MAS9

Designing 0-1 Core Workflows for a Martial Arts School Management Platform, Driving 400% Paid User Growth

Designing End-to-End Core Features for a Martial Arts School Management Platform: 400% Growth

Timeline

Early 2025

Responsibility

Led 0-1 Design

Role & Team

Product Designer working with
the CEO and 2 software engineers

Overview

Context

In early 2025, I joined MAS9 as a Product Designer at the company's founding stage. As a martial arts school management platform, MAS9 required diverse and complex functionality to support school operations.

However, the existing system was developed with a ‘feature-first’ approach that neglected essential user workflows. As a result, school administrators had to manually manage core tasks such as collecting registration information and responding to daily inquiries outside the platform, creating fragmented workflows and excessive operational and cognitive workload.

In early 2025, I joined MAS9 as a Product Designer at the company's founding stage. As a martial arts school management platform, the product required diverse and complex functionality to serve school operations effectively.

However, the existing product had significant gaps: essential features were missing, and the available functionality was developed with a feature-first approach rather than user-centered design. This created significant usability barriers, making it difficult for school operators to understand and effectively utilize the system.

Goal

Establish user-centered operational workflows as the foundation for user adoption and sustainable growth.

My Role

Designed core operational workflows, including membership and event registration, as well as AI-powered messaging.

Impact

Contributed to 400% growth in paid active users by establishing core operational workflows, scaling from 0 to 100+ paid schools.
Users described the platform as "significantly easier than competitors"

Understanding Martial Arts School Requirements

Unlike fitness or beauty industries, martial arts schools require specialized operational features:

Event management (rank promotions, camps, tournaments)
Parent-led registration as primary decision makers for minor students
Rank systems with promotion tracking and certification management.
Existing solutions relied on manual processes and fragmented tools, with no comprehensive software addressing these martial arts-specific workflows.

Project 1
Registration Form System Design

Challenge

The platform's registration workflow was limited to the admin tool, forcing school administrators to manually handle all signups, information collection, and payments. As schools needed to support diverse use cases, such as membership enrollment, trials, event registration, for both existing members and external participants, this workflow became unsustainable. Schools requested a configurable registration form system that could be reused across multiple scenarios and distributed through shareable links.

Approach

Development Timeline & Focus

Development Timeline & Focus

Given the demanding 0-1 development timeline and limited resources, the primary focus was maximizing system versatility and minimizng setup complexity.

Discovery & Insights

Discovery & Insights

Through informal interviews with school administrators, I found critical requirements that shaped the feature direction.

The "Interface-Barrier" (Administrators)

Flexible to Diverse School Operations

Administrators needed to create forms for various scenarios (Events, Memberships, Lead Capture), but they were easily overwhelmed by complex settings. The solution had to balance high flexibility and low cognitive load.

Martial arts schools run diverse programs (rank promotion test, camps, tournaments, trials). A template-based system aligned with core use cases ensures consistency and efficiency.

The "Family" Context (End-User)

Parents are the primary users filling out forms. A major friction point was the inability to register multiple children in a single session. The system needed to distinguish between the 'Payer' (Parent) and 'Participant' (Member).

Design Principles

Design Principles

Flexible to Diverse School Operations:
Design a system that accommodates widely varying programs (e.g. Rank promotion test, camps, trials)

Lower Barrier for Admins:
Eliminate the "Interface-Barrier" by prioritizing intuitive setup.

Unified Flow for All User Types:
Created a single flow that differentiates between existing members, new participants, parents, and guardians to prevent data duplication and errors.

Solution

Template-Based Structure

Template-Based Structure

Ready-made templates (trial sign-up, lead capture, memberships, events) with customizable fields reduce admin burden while supporting diverse needs.

User-Facing Multiple Registration System:

User-Facing Multiple Registration System:

Email verification identifies user types (existing member, external participants, family member) to customize registration experience for multiple family members in single session

Separate Buyer’s Information

Separate Buyer’s Information

Distinguish between decision maker (parent) and participant (child) data fields

Result & Learnings

Success

Became one of the most frequently used features for school operations
Successfully addressed the core business need for external registration feature
Users praised the event/trial registration functionality as more intuitive and seamless than competitor platforms

Became one of the most frequently used features for school operations

Successfully addressed the core business need for external registration feature
Users praised the event/trial registration functionality as more intuitive and seamless than competitor platforms

1. Success

2. User Insight Discovered

User Insight Discovered

Users didn’t immediately recognize that left-panel items were clickable to add to the form
Lacked clear visual affordances for click-to-add interactions

Future Improvement Opportunities

Enhanced Visual Cues:

Instead of arrow icon inside the box, consider more intuitive affordances to indicate click-to-add interaction.
Add a dedicated "+" button next to each item so users can add them individually, rather than relying on a checkbox-based bulk selection model, which causes confusion.

Enhanced Visual Cues:

Instead of arrow icon inside the box, consider more intuitive affordances to indicate click-to-add interaction.
Add a dedicated "+" button next to each item so users can add them individually, rather than relying on a checkbox-based bulk selection model, which causes confusion.

Onboarding Guidance:

Implement a brief tutorial or short guided walkthrough for first-time users, highlighting key interactions such as adding items from the left panel and distinguishing between buyer vs. participant fields.
This helps new users quickly understand the form-building workflow, reducing friction and preventing mistakes.

Onboarding Guidance:

Implement a brief tutorial or short guided walkthrough for first-time users, highlighting key interactions such as adding items from the left panel and distinguishing between buyer vs. participant fields.
This helps new users quickly understand the form-building workflow, reducing friction and preventing mistakes.