Led creative direction for 4 years, evolving sports tech startup from elite-athlete tool to inclusive gaming platform while designing achievement-based product experience that brought the strategy to life. v3.0 presold more devices in 3 months than the entire previous generation, creating foundation for acquisition by Boards & More, Europe's largest watersports conglomerate.
WOO Sports developed sensor technology tracking action sports jumps and performance. When I joined in November 2014, the platform had established credibility with elite athletes through the Red Bull King of the Air partnership and was growing its user base globally.
Over 4 years, I led creative direction across brand evolution, product design, and community engagement, working with a lean team of 2 developers, 1 content stategist, and 1 product strategist. My work focused on building infrastructure that enabled both global competition and local community celebration.
I designed the v3.0 mobile app from scratch, creating a social-first experience that included filtered leaderboards (enabling competition across multiple metrics), comprehensive rider profiles with personal progression tracking, achievement badges across disciplines, and an activity feed where the community could celebrate personal records and milestones. Every post was designed for easy sharing to broader social platforms, extending reach beyond the WOO community.
The app's social features (commenting, following, notifications) turned individual sessions into community moments. We delivered daily, weekly, and monthly local and global leaderboards via email in shareable formats, creating organic promotion through local riding spots. I ran multiple on-site contests across North America, gathering invaluable feedback while strengthening community connections.
Beyond product design, I contributed to contest mechanics development, evolved the brand from "Get in the Game" to inclusive "Play More" philosophy (drawing from play theory inspired by Jane McGonigal's "Reality is Broken" and Johan Huizinga's "Homo Ludens"), directed 3 sport-specific launch videos, supported Red Bull partnership coordination and content creation, and helped shape ambassador programs that extended community reach.
When the company faced operational challenges in 2017 (supplier failures, inventory issues, cash constraints) the product and community work helped demonstrate market viability. The v3.0 launch presold more devices in 3 months than the entire previous generation.
In final months I was with the company, the team worked to launch WOO Pro subscription and GPS-based freeride mode, creating recurring revenue infrastructure and a larger SAM. The platform scaled to 50+ countries distribution with 120+ countries active usage.
In 2023/2024, WOO was acquired by Boards & More—Europe's largest watersports distributor (Fanatic, Duotone, ION)—enabling more efficient operations while the core team focused on community and product. The app design, sensor, and packaging I created remained largely identical through the acquisition, demonstrating the foundation's lasting value that has now reached over 45,000 users.
