Artists complained about spending hours marketing to clients,
while clients complained artists weren't communicating enough.
It seemed like an impossible, paradoxical problem.
Then I realised.
They were describing two sides of something that had remained invisible for 40 years.
A revelation that had eluded this platform—and every other platform like it—for years.
“I could have a bookmark folder in my browser with all the artists I like...this'd make things so much easier.”
— Client feedback
“I like how easy this looks to use...like, just looking at this I get it.“
— Artist feedback
“Ayyye that's awesome!! If it could be implemented like that, it would be SO SO SOOO nice!“
— Artist feedback
The furry fandom drives significant freelance art commerce, with over 50% of its estimated 2-million-strong community having commissioned custom artwork 6 times or more.
Despite 40 years of evolution and an incredibly strong freelance economy, this space was a graveyard of failed platforms.
If ArtDash was to be saved from its near-certain fate, it would mean more than delivering a nice prototype: I'd have to build alignment with the project engineer-founder and stakeholders from the strategic-top down, in a way no one else had done before in this space.
I was the sole designer working directly with the project’s founder and engineer, Timothy Tong, who also went by the name “Cassius”.
0-1 product strategy, market research, stakeholder alignment
2024
Due to incredibly high demand, artists in the community had evolved protective strategies in the last 20 years of digital transformation.
This explained the paradox: clients found it impossible to stay-up-to-date with the artists they were interested in. And with no existing solutions targeting this dynamic, artists were left to fend for themselves, trying desperately with all kinds of workarounds to handle the torrent of demand.
That was the real problem that was going unaddressed.
While competitors fought over discovery, an already-solved problem in the age of digital media, this unique market dynamic remained completely unaddressed.
This meant pivoting ArtDash entirely—from a social e-commerce platform bogged down by features to a business automation tool laser-focused on two core value propositions: helping artists automate their opening processes, and giving clients easy ways to monitor availability and apply.
Unattractive to both clients and artists,
"another platform to maintain"
B2B2C model with focused scope and two-prong strategy
Assist artists with
Assist clients with
Such a dramatic pivot required immediate stakeholder buy-in. I knew that Cassius—the project’s founder and engineer—was quantitatively-minded.
Leveraging the new framework, though, I translated qualitative research into a pain point heatmap that demonstrated the scale of the opportunity to him...
Client browses for new artists
They decide on which artists they're interested in buying from
They wait for the artist to open and apply
They pay and make initial contact
They work with the artist through and provide feedback through to delivery
The prototype had to do more than validate user experiences: it needed to rally stakeholder confidence in the strategic pivot. The ArtDash vision had to be architected in a way that addressed engineering, business, and adoption challenges simultaneously.
Regular feedback sessions with artists and Cassius validated design decisions in real-time, providing evidence that the strategic pivot was resonating with target users while ensuring engineering alignment.
By redefining our strategy as an artist-focused tool, I eliminated the need for “buyer accounts”, significantly reducing user account management (UAM) overhead for engineering.
When social media integration proved too technically complex, I pivoted to focus solely on email notifications, which was much more feasible while still addressing core user needs.
Versus more elaborate features like embeddable status frames or a dedicated app, the DashCard concept would effectively represent zero overhead to engineering.
Ensuring the prototype was of high visual quality meant that our product could basically sell itself to potential users.
Artists actively rejected social features like profiles and feeds, fearing “another platform to maintain.” Positioning ArtDash as an automation tool rather than social platform eliminated this barrier.
Drawing on familiar paradigms artists were used to like Google Forms or Notion, new users could pick up ArtDash without extensive onboarding.
Many predecessors faltered due to forcing a particular workflow onto their users. I designed our flows to allow artists to more gradually adopt our new tool while maintaining feasibility.
For this new concept, artists could simply link to their DashCard across their online presence, and clients could bookmark those links too: very similar to how it’s done now, with microsites like Linktree or Carrd.
I appreciate how you didn't just jump into trying to make another gallery website or platform and actually talked to a bunch of us first. This looks really good.
I am so excited for the direction this is going, my gosh! It looks phenomenal so far.
I wanted to reach out to let you know your contributions have been taken seriously...thank you so much for all your work.
Everyone could see a clear path forward for the first time.
ArtDash was transformed from a stalled project destined for the platform graveyard into a focused product, with genuine market differentiation and a value proposition that met actual user needs.