The Problem: Traditional ball drop lottery pools, like MegaMillions and Powerball, are played in 44 states but have significant flaws. Office pools often involve around 20 people, slightly improving odds but still lacking accountability. Disputes arise when participants claim their tickets weren’t part of the winning pool, with no way to prove otherwise. Poolu transforms lottery pooling by moving it online, enhancing accountability and accessibility. Legal in all 44 states, Poolu offers larger pools and better odds of winning. Its social features also tap into FOMO, encouraging participation and camaraderie.

My Involvement: I collaborated with the client to set a work schedule and key milestones, ensuring accountability and tracking progress. We refined the app’s vision, agreeing on a user-focused design, and discussed necessary technology, team composition, costs, and legal compliance, particularly with Apple Store policies.

User Research: Leading all user research efforts, I conducted surveys, visual identity studies, and user testing on iOS devices. Testing focused on branding, account creation, user journeys (like adding tickets to pools), and social sharing. We continually integrated feedback into the app’s designs and prototypes to align with user preferences.

Ideation: I bridged business goals with user needs, ensuring design concepts were rooted in real user requirements. I proposed ideas, sketched concepts, and created wireframes and prototypes to identify gaps in the user experience, which were then tested in further user research.

Key Takeaway: Working on Poolu allowed me to develop skills across multiple domains. As a de facto product manager, I guided the project with a focus on customer needs. Through user research, I gained deep insights into user behaviors, driving informed design decisions. As a UX designer, I crafted intuitive experiences, iterating through prototypes and testing. Additionally, I managed the app engineers, ensuring the design vision translated into a functional product. After three years in the app store, Poolu reached a few thousand users and achieved a 92% rating.