SocialFi has a usability problem, not a tech problem.
Stack.so is a SocialFi crypto app that helps small creators monetize content and build a community while simplifying crypto adoption — Instagram and Robinhood, fused. Users post content, engage with their audience, and manage a wallet to buy, sell, and trade tokens, including their own.
The challenge: small creators don't want to learn a crypto stack. They want to monetize what they're already doing. The product had to feel social-first and let the financial layer fade into the background — without losing the upside that makes SocialFi worth using.
"Make people feel like the product just works." — my operating principle on every screen.
As a contractor. Stayed because the team moved fast.
I joined for what was scoped as a homepage and messaging pass during the NYC strategy week. By the end of the engagement, I was running brand strategy, creator funnel design, monetization UX, and on-the-ground launch ops at two Web3 conferences. The scope kept growing because the team kept shipping.
Every hour was logged. Slack and Notion records back every entry. This isn't a portfolio approximation — it's a paid engagement with a real time log.
Four workstreams. One coherent launch.
Homepage strategy + product UX
In-person whiteboarding at the NYC office. Structured messaging hierarchy, layout decisions, monetization UX (creator visibility + payout split mechanics), token gating UX, USD payout audit, full Figma async pass on creator-facing flows.
42 hrs · Feb 23 – Mar 31Creator funnel + community ops
Designed end-to-end creator acquisition: Discord server, Reddit community presence, Google Form gated application. Drafted creator-facing copy. Built the empathy interview pipeline and ran live creator interviews captured into team notes.
12 hrs · Mar 18 – Apr 2Token2049 + Paris IRL activation
Mascot sticker design and vendor coordination. On-the-ground at Token2049 Dubai — sticker distribution, creator pitches, distribution follow-up. Pitched Stack to creators live at Paris Blockchain Week. Coordinated offline lead capture and post-event handoff.
8 hrs billed + 8 hrs pro-bono · Apr 18 – 24Launch deck + final brand pass
Final strategy deck — copy, visuals, async review, CTA flow, PDF export. Content library audit (naming + grouping). One-liner brand messaging refinement. Async deck feedback through team wrap-up. End-of-engagement Slack handoff.
25 hrs · Apr 21 – May 987 hours, mapped.
Most consulting engagements blur. This one didn't — every hour logged against a deliverable, with Slack and Notion as audit trail.
Five decisions, mostly about restraint.
The whiteboards before the homepage.
Most portfolio pages skip the messy middle. Here's the messy middle. Two of the FigJam boards I ran while embedded with the team — onboarding flow critique with the actual screens annotated, and the landing-page ideation session that became the homepage.
Board 01 · Onboarding flow audit
Every screen mapped. Every friction noted. Sticky notes from me, Kara, and the team — "no context of what product does," "users should be able to choose their username," "too many steps for user to have to log into email to authenticate." The audit became the redesign brief.
Board 02 · Landing page ideation
Live session with Yuwei, Kara, Mary, and Graeme Boy. Hero ideas → slogan candidates → key features → user benefits → finalists. The "Finalists" column on the right is what shipped: "Invest in friends and creators, discover talent, and share in their success as they grow."
Web2.5 product. Dark, premium, social-first.
The product I shaped UX for. Dark mode native, content feed primary, wallet under the social layer. Web3 mechanics behind a recognizable social interface — the Web2.5 framing Stack ended up building from.
Product in context · MacBook + iPhone composite from the brand file
Landing page · final messaging pass · dark premium aesthetic
Mobile flows · feed → creator → community · social UX hiding the crypto layer
Platform view · token gating UX + creator monetization surfaces
Brand calibrated. Funnel running. Team's on their own again.
By wrap, Stack had a coherent homepage narrative, a working creator funnel across three channels, two activated Web3 events, a final launch deck, and a brand voice that talked to creators in their language instead of in tokenomics. The team picked up from there — which is exactly the right outcome for a consulting engagement: leave them stronger than you found them, then get out of the way.
Two things. I'd compress the engagement — 42 hours in the first week was the right move, but the trailing 25 hrs across April–May lost momentum because the team's own velocity slowed. Better to define a hard end-state milestone earlier. I'd also run more usability tests — the research plan I drafted called for 8–10 task-based tests, but the team was launch-hot and we deferred. The token gating UX got polished without that signal. It worked; would have worked better with it.