The product sits at the intersection of social planning and outdoor exploration. Friends needed a single place to coordinate calendars, meetups, maps, and routes while also capturing the experience afterward. Core features included group planning tools, topographic and altitude-aware maps, discovery of sights and regions, and easy sharing to social platforms. The work took place inside a three-month accelerator-style program that followed a design-thinking structure. Time was limited, the concept was still early, and the primary near-term goal was a polished prototype and clear roadmap that could support fundraising conversations.

As Product Design Lead at Strides Development I owned the end-to-end design process. I facilitated the discovery and prioritization workshops, guided the information architecture and interaction design, delivered the high-fidelity Figma prototype, and prepared the supporting materials the team later used in their investor pitches.

We followed the accelerator program structure while keeping the work tightly focused on the highest-value user journeys.

We began with brand and business discovery sessions to clarify the product’s personality and the specific problems groups of friends faced when planning and documenting trips. Design workshops followed: we mapped current pain points (scattered chats, lost details, hard-to-coordinate meetups) and brainstormed ideal solutions. Competitive audits and early user journeys helped us surface the features that would matter most.

From there we moved into prototyping. I designed the core flows in Figma, focusing on group calendaring and meetup coordination, map-based exploration with topographic and altitude context, saving and organizing shared memories, and lightweight social sharing. We kept the experience oriented around the group rather than the individual so that planning and remembering felt collaborative.

User testing and short interviews validated the main assumptions and led to refinements in navigation, map interactions, and the memory-capture moments. The final phase produced a prioritized set of user stories, a development roadmap, and a polished clickable prototype that clearly communicated the vision.

One of the clearest early decisions was to treat the group as the primary unit rather than building a traditional single-user travel app. That choice shaped everything from how calendars and meetups worked to how memories were saved and shared.

We also prioritized a strong map experience with topographic and altitude information over a long list of secondary social features. The maps needed to feel useful for real exploration, not just decorative. On the planning side we kept the first version focused on the essential coordination tools so the prototype stayed clear and fundable rather than feature-heavy.

The engagement delivered a high-fidelity, interactive Figma prototype along with the supporting discovery documents, prioritized stories, and roadmap. The founding team used these assets directly in their pitches to venture capital groups. The work helped them present a concrete, visual product vision and contributed to a successful fundraising process.

Working inside a fixed-length accelerator program reinforced how valuable it is to keep every workshop and design decision tied to a clear near-term outcome. In this case that outcome was a prototype and narrative strong enough for investor conversations. If I were running a similar engagement again I would bring one or two target users into the later prioritization sessions so the final feature set could be pressure-tested against real group planning behavior even earlier.