📈 Business Impact
• Introduced foundational UX practices—user interviews, personas, and journey mapping—to a product mid-build
• Identified critical feature gaps and shifted product strategy to support aggressive NFT traders
• Delivered a strategic UX framework in 6 weeks (part-time) now being implemented by the client ahead of product launch
🎯 Project Role
Engaged as a consultant to evaluate and improve an NFT marketplace's product design process. Led foundational UX strategy and introduced best practices to align product experience with real user needs.
🛠Skills Used
• User Research
• Persona Development
• Journey Mapping
• UX Strategy
• Product Design
• Stakeholder Facilitation
• Visual Design
• Problem Framing
• Competitive Analysis
• Design Critique
Problem
An early-stage NFT marketplace startup had already built most of its product without conducting core UX activities—no defined personas, user interviews, or mapped user journeys. This lack of foundational understanding left them vulnerable to misaligned features, poor engagement, and low product-market fit.
Goal
My goal was to quickly establish a user-centered foundation and reshape the product experience to meet the needs of real NFT traders.
Step 1: Define the User Persona
I began by conducting interviews with both internal stakeholders and external users. The resulting persona, Freddie "The Flipper", captured the motivations, behaviors, and frustrations of a core audience segment: aggressive NFT traders focused on flipping undervalued assets for profit.
This persona became a strategic north star for both product and design teams.
Step 2: Map the User Journey
Next, I conducted additional interviews with prolific NFT traders and mapped the complete user journey for Freddie. The journey revealed missed opportunities—most critically, that users needed in-product discovery tools to even begin their workflow.
This journey map anchored our design decisions moving forward and helped shift team priorities.
User Journey Steps
Step 1: Discover
Frequent traders needed a way to discover collections with real-time activity. I designed a Recent Activity screen to showcase trending collections, trading volume, and filtering options. This feature did not exist in the original roadmap and became the launch point for the new user journey.
Step 2: Research
I redesigned the Collections Page to enable rapid evaluation of potential investments. Traders could now explore average price trends, activity history, holder stats, roadmaps, and more—all in one streamlined view.
Step 3: Select
Once a trader found a promising piece, they needed to evaluate its potential. I designed an Item Detail View showing price history, transaction data, and rarity metadata—key metrics for making fast buy/sell decisions.
Result
The startup team embraced the UX strategy and design artifacts I delivered. In just six weeks of working part-time, I provided:
• A high-impact persona and journey map
• Three core UX flows aligned with real user behaviors
• Visual and interaction designs that filled critical gaps in the original product
The client is now actively implementing these designs. By grounding their roadmap in human-centered design, they are positioned to launch with a sharper product and stronger differentiation.
This project is a strong example of how foundational UX strategy can quickly elevate a product—even mid-build—and give startups the edge they need in saturated markets.
