<aside> ❔ What

• Epicenter was developed as Codeyoung’s internal product to assist operations in managing the customer base and potential customers.
• It serves as the hub of operations enabling different silos to use a single product to cater to and manage customers on daily basis </aside>

<aside> 👥 People

• me (founding designer)
• product manager (solution proposal, managing and syncing with devs, guide)
• product designer (segregation and assisting designing interfaces)
• CEO, COO [co-founders] (product proposal, direction, guide, project success)
• developers (bringing life to product) </aside>

<aside> 🪪 Role

I was the founding designer and helped shape the end-to-end user experience

</aside>

<aside> ❓ Why

• Manually tracking and managing users through sheets and documentation wasn’t viable moving forward as Codeyoung started scaling; the userbase grew, so did the people behind it.
• The communication gaps and delays within internal teams and with customers were starting to become apparent.
• Epicenter would ensure smooth, hassle-free operations and deliver the intended customer experience Codeyoung believes in.

</aside>

<aside> 🎯 Desired outcomes

• Silo-wise Epicenter adoption within a span of 4-5 weeks
• Stepping up the customer experience through faster response times and minimizing operational errors </aside>

Process

Gaps, frustrations, and feedback were very noticeable and vocal due to the start-up being at an early stage. The CEO and PM refined needs further and set the scope and roadmap to follow. The challenge was the expectations of Epicenter to be the ‘one-for-all’ solution; multiple teams — operations, support, sales, mentors, mentor managers, and the admins. Each team and its representatives would have defined access to its controls and features; we developed a shared understanding to gain clarity on proper allocation and segregation user-wise.

My key areas of focus were -

prioritize functionality

teams were to access Epicenter daily, multiple times - a lack of functional flow and information visibility would lead to frustration and early abandonment; without giving it a justified amount of time and chance

visual weightage

ensuring the most recurring and time-sensitive tasks are easy to find, with a minimum number of steps-to-action

simple and clear UX copies