Phaseo
Designing a CRM and Marketplace ecosystem that eliminates tool-switching and recaptures billable hours for independent creators.
Phaseo is a mobile project management and CRM designed for creative small-business owners. It allows users to manage projects, centralize workflows, communicate with clients, easily monetize their business, and shop in an eCommerce marketplace.
From research to prototyping, I designed this product to help passionate creatives monetize from their skills and elevate awareness of their brands.
Time
2023 - present
Role
Senior Visual Designer
Tools
Figma, Adobe Creative Suite
DISCOVERY
Identifying the problem space
Market analysis revealed a significant barrier to entry: current CRM solutions on the market carry high cognitive load and price points that alienate early-stage creators. Phaseo was conceptualized to fill the 'Affordable Complexity' gap.
Setting the right goals
Users wanted to save time to focus energy on better business processes, passion projects, and personal lives. They sought simple and affordable ways to manage projects and clients, generate revenue, and establish brand awareness. This insight gave me purpose to provide a platform that empowers users to feel at ease while growing their creative small-businesses.
The Goal
Develop solutions that simplify complex workflows, improve usability, and encourage tool adoption.
Synthesis
Our North Star is the independent creator
Raw Research → functional roadmap
I used a user-centric framework to ensure Phaseo was a cohesive ecosystem and more than a collection of features. Users were categorized into a tiered ecosystem to prioritize the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) roadmap.
Primary
Independent creators requiring "high-utility" CRM tools (Project Management, Invoicing).
Secondary
Clients looking for a streamlined, "low-friction" communication and payment experience.
Tertiary
Marketplace browsers driving the "External Economy" of the app.
Impact
MoSCoW prioritization framework helped avoid feature bloat and focus on high-impact must-haves like mobile-first invoicing while deferring secondary marketplace features to the roadmap.
Rapid protoyping and design velocity
Using Crazy 8s and How Might We? sessions, I moved through 20+ iterations in 48 hours.
Key Value Props
Time-Recapture: Designing "Workboards" that facilitate brainstorming without leaving the project context.
Inclusive Design: Optimizing for a mobile-first experience to accommodate the "on-the-go" nature of creative entrepreneurship.
Revenue Transparency: Building an integrated marketplace to lower the barrier between "Idea" and "Sale."
The Goal
The focus wasn't just on features, but on reducing click-depth for core tasks.
Key takeaways
Save People Time
Quick goal completion and decision-making
Inclusive Affordability
Consideration of user devices and affordability
Help Users Focus
Workboards for brainstorming and organizing ideas
Collaborative
In-app communication for effective collaboration
Generate User Revenue
Empower revenue generation with a marketplace
Drive Brand Awareness
Personalized online shops for enhanced brand visibility
User Retention
A marketplace tailored for creative exploration
Ethical Shopping
Transparent and ethical online shopping experiences
The Goal
The focus wasn't just on features, but on reducing click-depth for core tasks.
DESIGN
Divergent design ideas
Design concepts centered around time efficiency, addressing project management challenges, enhancing stakeholder-client communication, and empowering users in an eCommerce marketplace.
Wireframes and prototypes
Based on the current information architecture, I designed prototypes for testing and feedback at low and high-fidelity stages.
The information architecture was designed for in-the-field usability. I prioritized a bottom-navigation system to ensure one-handed operation—critical for busy business owners managing logistics on the go.
Result
This helped me better understand user flows and overall usability.
A ubiquitous and expressive brand that influences perception.
Phaseo’s brand and product visual identity system speaks to the expression of creative intellect and grand ideas.
Solution
Making creative work feel easy peasy.
Hover and scroll horizontally to view more FEATURES
Phaseo is all-in-one standalone mobile app tailored for creative small-business owners. It simplifies work, empowering users to seamlessly grow, market, and monetize their businesses through a user-friendly platform integrating project management, CRM, and eCommerce functionalities.
Same time now
Streamlined project management for creative professionals. Define scopes, create to-do lists, and manage finances. Focus on important tasks through each phase for a seamless process.
Centralize workflows
Centralize workflows. Generate project-specific invoices. Set due dates, define product quantities and discounts, and easily share PDF versions. Eliminate the need for multiple tools.
Easy collaboration
Easy collaboration. Users and clients can directly communicate using a RichText Editor to add or reply to comments. This facilitates smooth interaction for addressing questions, brainstorming, providing updates, and scheduling alignments.
Effectively moetize
Create a customizable no-code shopfront to elevate brand presence on the Phaseo Marketplace. Show and sell products and services with ease in a way that reflects your unique brand identity.
Testing
Early testing to fail forward
Pre-optimization pain points from an MVP prototype tested early in wireframe stage provided data that positively affected the second iteration of the app. Affinity maps and questionnaires recorded behavior and sentiment for 5 participants and 3 user flows. Success was measured through task completion time and SUS scores.
100%
Conversion Rate
100%
Error Occurrence
80%
Confusion
60%
Indifference
Data collected from usability studies guided areas of improvement. I pivoted the navigation strategy in V2, resulting in a 40% improvement in task completion time during the final high-fidelity round. Feedback gathered during high-fidelity prototype stage helped create better UX. Leaning into simplicity by avoiding feature bloat and reducing the number of choices made by users positively influenced later product iterations.
Users were pleased about Phaseo's aesthetic usability, time saved during project management, and other functions that allow the ability to create, read, update, and delete content in the app.
Outcome
40% improvement in task completion time.
Better UX based on feedback.
Simplicity to avoid feature bloat.
Takeaways
Keep it simple, stupid
Addressing feature overload and premature branding saved valuable time spent on technical debt during design. I adopted a "keep it simple, stupid" approach with a minimum viable product and emphasized frequent testing, feedback, and iterative refinement. Phaseo enhanced my research skills, allowing me to develop data-driven potential solutions for the needs of my local community.
Get in touch
hi.angelamaximo@gmail.com
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🐚 Made with love by © Angela Maximo
📍 Pacifica, CA