Skyrocketing donor engagement with built-in livestreams
A virtual backstage that powers interactive charity livestreams and live fundraising on the RallyUp platform
Under NDA
This case study is under a NDA. More details about this specific project can be provided during interviews.
2 months
RallyUp.com
2024/25 Roadmap
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Product Designer
CEO / Director of Product / Director of Customer Success
The Product
RallyUp is a technology company in the non-profit tech industry that offers an online fundraising solution — in the form of SaaS — for organizations and companies of any size to raise funds for good causes and manage their donor base, all in one place. The product is an interactive fundraising platform that allows its users to create various types of fundraising experiences, share them with donors, raise and track donations, and more.
The Problem
Users are presented with a non-familiar experience to perform their livestreams
There’s confusion and friction when trying to go live and keep the audience engaged. The current solution didn’t consider common patterns to make it easy to use. As one of our customers commented:
User segments
Small to Mid-sized Organizations
This segment usually runs live events as a solo host/moderator or small team. Our challenge was to offer a very user friendly and easy to use platform that can be handled smoothly by 1 to 4 people
Large to Enterprise Organizations
This segment has similar needs as mid-size organizations but at a large scale which means performance and efficiency are the highest priority. More advanced features are desired to delight donors with highly memorable experiences.
What we found out from our customers and the current solution
We gathered most of the initial feedback through surveys and feedback channels that our CS team provides
Poor information architecture
We found a lot of potential on making improvements in this regard and make a big impact by just presenting all the information available and LS options in a better way
Too many unnecessary options
Related to the previous issue, due to the lack of good IA and lack of consideration of best practices for livestreaming functionality, the user was presented with options they don’t need while running a live event
Layout issues
The way the experience to manage a livestream was presented had many layout issues with various of the most important actions being out of sight from the viewport and far from the video preview. There wasn’t an interface optimized to leverage the most out of the screen real state available
Unconventional way of doing livestream things
Also related to previous points, users had to scroll back and forth or navigate through confusing menus to do the most essential things on their livestreams. We do have some constrains but there was definitely a ton of room for improvement overall
Identified popular livestream platforms used by our users as alternatives
A good portion of our customers simply rely on alternatives that make their lives easier. We wanted to provide a familiar experience while retaining them within our platform
Identified platforms with highest usability scores in the market
We found the solutions in the market that livestreamers are the most happy with which would set the standard for our Livestream Studio revamp initiative
Consolidating learnings
After finally defining the main problem, we got down to business and defined the user goal at a high level, business OKRs, JTBDs, and specific user stories we wanted to tackle in this release
User goal
To seamlessly provide a memorable online live experience to donors where real-time participation feels like an in-person event
Business goal
With this initiative we are expecting to reduce confusion and frustration considerably that will lead to happier customers wanting to use the feature again and achieving higher amounts raised which drives revenue to our business
Customer acquisition & retention
Epic
As a non-profit, I want to be able to provide an uninterrupted live experience with the highest level of engagement through a feature-rich feature that’s intuitive and reliable so that I can provide my donors with an immersive experience that motivates them to give more thanks to memorable experiences.
Key tasks users want to be able to do
Before a livestream
Testing before going live
Pre-set chat moderation settings
Manage guest speakers
Pre-set live donation methods
Check device settings
Easy access to support
During a livestream
Monitor donor activity
Engage with donors in a chat
Host<>Guest easy switching
Manage donation methods in real-time
Monitor campaign progress
Consideration of the features we wanted to add to provide the ultimate fundraising experience
By keeping these features in mind, we tried to work out a scalable solution that would allow for the complexity of these additional features on an already complex livestreaming functionality to create a very competitive product
Spotlights
Users can choose a specific item they offer for biding (auction), purchasing (online store), or participating on (raffles), for instance, and highlight it on the screen to draw donors attention and increase donations on such item
Trivia game
Donor can participate and answer a set of questions in real-time that organizers pre-set to gamify their fundraising efforts to increase the fun and the rewards
Surveys & Polls
Donor can answer questions that organizers could find helpful to keep engaging the audience around the topics they're interested in
Flash Goals
Organizers can set temporary, short-term goals to incentivize giving for a specific period of time. This goal is directly linked to the overall goals of a fundraising campaign
Live Auction
Organizers can run a live-only auction where the items offered are only available and can only be bid on during a livestream
Flash Auction
Organizers can set temporary, exclusive items for bidding that are only available during a livestream to increase engagement and maximize donations during a specific period of time (usually for the duration of the live event)
The next steps
Given that this was an early stage initiative, we planned for the next phases of the project and hope to achieve an MVP by the end of 2024. Here's what we focused on next:
Test, test, and test again
We’d definitely want to do more usability testing down the road before release to make sure we don’t miss any important details and see if there are new opportunities that we can fit in to make this release even more exciting.
Keep iterating. Adapt.
We understand that livestreaming software can be complicated, not completely standardized, and ever-evolving. Even more so when we have some extra functionality that can’t be found anywhere else. This means we need to keep polishing it and adapt to new innovations as we work on the next iterations.
Embrace the challenge
This feature needs a ton of resources from every team but we need to make sure we dedicate the time and energy to take on the challenge. Livestreaming is becoming a priority for many people and had a huge impact post-COVID. Many people rely on it and we need to deliver if we want to keep competitive.
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