The Media Studio: Scaling Digital Advocacy for Political Consultants
Role: Lead Product Designer (Strategy, Research & Design Systems)
Company: SpeakEasy Political
Tools: Figma, FigJam, Adobe CC, Calendly, Respondent
About
SpeakEasy Political provides tech-enabled tools for political candidates to execute digital and mail campaigns. I was hired to lead the 0-to-1 design of The Media Studio, a specialized platform designed to scale the business by targeting political consultants—a high-value user segment managing complex, multi-client portfolios.
My Leadership Impact:
- • Discovery & Strategy: Defined user personas and led end-to-end research to align the product with consultant workflows.
- • Scalable Architecture: Built and documented a comprehensive design system using Atomic Design principles to accelerate development.
- • Product Vision: Transformed early discovery insights into a high-fidelity beta launch that achieved 10% user migration within two weeks.
* Click on images to zoom out *
Strategic Audit & Quality Benchmarking
To ground the new platform in high-performance standards, I conducted a comprehensive heuristic and accessibility audit of the legacy tool. This identified critical friction points that were hindering user retention and scaling.
Key Insights:
- • Identified significant gaps in WCAG AA standards, advocating for a move toward an inclusive, accessible design framework.
- • Found that linear campaign flows blocked consultants from multitasking, a primary requirement for the new persona.
- • Identified that the homepage lacked utility; I proposed a data-driven dashboard approach to serve as the "nerve center" for consultants.
Market Positioning & Competitive Gap Analysis
I conducted a benchmark analysis of the political ad-tech landscape. I discovered that most competitors relied on outdated, "cold" interfaces that added to the high stress of campaign management.
Strategic Opportunities:
• Stand out with modern, accessible UI
• Use a more human, approachable tone
• Position The Media Studio as the "modern alternative" with a focus on speed and flexibility
Persona Research & Critical User Journeys
I facilitated stakeholder workshops to define our primary persona: the power-user consultant. Through targeted user interviews, I mapped out the high-pressure environment of political cycles to ensure the MVP addressed the most painful bottlenecks.
New Platform's Focus Points:
• Users need to track and edit multiple campaigns simultaneously
- • Audience targeting is a critical (and stressful) step — better guidance was essential
- • The platform has to be fast to learn and easy to navigate due to time-sensitive campaign cycles
These insights shaped both the MVP and long-term product vision.
Cross-Functional Synergy & MVP Scoping
The engineering team was also new, so I organized and facilitated cross-functional workshops with the PM, developers, and stakeholders. My goal was to build a shared “product language” from day one, ensuring every design decision was technically viable and business-aligned.
This early alignment helped reduce rework and built strong communication channels for the rest of the project.
Visual Strategy
With the roadmap set, I transitioned into high-fidelity design. Since the brand identity was evolving simultaneously, I took a proactive lead in ensuring the new aesthetics by guiding usability testing to validate both the visual direction and campaign builder experience before development began.
Validation Through A/B Experimentation
I led usability sessions with internal subject matter experts and potential users to stress-test the interface. This wasn't just about "liking" the design; it was about ensuring speed and accuracy in a high-stakes environment.
Key Outcomes:
• Achieved a 100% positive response rate on the new visual identity, validating that clarity and modern aesthetics improved the perceived ease of use.
- • Conducted A/B experiments on the campaign creation flow. The data led us to choose a "flexible builder" over a rigid wizard, allowing consultants to save drafts and add information as it became available—a major productivity win.
Design system Leadership
To ensure long-term consistency and rapid scaling, I built and documented a comprehensive design system from the ground up using Atomic Design principles. This became the foundational language for the entire product ecosystem
“This is one of the most organized handoffs I’ve worked with — it saved us hours of back-and-forth.”
– Front-End Developer, SpeakEasy Political
The design system reduced friction and accelerated development, especially as new engineers joined the team.
Outcomes & Impact
The Media Studio launched as a beta in August 2022.
Impact:
- •Achieved a 10% migration rate of existing users to the new platform within the first two weeks of the beta launch.
- •The platform successfully met early milestones on its path to the target of 150 new power-user consultants by the following year.
- • Internal teams and leadership were highly satisfied with both the design quality and the cross-functional process.
Want to try out the Interactive Prototype? Reach out to me!
What is next?
• New payment method integrations are currently in development
- • The audience targeting flow is under review for optimization, especially as the business considers expanding beyond political clients