual booths? How should calls be distributed among representatives? Given that calls often led to sales, it was crucial to ensure fair treatment of all staff members.
To gather insights, we collaborated with our sales team and our product owner engaged with them to gather feedback. Concurrently, I conducted one-on-one interviews with our partners and resellers. We consolidated this information to form a comprehensive overview. Once our questions were answered, we validated our ideas with all stakeholders.
I proceeded to work on the prototype, engaging in quick iterations. I believe in sharing my work early to gather as much feedback as possible. This iterative process involved incorporating feedback into my designs and repeating the cycle. With the entire team aware of the design direction, we encountered fewer surprises along the way.
Ultimately, we arrived at a prototype that satisfied everyone on the team. We shared it with stakeholders, the partners who helped shape the requirements, and our sales team. After one final round of refinements, it was done. I'm gonna show a short recording of the prototype so you can get an idea of what we delivered.
This feature exemplifies the iterative and collaborative approach I embrace in my design process. Before giving it over to the development team I wrote this design brief to accompany my design deliverables.
Design leadership
In my role as a design leader at Pathable, I had the privilege of leading a talented design and front-end development team. Here are some of my contributions.
Team Leadership. I served as the head the design and front-end development teams, responsible for guiding and supervising all design-related activities and front-end work within the organization. Hands-On Design Work. In addition to leadership, I actively participated in designing major features. This allowed me to provide direct input and guide the team toward creating user-friendly solutions.
Working with Developers. I maintained close collaboration with our development team to ensure that our design concepts seamlessly translated into functional, user-friendly features.
Front-End Development Oversight. Our front-end developers played a crucial role in bringing our design vision to life. I provided guidance and supervision to ensure the successful integration of design and functionality.
User-Centered Design. A central focus of my approach was emphasizing user-centered design. I encouraged the team to consistently prioritize addressing user needs throughout the design process.
Shaping the Product. I actively contributed to shaping our product features by collaborating closely with product owners. This involved identifying potential challenges, refining requirements, and clearly defining the scope of each feature. We also engaged with partners and clients to gather valuable input and feedback.
My time at Pathable revolved around helping the team succeed, doing great design work, and fostering effective collaboration among team members. This multifaceted role allowed me to contribute significantly to the organization's achievements.
Mentor
As the company expanded, so did our team. We recognized the need for a junior designer to assist with various tasks, so we posted a job ad and received numerous applications. Among the candidates, three individuals stood out, but only one emerged as the best fit for our team - Giulia.
Despite her limited experience, Giulia excelled in the test we asked all the final candidates to complete. Her vibrant personality seemed like a great match for our team, and my initial impression was spot on.
Over the following two years, we embarked on a wide range of projects together. Our collaborative efforts spanned from small to large features, usability studies, and much more. I played a role in helping Giulia achieve several professional milestones, including enhancing her skills as a product designer, improving her coding proficiency, and deepening her understanding of the technical aspects related to her design decisions. We also worked on time management, effective communication with engineers, assertiveness in decision-making, techniques for extracting valuable information from stakeholder meetings, and our personal favorite - how to never be late for meetings (haha, inside joke).
Following her time at Pathable, Giulia pursued a career as a UX researcher and is currently a full-time product designer at a company in Brazil. I take pride in witnessing her professional growth and can only hope for an opportunity to collaborate with her again in the future. This mentorship experience not only allowed me to evolve as a mentor but also as a professional. I look forward to bringing the same open-minded and collaborative approach to my next mentoring venture.
People
One the best parts of Pathable was the people. I don't how so many amazing people ended up in a single place. We've had some of the best leaders I've seen in my entire professional career. Best dev leads. Amazing product owners and project managers.
When I first joined, there were about 8 people in the development team. Three years later there were 25+. Each one of them unique, special or crazy. We a had great dynamic and were always having a good time.
Even though all of them worked remotely and were living all over the world we still found time to get to together every year.
I've wish I met all of them in person and that I had more photos to share or at least that I took some screenshots of our online meeting over the years but I didn't. Lesson learned. I am grateful, however, that to this day we still keep in touch and I'm still meeting some of the people I used to work with.
I loved everyone there and I'd like to think they loved me.
Read some of the recommendations they wrote on the recommendations page my LinkedIn profile.
Afterthought
Pathable stands out as one of the finest companies I've had the privilege to work with. During my time there, I forged meaningful friendships that I'll treasure for years to come. It was disheartening to witness the product's closure and the dismantling of the company, which occurred less than two years after its acquisition by Community Brands. The closure marked the end of a journey that had involved years of dedication and hard work from everyone involved, leaving a sense of profound disappointment.
Stock photo
I've had complains about the stock photos in the header. It has a great back story. I'll tell you all about it one day.