Megastar Millionaire

Megastar was a global mobile talent competition, reinventing the high-stakes talent show for the phone. Performers uploaded auditions, advanced through tournament rounds, and built a fan base as the audience voted and awarded fame points. It launched on iOS and Android, built in Oakland for a worldwide audience.

Lead product designer, and the only senior designer on the team, from March 2016 to April 2017. I owned UX, UI, and visual design end to end, from concept through launch.

Building a competition product from zero meant the brand, the visual system, and every core flow had to exist before launch, on two platforms at once. Once the app was live the harder problem showed up in the data: most people came to vote for a performer and then left. A show that only works on voting night does not hold an audience. Engagement over time was the thing to solve.

Established the brand identity and the visual design system that carried the cross-platform launch and the early user acquisition around it.

Designed the core product flows: competition entry and auditions, the video feed and playback, voting, tournament progression, and creator profiles, for both iOS and Android.

To address the vote-and-leave pattern, designed a daily engagement reward: every vote enters the user into a daily raffle for prizes, which gives the audience a reason to come back each day rather than only when a favorite is competing.

Megastar launched on both platforms with a consistent brand and product. The core flows drove engagement and retention across a global creator audience, and the daily reward turned voting from a one-off visit into a habit.