Simplifying team management: a faster and more intuitive rostering experience
2017-2019
Client
Sportsengine / NBC
Overview
As the lead product designer for SportsEngine’s League/Tournament team, I helped transform a flawed feature into a tightened, user-friendly experience that saved admins multiple hours each time they rostered players to teams at the beginning of a season.
My Role
- Lead Product Designer for the League / Tournament feature team
- Responsible for the UX and visual design of for the rostering feature on primarily the web platform (minimal mobile for this feature), and contribution to the design system
- Partnered with product management and engineering
The Challenge
While the rostering feature existed, it was inefficient and time-consuming for admins and coaches. Our goal was to improve the experience, streamlining workflows to save users valuable time.
We set out to solve the question:
How can we reduce complexity and ensure admins spend less time rostering teams?
The Design Process
Discovery and Research
When I was hired, product management provided me with previous competitor research, user interviews, other collected data and must-have features for the MVP of the rostering tool. After conducting stakeholder interviews of my own, we outlined these key issues to solve in the new rostering tool:
- Ability to use only one app to roster a team
- Simplifying user flows
- Difficulty importing/transferring players
- Challenges managing staff especially permission
- Better solution for printing team rosters for games
UX Exploration
Having previously worked on a roster management feature in a team registration app for a company later acquired by SportsEngine, I had a strong foundation to build upon. I started with my last version and expanded it to meet new requirements. To refine the experience, I developed user personas, user flows, wireframes, and prototypes to map out how admins and coaches could:
- Manage team rosters from a centralized interface
- Assign staff permissions with ease
- Seamlessly import and transfer players between rosters
- Quickly print or view team rosters for game day.
UI Design and Interaction
- Polished UI designed to enhance flows established in the UX exploration phase
- Contributed to the design system by adding needed components as new ones were created specific to these flows. Also took part in evolving the design system as part of the UX team as we all contributed by adding certain components to the system
- Collaborated closely with product management to ensure alignment with project goals and timelines
- Partnered with development to ensure the rostering feature was implemented as designed, refining it through design reviews
- Coordinated with account executives to conduct user studies, validating our approach with admin testing of prototypes.
Cross Team Collaboration
- Collaborated closely with product management to ensure alignment with project goals and timelines
- Partnered with development to ensure the rostering feature was implemented as designed, refining it through feedback in design reviews
- Coordinated with project managers and account executives to conduct user studies, validating our approach by having current admins test the prototypes
- Participated in town hall meetings across multiple cities, gathering first hand insights on user successes and pain points while validating our approach
What We Launched
New Rostering Tool
A redesigned section within SportsEngine’s league management platform gave admins and coaches a more seamless and efficient way to roster teams. The improvements enhanced usability, simplifying team management and optimizing the overall workflow. Here were a few of the improvements enjoyed by the users:
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A faster, more efficient process with simplified rostering in one app
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Easy player imports to and transfers between teams
- Drag and drop functionality placing players/staff on teams
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Simplified management of staff roles and permissions
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Well-formatted, printable rosters ready for game day
Impact
What didn't work:
Enhanced UI could have provided users with a better experience
Here’s a comparison between a finished screen with the existing SportsEngine UI and a concept I designed during my interview process before I actually started on this project. Even in its rough state, the version on the right offers a significantly improved user experience.
