Impact is a comprehensive digital platform for the film and TV production industry, developed to modernize hiring, communication, and production management. With Notable partnerships with Netflix, HBO, and other Production companies, Impact first got their start as a "YC Combinator" writer development program to mentor unique under-represented voices in hollywood. What started as a project marketplace for the alumni, became what it is today. Impact is building a "Linkedin" for Hollywood, connecting hollywood creatives digitally. 

I served as the Lead Product Designer from the seed round through Series B funding.

The Problem

The Hollywood production ecosystem has been severely outdated, with hiring practices rooted in personal networks, disjointed communication methods, and no digital space for crew availability or project experience. Productions were reliant on phone calls, emails, and personal referrals. Hiring and coordination were fragmented, often involving multiple platforms.

Pain Points

Hiring

Limited to personal referrals, making it difficult to find candidates.

Organization

Teams struggled to consolidate information, using disparate tools.

Communication

Reliance on email and phone limited efficient collaboration.

Opportunity

How might we make hiring & communication within Hollywood more organized & efficient?

Project Goals

Consolation of Information

The industry lacked an integrated platform for showcasing crew past work and current availability.

Take Hiring Online

Instead of searching through personal networks to crew up productions, Impact should provide a easy way to find the right person.

Central Communcation Hub For Productions

Provide a way to digitize crewlists, quickly communicate with one another, and send files.

Userflows & Storyboards

Phase 1: The Network (2022)

Currently, there is no dedicated platform for Hollywood professionals to network digitally. IMDB serves primarily as a read-only resource, while LinkedIn has limited popularity within the industry. To address this, we leveraged a database from Variety Insights to gather comprehensive project and crew information across Hollywood. We pre-filled profiles for crew members and introduced a “claim your profile” feature, allowing users to take ownership and save time by eliminating the need to manually update their credits. Additionally, we built features for connecting, messaging, and updating availability, streamlining the networking and communication process for industry professionals.

Phase 2: Avail Check (2022-2023)

Currently, the hiring process involves searching for individuals on IMDB or relying on personal networks, followed by sending individual emails to check availability for specific roles. This approach is repetitive and time-consuming, especially when contacting multiple candidates.

After establishing our network, we developed a set of filters to streamline this process for hiring managers. These filters allowed them to search based on criteria such as genre, project budget, specific roles, locations, union membership, past production experience, and collaborations with particular producers. Additionally, we built an availability management tool to track responses and monitor progress throughout the hiring process. This tool was integrated with our messaging system, facilitating seamless communication with candidates.

Phase 3: On-Set Tools (2023+)

In every production, a crew list is distributed containing everyone’s name, role, and contact information. When someone needs to reach out, they have to refer to this paper list or a PDF on their phone and manually copy the contact details to call. Now, with all crew members integrated into our network, their contact information is readily available. Production coordinators can easily search and enroll crew members through the network. Crew members can access the Impact app to view a digital crew list organized by department and role, enabling convenient messaging and calling directly from their mobile devices. 

Lessons Learned

 
Challenges Faced

Adapting the platform during the Hollywood writer strike required rapid adjustments to address a larger market, shifting from a writer-focused tool to a comprehensive crew solution.

Takeaways

Flexibility in product design and development is essential, especially in industries prone to sudden changes. How we won customers was fast bug fixes and customer requests, compared to our competitors who ignored any sort of requests

Next Steps

Integrating further AI-driven recommendations for hiring and enhancing collaboration tools for live production feedback.