From managed campaigns to self-serve SaaS

PRODUCT SHIFT

From NFT Utility to SaaS Loyalty Platform

Tropee began during the NFT boom as a tool for one-off utility campaigns. As market behavior changed, the product expanded into a broader loyalty platform where brands could run ongoing programs, quests, and rewards for their communities. The design challenge was to translate that business shift into a self-serve system that worked for both creators and participants.

CHALLENGES

Rebuilding the platform while it was running

The redesign didn't happen in calm conditions. The NFT-utility market Tropee was built on was fading, and with investors behind the company, the pivot to loyalty had to move fast — but deliberately, because live programs for brands like Adidas, Sony, and NFT Paris had to keep running while the platform changed underneath them. That constraint shaped everything: the new system had to be introduced without breaking what existing customers had already shipped.

And self-serve raised the stakes on its own — under the managed model, the team was a safety net between a creator's configuration and their audience; removing that layer meant a misconfigured program could go live for a global brand with nobody in between. The builder had to absorb that responsibility by design: previews, safe defaults, and constraints doing the work a human used to do.

UX CHALLENGE

Designing for two connected users

Every creator decision shaped the participant experience. Marketers needed to launch programs without wrestling with Web3 complexity or risking misconfiguration. Participants needed tasks, progress, and rewards to feel clear and trustworthy. The redesign had to simplify setup on one side while making engagement intuitive on the other.

Influence

The builder's direction came from a design call. When Tropee pivoted to loyalty, I moved the product away from its NFT-era look toward the language of mainstream SaaS tools — taking cues from products like Linktree that non-technical marketers already trusted — so creators would orient in seconds instead of decoding a web3 interface. I also drove progressive disclosure as a system rather than a setting: I designed the component library so advanced options stay hidden by default and every step has one clear path, which let the builder carry complex loyalty logic while remaining safe for first-time users. Both calls became the default design language for what the platform shipped afterward.

CREATOR EXPERIENCE

Making the builder feel calm, flexible, and safe

The builder had to support powerful loyalty logic without feeling like an operations tool. I used four principles to make setup faster and more reliable for non-technical marketers.

1. Calm, familiar layout

Organized the builder like a standard SaaS tool so marketers could orient quickly.

2. Progressive disclosure & safe settings

Kept advanced settings available, but out of the way until needed.

3. Live participant preview

Showed what members would see, reducing guesswork and setup errors.

4. Templates and presets

Gave teams a faster, safer starting point than a blank canvas.

Four design principles turned a complex setup flow into a more reliable self-serve system.

PARTICIPANT EXPERIENCE

Making participation simple, scannable, and rewarding

On the member side, the goal was clarity. Tasks had to be easy to scan, progress had to stay visible, and claim flows had to feel trustworthy. Just as importantly, the member experience had to reflect what creators configured, so the system stayed coherent end to end.

Outcomes

The redesign moved Tropee from a fragile setup into a more reliable self-serve system — reflected in both scale and user behavior.

REFLECTION

What this project changed in how I design

Tropee pushed me to think beyond individual screens and design for system behavior — where business model, creator tooling, and participant trust all have to line up.