Earth
An all-in-one platform for running large-scale hybrid hackathons.
Role
UX Design Lead
Scope
Product Design · User Research · Frontend Development
Team
1 PM · 2 Engineers · 1 Designer
Year
2022
Detailed
TL;DR
Company & product context
Large-scale hackathons powered by one connected platform.
Onova runs large-scale internal hackathons for some of the world's largest companies. But running an event meant piecing together multiple third-party platforms for registration, teams, submissions, judging, and event content.
Earth brought the entire experience into one product.
Hybrid events
Warranty & paid jobs
Multiple user types
Multiple stakeholders
End-to-end workflow
End-to-end job lifecycle
02
End-to-end workflow
Onova needed to run complex events without forcing organizers and participants across disconnected tools.
Organizer problem
Running a single event required stitching together multiple third-party platforms.
Participant problem
Information was scattered across different sites, making the experience confusing and difficult to navigate.
03
Research
We analyzed past events and identified where the experience was breaking down.
Organizer problem
Running a single event required stitching together multiple third-party platforms.
Powerful systems often assumedusers understood datasets,dimensions, and aggregationlogic.
Organizer problem
Running a single event required stitching together multiple third-party platforms.
Powerful systems often assumedusers understood datasets,dimensions, and aggregationlogic.
Organizer problem
Running a single event required stitching together multiple third-party platforms.
Powerful systems often assumedusers understood datasets,dimensions, and aggregationlogic.
Key insight
The problem wasn't a lack of functionality. It was a lack of cohesion.
Users had the tools they needed. They just didn't have one clear experience connecting them.
04
Turning pricing policy into product guidance
Earth turned a fragmented set of tools into one continuous hackathon experience.
01
Registration
Join the event and create a profile.
02
Team formation
Create or join a team.
03
Live event
Access schedules, resources, and what's happening now.
04
Project submission
Prepare and submit the team's work.
05
Judging
Manage the final evaluation process.
Continuity
Designed for scale
A reusable design system supported rapid product development.
Accessibility
One source of truth
The live dashboard centralized important event information.
Confidence
Flexible by event
A customizable CMS allowed each event to have its own content and branding.
05
Design Challenge
Putting everything in one place solved fragmentation, but created a new problem: too much content above the fold.
The dashboard needed to surface critical event information immediately, without forcing participants to repeatedly scroll past content they had already seen.
06
Real-World Testing
We launched a beta at a real hackathon and discovered that one of the most important screens was barely being found.
User interviews and Google Analytics showed that participants were not discovering the Live Now dashboard. The problem wasn't the dashboard itself it was the architecture around it.
07
The final experience
One platform guided participants and organizers through the entire hackathon lifecycle.
Earth combined event content, team formation, live updates, project submissions, and judging into one coherent system replacing the fragmented experience Onova previously relied on.
08
Outcome
Earth became the operating platform for large - scale enterprise hackathons.
Core outcome
A fragmented ecosystem of event tools became one connected experience that organizers could run and participants could navigate with confidence.
8,000+
Users from Fortune 500 companies
7+
Events supported end-to-end
97%
Of users would recommend Earth
Earth
An all-in-one platform for running large-scale hybrid hackathons.
Role
UX Design Lead
Scope
Product Design · User Research · Frontend Development
Team
1 PM · 2 Engineers · 1 Designer
Year
2022
Detailed
TL;DR
Company & product context
Large-scale hackathons powered by one connected platform.
Onova runs large-scale internal hackathons for some of the world's largest companies. But running an event meant piecing together multiple third-party platforms for registration, teams, submissions, judging, and event content.
Earth brought the entire experience into one product.
Hybrid events
Warranty & paid jobs
Multiple user types
Multiple stakeholders
End-to-end workflow
End-to-end job lifecycle
02
End-to-end workflow
Onova needed to run complex events without forcing organizers and participants across disconnected tools.
Organizer problem
Running a single event required stitching together multiple third-party platforms.
Participant problem
Information was scattered across different sites, making the experience confusing and difficult to navigate.
03
Research
We analyzed past events and identified where the experience was breaking down.
Organizer problem
Running a single event required stitching together multiple third-party platforms.
Powerful systems often assumedusers understood datasets,dimensions, and aggregationlogic.
Organizer problem
Running a single event required stitching together multiple third-party platforms.
Powerful systems often assumedusers understood datasets,dimensions, and aggregationlogic.
Organizer problem
Running a single event required stitching together multiple third-party platforms.
Powerful systems often assumedusers understood datasets,dimensions, and aggregationlogic.
Key insight
The problem wasn't a lack of functionality. It was a lack of cohesion.
Users had the tools they needed. They just didn't have one clear experience connecting them.
04
Turning pricing policy into product guidance
Earth turned a fragmented set of tools into one continuous hackathon experience.
01
Registration
Join the event and create a profile.
02
Team formation
Create or join a team.
03
Live event
Access schedules, resources, and what's happening now.
04
Project submission
Prepare and submit the team's work.
05
Judging
Manage the final evaluation process.
Continuity
Designed for scale
A reusable design system supported rapid product development.
Accessibility
One source of truth
The live dashboard centralized important event information.
Confidence
Flexible by event
A customizable CMS allowed each event to have its own content and branding.
05
Design Challenge
Putting everything in one place solved fragmentation, but created a new problem: too much content above the fold.
The dashboard needed to surface critical event information immediately, without forcing participants to repeatedly scroll past content they had already seen.
06
Real-World Testing
We launched a beta at a real hackathon and discovered that one of the most important screens was barely being found.
User interviews and Google Analytics showed that participants were not discovering the Live Now dashboard. The problem wasn't the dashboard itself it was the architecture around it.
07
The final experience
One platform guided participants and organizers through the entire hackathon lifecycle.
Earth combined event content, team formation, live updates, project submissions, and judging into one coherent system replacing the fragmented experience Onova previously relied on.
08
Outcome
Earth became the operating platform for large - scale enterprise hackathons.
Core outcome
A fragmented ecosystem of event tools became one connected experience that organizers could run and participants could navigate with confidence.
8,000+
Users from Fortune 500 companies
7+
Events supported end-to-end
97%
Of users would recommend Earth
Vibe Metrics
How Vibe Metrics turned natural-language questions into a trusted, AI-assisted analytics layer for engineering teams.
Role
UX Design Lead
Scope
Product Design · User Research · Frontend Development
Team
1 PM · 2 Engineers · 1 Designer
Year
2022
Detailed
TL;DR
Company & product context
Engineering intelligence for the AI era.
Onova runs large-scale internal hackathons for some of the world's largest companies. But running an event meant piecing together multiple third-party platforms for registration, teams, submissions, judging, and event content.
Earth brought the entire experience into one product.
Hybrid events
Warranty & paid jobs
Multiple user types
Multiple stakeholders
End-to-end workflow
End-to-end job lifecycle
02
End-to-end workflow
Onova needed to run complex events without forcing organizers and participants across disconnected tools.
Organizer problem
Running a single event required stitching together multiple third-party platforms.
Participant problem
Information was scattered across different sites, making the experience confusing and difficult to navigate.
03
Research
We analyzed past events and identified where the experience was breaking down.
Organizer problem
Running a single event required stitching together multiple third-party platforms.
Powerful systems often assumedusers understood datasets,dimensions, and aggregationlogic.
Organizer problem
Running a single event required stitching together multiple third-party platforms.
Powerful systems often assumedusers understood datasets,dimensions, and aggregationlogic.
Organizer problem
Running a single event required stitching together multiple third-party platforms.
Powerful systems often assumedusers understood datasets,dimensions, and aggregationlogic.
Key insight
The problem wasn't a lack of functionality. It was a lack of cohesion.
Users had the tools they needed. They just didn't have one clear experience connecting them.
04
Turning pricing policy into product guidance
Earth turned a fragmented set of tools into one continuous hackathon experience.
01
Registration
Join the event and create a profile.
02
Team formation
Create or join a team.
03
Live event
Access schedules, resources, and what's happening now.
04
Project submission
Prepare and submit the team's work.
05
Judging
Manage the final evaluation process.
Continuity
Designed for scale
A reusable design system supported rapid product development.
Accessibility
One source of truth
The live dashboard centralized important event information.
Confidence
Flexible by event
A customizable CMS allowed each event to have its own content and branding.
05
Design Challenge
Putting everything in one place solved fragmentation, but created a new problem: too much content above the fold.
The dashboard needed to surface critical event information immediately, without forcing participants to repeatedly scroll past content they had already seen.
06
Real-World Testing
We launched a beta at a real hackathon and discovered that one of the most important screens was barely being found.
User interviews and Google Analytics showed that participants were not discovering the Live Now dashboard. The problem wasn't the dashboard itself it was the architecture around it.
07
The final experience
One platform guided participants and organizers through the entire hackathon lifecycle.
Earth combined event content, team formation, live updates, project submissions, and judging into one coherent system replacing the fragmented experience Onova previously relied on.
08
Outcome
Earth became the operating platform for large - scale enterprise hackathons.
Core outcome
A fragmented ecosystem of event tools became one connected experience that organizers could run and participants could navigate with confidence.
8,000+
Users from Fortune 500 companies
7+
Events supported end-to-end
97%
Of users would recommend Earth