DASH
From a simple Sports Auction platform to the #1 Fan Activation platform for minor league sports.
Overview
I met the founder of DASH in 2015 on an elevator at a 1 Million Cups event in downtown Dallas. During the slow ride to the second floor we learned we had mutual friends and complimentary needs. He was looking for someone to help him launch his vision and I was looking for a startup with a strong Founder and a real problem to solve to try my hand at providing holistic experience design support to. We hit it off and what started as a simple tool that reduced the pain of running pencil & paper charity auctions at sporting events launched in 60 days has grown into the #1 Fan Activation platform for minor league sports teams changing the way they do business.
Objective
Design and launch a digital product ready to deliver value, generate revenue, and gather data needed for growth.
My Role
As the Experience Design lead I helped the founder define his vision, craft the story, and lead the design of the experience of all touch points throughout the product and brand, across networks of users and interactions.
Collaborative Leadership
Vision & Strategy
Naming & Brand Identity
Skills
User Research
Workshop Facilitation
Product & Service Design
Mapping & Blueprints
Wireframes
Prototyping
Creative Direction
Comm Design & Illustration
Copywriting
Took client from concept to a revenue generating business in 60 days
More than 200% revenue growth year over year since launch
Today, supporting more than 230 minor league teams across North America
Results
75k monthly users and more than 5k purchases made per month generating $6M in sales
DASH has become the strongest digital revenue and lead generation driver for minor league sports teams
Empathize & Define
A lot of time was spent up front gathering stakeholders together to ask questions and understand the perceived opportunity, current pain points, existing user journeys, desired experience, and business requirements. Once we had a strong understanding of the people and purpose we developed a strategy to build and launch a V1 product that delivered value marrying feasibility, viability, and desirability.
Workshops
Mapping
Strategy
Ideate, Prototype, & Test
We started by crafting a compelling vision and then creating the name and positioning. Once we had an authentic, compelling story that captured the essence of the company’s purpose, we then began designing the brand and product experience. The product needed to bridge the gap between the team’s administrators and the fans so we tackled it from both sides and met in the middle. From branding to product we shared results early and often with stakeholders, gathered feedback, and iterated toward a truly valuable solution.
Brand Work
I first started with the naming and hired a local designer for the visual identity work. Later I led the creation of marketing materials in support of the founder’s sales and marketing efforts.
Product Work
To set the company up for growth the digital platform needed to support both the team admins and the fans from launch so we tackled both ends and met in the middle.
We learned early on that minor league teams were still having more success engaging fans via their websites vs getting them to download an app. With that and time-to-value in mind we built V1 of DASH as a responsive web app and followed up with a native iOS & Android DASH app when native capabilities delivered enough additional value to warrant the investment.
Beta Test
Since the Foundation Director for FC Dallas was our team admin expert we ran our beta test during their Nov 5, 2015 playoff games against the Seattle Sounders. We couldn’t have asked for a better outcome for FC Dallas and DASH.
FC Dallas ended up winning the thrilling game that day and one FC Dallas family of fans used DASH to win Jesse Gonzalez’s game-worn, signed goalie gloves which the team put up for auction during half-time. Those gloves made several key saves during the game and the only two saves of the OT shootout to win the game and send FC Dallas to the 2015 Western Conference Finals. The DASH platform successfully took the energy from the field into the stands and the team was as excited about DASH as the fan family who won the epic FC Dallas signed goalie gloves memorabilia.
Launch & Continually Learn
DASH was able to generate revenue and gather data during its Alpha phase as we optimized the product and officially launched in April of 2016. It has consistently grown year-over-year due to continual discovery, experimentation and iteration on both the product and service resulting in consistent learnings of how to deliver value to the teams and fans.
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“We have raised 90% more by using DASH and have saved countless hours by being able to pop an auction up with 30 items or sometimes just 3.”
Melissa Bair, FC Dallas Foundation
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"There's some great stuff happening with our teams and our league partner DASH. This partnership is a great opportunity that everyone can benefit from!"
Alex Kyrias, North American Hockey League
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“Not only does DASH provide us a creative new way to boost revenue, but from the feedback we’ve received, DASH has been a great experience for our fans.”
Taylor Hall, Tulsa Oilers
Reflection
When I met the founder of DASH I was actively looking for startups in need of holistic experience design support – I wanted to see if it was possible to “design” a successful business together with a founder, not just design a brand identity or product and walk away hoping they were properly applied and successful. It was a serendipitous meeting resulting in a literal elevator pitch and, 7 years later, DASH is still growing as a privately owned company led by an incredibly patient, creative, gritty, and passionate founder. DASH is one of two startups I consulted from the early stage that are still going strong - Cariloop being the other (see case study). I’ve continued to advise DASH over the years and am in awe of how they continue to innovate fan activation and transform how minor league sports teams do business. Many teams were able to weather the pandemic due to their use of DASH.