Not sure what to call this yet
Introduction
High-level details about the idea
Summary of Idea
This is a platform that connects freelance designers with startup founders through real-life design challenges. Designers enhance their portfolios and gain visibility through leaderboards, while founders receive multiple affordable design options for their projects.
So what is it?
It can be a number of things depending on how you look at it
An Ender's Game style simulation that lets designers practice their design skills with real life-scenarios.
A newsletter that's actually a design agency
A way to scale a web design agency by using a newsletter
A platform that sends real design briefs to an audience of designers (aka newsletter subscribers)
A way to connect solo designers with solo founders
What's Ender's Game
Who does it target?
Freelance Designers
Startup Founders
Pain points of target audience
Designers
Portfolio Enhancement: Designers are always looking to enhance their portfolio with relative work. This will help them gain experience with real-life projects.
Visibility: Designers have a hard time attracting new clients. This will help them stand out through a leaderboard showcasing top talent.
Feedback: Designers often work in a bubble with little support. This will help them receive constructive feedback to improve skills.
Founders
Affordable Design: Founders don't want to spend very much on hiring designers. This will help them access quality design work at low prices.
Multiple Options: Founders don't have a lot of time to invest in design. This will help them get diverse design submissions for each project
Streamlined Process: Founders are typically developers with little to no design skills. This will help them easily submit projects and receive designs quickly.
What problems does this solve?
Terribly designed landing pages
Most product/startup websites have terrible design or look exactly like everything else out there
Too many website generators that make everything look the same
Most founders are typically prioritizing function over aesthetics, leaving many with below average landing pages
Why is this a problem?
Bad design can discourage potential customers from converting or returning
Bad design can lead to negative user experience, which leads to low adoption
Poorly designed products might not get funding, traction, or feel "legit" to their audience
Where to start?
Finding and analyzing the landing pages that are featured on Product Hunt
Product Hunt is a website that allows founders/entrepreneurs to share and discover new products in various categories, such as technology, books, games, and podcasts. It's a community-driven platform that serves as a hub for early adopters, makers, and tech enthusiasts
Each product posted on Product Hunt includes product name, description, high-level details, website URL, founder info, product photos
Phase 1
Free MVP
Goals:
Build attractive landing page
Get 100 designers to sign up
Validate idea
What is the MVP?
A newsletter for freelance designers that want to get real experience working with clients. At a high level, the freelance process usually starts with an intro email from a perspective client, followed by a creative brief.
If the designer accepts, the next step is for them to analyze the creative brief, send a proposal, and get started on design concepts.
After a first round of design, the obvious next step is to share the work with the client for review. This idea aims to replicate a few of those steps to provide a somehwhat realistic experience
Content Creation
Visit a product posted on Product Hunt
Paste landing page link in ChatGPT and prompt it to put together a detailed creative brief
Format the creative brief using Framer’s CMS so that each brief has its own unique slug (slug=url)
Newsletter Creation
Use a platform like Beehiiv to get started
Create an automated newsletter campaign that starts when the user signs up and is triggered every 7 days
Newsletter email will contain a short description in the voice of a founder personally reaching out to a designer that they want to work with
Email will give a quick welcome intro, a few high-level details about the design request, and a button that leads to the actual creative brief slug
Promote and Get Users
At this point, the main focus would be getting designers to sign up for the newsletter
To do this an attractive landing page would be needed
Drive traffic to landing page
In an ideal world, a user base of 100 designers would be a win.
Phase 2
Monetize Designers
Creating a leaderboard
A “Leaderboard” concept would allow designers to accumulate points and become ranked amongst their peers
Designers that want to do this will pay a fee that gives them access to a new feature. This feature would give them a way to submit their completed work for points
Submissions will be sent directly to a design judge and will be manually reviewed based on specific criteria
After being reviewed, that design judge will specify the amount of points the designer earned for their submission
This point value will be added to the designer’s profile which will be shown on the leaderboard
Designers that are featured on the leaderboard will have their name, point value, and portfolio URL displayed to the public
Here's an example scenario…
I’m a designer that signed up for the free newsletter and am sent weekly design prompts
I upgrade to become eligible for the leaderboard
I receive my weekly email and open the creative brief
I spend a few days working on the design and once I’m finished, I submit it for review
The design judge gives me 6 / 10 points for my work
I now see my profile card on the leaderboard with my name, points, portfolio, and contact info displayed
Benefits of getting on the leaderboard…
This is a public list and is an indication of designers with the highest skills
A potential client visiting the leaderboard can directly reach out if they want to hire you to work on their project
Phase 3
Monetize Founders
Letting founders submit their projects
Instead of cherry-picking projects from Product Hunt, this would be a way for anyone to pay a small fee to have their project featured in a public directory for everyone to see
These projects will have a higher point value tied to them in order to incentivize designers work on them and submit them
Projects that are submitted to the design judge will also be shared with the founders that initially submit the project
What happens when a project gets submitted?
Submitted projects will get reviewed by a design judge for overall quality and compatibility.
If a project is a good fit, it will receive a "roast" with actionable feedback, packaged into a brief, and dispersed to a community of eager designers that are ready to get to work!
Benefits of submitting a project…
It's like hiring hundreds of designers for a small price
Imagine submitting a URL of the landing page you want redesigned and immediately having 1000 designers start working on it
Also, imagine receiving several design options you can review and choose from.
The only downside…
It’s not certain if or how many designers will actually work on these projects
The upside…
Founders can pay more for guarenteed work
Founders can pay more to work exclusively with a designer
Future
An ongoing list of things that would be cool
Paying designers for their work
Is there a way for designers to earn a little bit of cash for projects they submit?