Loop
Maintain and keep track of relationships in your network
My Role
Product Designer
Team
Gabriel Valdivia
Chris Fischer
Caroline Dell
Daniel Chung
Timeline
July (3 weeks)
Tools
Figma, ProtoPie
Overview
Loop is a platform that lets you manage your professional network so that you can accomplish and focus on your goals.
Background
Over the summer, I had the opportunity to work with the co-founders of Loop on a short sprint focusing on building and helping shape some of the core features for the initial version of the product. A lot of these features were loosely defined or not defined at all and the primary goal was to get the product to a concrete place.
Process
When it came to designing and shaping the product, we had a cyclical process of iterating, getting feedback and analyzing the work, and making adjustments accordingly.
Relationship stories
The relationship story provides a tailored overview for each user, summarizing all the notes they have recorded about the specific individual they are viewing.
This is what we started out with and early internal feedback after initial explorations noted that this feature would be different from notes. We also still needed to add a "Notes" section which was another unique thing where a user could add and view notes.
Again, there was a big degree of ambiguity involved here and a lot of the initial iterations were more about figuring out how this feature would come together and what did and didn't work. I won't go into detail on all of the different iterations and adjustments I explored, but the process was very similar.
Polish
Separating notes for each individual user turned out to be the best approach for tracking and creating notes associated with people in your network. This method allowed the content to breathe, and Caroline emphasized the importance of maintaining a pristine screen and I felt that this solution truly reflected that vision.
The biggest impact of this project was being able to influence and define the early parts of the product. After several rounds of iterations and working collaboratively as a team we were able to get the product to a concrete place.
The work I did were building blocks for the larger product and by tackling smaller, undefined tasks and turning them into concrete, actionable elements, I laid the foundation for the product’s growth. Every iteration brought more clarity and structure, ultimately driving us toward the larger goal.
Takeaways from the process
Moving fast without compromising on quality
Not putting so much weight on ensuring that the initial work is perfect, but being able to quickly send out updates, receive feedback, and make adjustments in order to make meaningful progress. We still care about quality and craft, but there should be balance and a genuine effort to strive towards working efficiently.
Going wide and pushing for visual interest
Throughout the process of building the product, it was apparent how critical it was to explore all of our options and trying to make even the most simple things more appealing. Even if we ended up on a direction or solution that was more simple, the willingness to keep iterating and thinking big would lead us to the best possible outcome.