Groundswell

Designing social impact platforms

Lead Product Designer

Groundswell is a digital web and mobile platform built to make corporate philanthropy more accessible, personalized, and impactful.


As the Lead Product Designer, I was responsible for leading the end-to-end design process, from user research to final implementation, ensuring a user-friendly and scalable solution.

TL;DR

TL;DR

The challenge

Groundswell's existing platform lacked a structured system for managing volunteer events.


Traditional organizations struggled with disjointed workflows, from event creation to volunteer coordination and tracking. Employees, of these traditional organizations, also felt less empowered to participate with any social impact initiatives - resulting in low platform engagement rates.

Groundswell's existing platform lacked a structured system for managing volunteer events.


Traditional organizations struggled with disjointed workflows, from event creation to volunteer coordination and tracking. Employees, of these traditional organizations, also felt less empowered to participate with any social impact initiatives - resulting in low platform engagement rates.

The solution

Design a comprehensive volunteer management system, to streamline all volunteer activities, enhance user engagement, and improve social impact tracking capabilities

Design a comprehensive volunteer management system, to streamline all volunteer activities, enhance user engagement, and improve social impact tracking capabilities

Research & discovery

I met with various corporate social responsibility leaders to gather feedback and assess the current gaps in the existing platform.

I conducted a competitive analysis on other social impact platforms to understand the appetite for specific features and functionality

I facilitated a design thinking workshop with internal stakeholders to understand and align product and brand visions

User research

  • Organizers needed a centralized dashboard to manage multiple events efficiently

  • Volunteers struggled with event discovery, due to poor filtering and categorization

  • Limited or missing functionality led to a fragmented experience and resulted in low engagement rates


  • Design components between two web applications were not scalable

Key findings

Design process

Conceptualizing

I mapped out a logical workflow representing clear empathy for users needs based on key questions


For example:

• How do users easily access the volunteer platform?

• Which existing workflows would be impacted the most?
• Which volunteer features are we going to prioritize first?
• Are there any existing components we can leverage?

I mapped out a logical workflow representing clear empathy for users needs based on key questions


For example:

• How do users easily access the volunteer platform?

• Which existing workflows would be impacted the most?
• Which volunteer features are we going to prioritize first?
• Are there any existing components we can leverage?

Design & prototyping

Once the hierarchy of information was determined, I sketched the workflows and created wireframes that would represent the new intended experience


After a few design review sessions, I created a prototype to review and test with our users. During this process, I presented 2-3 options to facilitate thoughtful design thinking discussions.

Once the hierarchy of information was determined, I sketched the workflows and created wireframes that would represent the new intended experience


After a few design review sessions, I created a prototype to review and test with our users. During this process, I presented 2-3 options to facilitate thoughtful design thinking discussions.

Iterative testing & refinements

After I made all the necessary refinements to the prototype, I worked closely with the engineering team to implement this new solution to ship to our customers.

After I made all the necessary refinements to the prototype, I worked closely with the engineering team to implement this new solution to ship to our customers.

Impact & Results

40%

engagement lift in event creations and approval flows

73%

reduction in admin workload with automated tracking

+$550K

in ARR, secured from closing two Fortune 500 financial institutions

We became one of the highest rated CSR platforms, acknowledged by G2

We became one of the highest rated CSR platforms, acknowledged by G2

We became one of the highest rated CSR platforms, acknowledged by G2

"Designing for the modern philathropist"

In the effort to bridge visual design gaps between product and brand, I worked with the team to develop and organize a new design system that consisted of versatile components for our admin and end-user platforms

A new design system

Groundswell Design System

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Predata

You've reached the end of the project

You've reached the end of the project

For more regarding this case, please reach out to me at elizmvho@gmail.com

For more regarding this case, please reach out to me at elizmvho@gmail.com

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