Role
CoachNow hired me as Lead UI/UX Designer to research, redesign, and improve their remote coaching app experience.
Challenge
The legacy app had poor onboarding, confusing navigation, and outdated support—causing frustration, low engagement, and high abandonment.
Process
We audited the product, ran feedback loops, and met with coaches to understand pain points. From there, we ideated, prototyped, tested, and rebranded the app to drive continuous improvement.
Goals
User: Make remote coaching easier, clearer, and more effective at fostering learnable moments for athletes.
Business: Boost KPIs, increase premium subscriptions, and drive coach-client engagement.
| KPI's | 2017 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|
| User base | 150,000 | 310,000 |
| Net Promoter Score | 40 | 51.8 |
| Posts per month | 20 | 52 |
| Renewal rate | 73% | 90% |
| YoY revenue growth | 10% | 33% |
Timeline
2 Years, June 2017 - April 2019
"The ability to communicate across multiple platforms is invaluable. As a coach, we need to be smart and efficient in order to streamline communication, and CoachNow provides that and more."
Matt King, Executive Director at Arizona Basketball Coaches Association
Define Roadmap and Vision
Vision and KPIs
We aligned across teams by creating vision boards and setting clear KPIs:
- User base growth
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
- Posts per coach per month
- Renewal rate
- YoY revenue growth
Goals
User: Make remote coaching easier, clearer, and more effective at fostering learnable moments for athletes.
Business: Drive growth, engagement, and subscription revenue through improved product experience.
Hypothesis Statement
By giving coaches the right tools to teach and centralize training content, we can improve communication, learning outcomes, and retention.
Auditing and Testing Existing Experience
Audits and Surveys
We kicked off by auditing the current mobile apps and sending targeted user surveys to gather UX and feature feedback. I mapped out both iOS and Android flows, identifying inconsistencies and usability gaps.
Insights and Action Items
The research surfaced key insights that helped us narrow scope and avoid unnecessary features. Key takeaways:
- Simplify: One well-designed feature can solve multiple use cases
- Rethink navigation and IA to improve clarity and accessibility
- Implement tracking to drive data-informed decisions
- Prioritize long-term UX improvements over quick fixes
- Streamline media upload and video analysis workflows
Visual audit by section/flow, noting current inconsistencies, features and functionality.
Learning and Understanding from Coaches
Research and Empathy Mapping
Through interviews, focus groups, and observations, I dove deep into the coaching process. Empathy maps helped surface key mindsets and pain points.
Persona
Demographic
- Career coaches working 1-on-1 or with teams
- Juggle multiple roles beyond coaching, eg. acting administrators, etc.
Needs
- Better work/life balance
- More efficient communication and workflows
- Stronger athlete retention and feedback
- Simple ways to involve parents
Behaviors
- Use multiple tools to share content
- Rely on texting/calling for follow-ups
- Need hands-free onboarding
- Balance in-person and remote coaching
Defining Key Pain Points
Themes
After centralizing feedback from audits, interviews, and surveys, clear patterns emerged:
- No onboarding: users were dropped into a blank space with no guidance
- Coaches needed fewer tools, but more intuitive, centralized communication
- Redundant and confusing features caused frustration and misuse
- App was hard to learn and clunky in real-world coaching environments
- Too many irrelevant notifications made it hard to focus
- Media upload issues led to quality loss and crashes, putting curated content at risk
Exploring Solutions
Focus and Clarity
After brainstorming and sprinting, we realized the app was trying to do too much. Coaches primarily used it to capture and share media—quickly and efficiently.
Key Solutions
- Simplify the UI to focus on capturing and sharing media
- Improve upload quality and eliminate crashes
- Streamline posting, liking, and sharing content
- Merge redundant features into single, intuitive workflows
- Redesign onboarding to help coaches quickly invite athletes and start posting
Prototyping and Design System
Approach
I mapped out a UX strategy starting with the capture/posting experience, then expanded to onboarding and overall app flow using our evolving design system.
View Initial Strategy DocInformation Architecture and Wireframes
I built a clear information architecture, making it easier to sketch and wireframe key flows and navigation.
Design System
I then created a flexible design system, breaking designs into reusable components for consistency across views. Everything was documented as we scaled.
View Design System SpecPrototypes
Using Adobe XD and shared component libraries, I built high-fidelity prototypes, continuously testing and refining with users and stakeholders.
View Mobile Prototype Example
Version 1 of iOS primary flows.
User Testing and Iterations
Beta Releases and Feedback
I led weekly feedback sessions with users and stakeholders, iterating on prototypes and refining the app during beta testing. Key takeaways:
- Capture/posting was much more intuitive
- Bulk media upload and post scheduling were high requests
- Some features needed simplification or removal
- Real-time notifications were overwhelming—batching preferred
- The new "CoachNow" branding resonated with users
Rolling NPS and Continuous Improvement
We implemented rolling NPS to track satisfaction. Over 8 months, UX improved and KPIs began trending upward. Tight feedback loops helped drive outcomes and speed up delivery.
The Outcome
CoachNow launched in Spring 2018 to strong reviews from experienced coaches and became a trusted tool for coaching academies. Before my departure in 2019, I delivered a high-fidelity “rocket ship” prototype for future testing and a lean product brief for smooth handoff.
| KPI's | 2017 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|
| User base | 150,000 | 310,000 |
| Net Promoter Score | 40 | 51.8 |
| Posts per month | 20 | 52 |
| Renewal rate | 73% | 90% |
| YoY revenue growth | 10% | 33% |
View on App Store
View on Google Play
Discovery and Roadmap
Kick Off
We kicked things off by exploring the original branding. “Edufii” combined education and edification, symbolizing coach/athlete collaboration with its double “i.” The goal was to make it a verb, like “Google it,” for sharing and improvement.
Brand Roadmap
Once we aligned on rebranding to CoachNow, we shaped a roadmap rooted in core ideas:
- Coach in the moment: now, not later
- Use familiar tools for better coaching outcomes
- Help athletes reach milestones
- Reinforce that coaching matters
Identity Doc and Auditing
I then created a brand identity doc that captured this philosophy, backed it with user data, and audited the existing system to guide early design and strategy.
View Identity System DocDefining Design Language
Themes
To guide the new logo and visual identity, we explored brand themes tied to coaching:
- Symbols of coaching
- Athlete progress and momentum
- Responsiveness and multitasking
Research and Direction
We surveyed stakeholders on what "coaching" meant to them. Their insights helped validate our themes and shaped a clearer brand direction.
Visual Building Blocks
We translated those themes into core design elements:
- Primary colors: Bright orange gradient and blue meaning progress and new beginnings
- Secondary colors: Green, purple, yellow meaning coaching tools and diversity
- Shapes: Circular meaning focus, inclusion, and privacy
- Typography: Bold and modern sans-serif
- Iconography: Simple, rounded, and coaching-relevant
- Imagery: Real, candid, coach/athlete moments
Defining Logo and Mark
Direction
We began by exploring literal symbols of coaching (tools, materials), but through research and repeated themes, we pivoted toward metaphor—specifically athlete progress and forward movement.
Sketches and Exploration
Through extensive sketching and brainstorming—on grid paper, whiteboards, and digital tools—we explored metaphors like medals, finish lines, and personal milestones.
Finalized Candidates
After several iterations, we narrowed it down to three strong logo concepts that visually represented progress, fulfillment, and the impact of great coaching.
Three final candidates.
Pressure Testing
Scaling and Visual Testing
We tested our final logo candidates across various formats—app icons, web, print—to ensure adaptability and clarity at all sizes.
Stakeholder and User Feedback
After visual checks, we surveyed stakeholders and a small user group. Results showed a clear winner:
- Option 1 featuring the "running man" and subtle C/N form was the favorite
- It conveyed athlete motion best and even evoked a stopwatch/time metaphor
- All options aligned well with the overall design language and typography
The Outcome
The rebrand evolved into a design-by-committee effort, a common challenge in business rebranding efforts. Despite that, the process of exploration, definition, and iteration led to a strong, cohesive brand brought to life across digital, print, and marketing touchpoints.
View SiteView Brand Guide
View Design System Spec
