Product · Sports software
Five Ravens sports management software
Overview
Five Ravens was born from the belief that most sports management software is too complicated. Organizations pay for features that they don’t or won’t ever use.
Position
Instead, Five Ravens was software made for small clubs or leagues with the features that matter most. I was co-owner of Five Ravens until it sold in 2021, having led the research, design, marketing and sales for the product since 2019.
Back to the start
I began in February 2019 by sketching some designs on paper and making a digital prototype. I then showed subsequent prototypes to local sports associations to get their feedback and validate some of our ideas.
In time for sports to start
Through spring and summer, I mapped the system and designed more screens while others coded, refined and deployed. By August 2019, we had a Minimum Viable Product. Our launch that was purposely timed with the onset of a new school year and sports organizations starting up again. We had to move fast.
Simplicity at the core
The core features of Five Ravens were focused on simplicity. For example, a one-account creation flow for coaches, officials, organizers, parents and players, many of whom are often the same busy people. Less accounts, less hassle.
Clarity, above all
Five Ravens also had a fun, user-friendly drag and drop builder for teams and games. We wanted to help organizers say goodbye to complicated spreadsheets and PDFs. Why? The smallest change to these documents mean you have to contact everyone and tell them what's different. They need to download the file again, look for changes and update their own. That, or they miss games and practices. No more.
Unified messaging
Group, team and person-to-person messages were also kept in a single system. The product made it easy to find the person or people you wanted to contact and send them a message.
For Safe Sport
Messaging was a feature that many organizations requested. Canadian sport organizations follow the Safe Sport protocol which includes guidelines for anti-harassment, abuse prevention, investigation and disciplinary action. As we entered new markets, others also benefitted from this feature.
First customers
We soon gained customers, and quickly developed new features by listening to their ideas, reviewing performance analytics and asking questions of different types of users.
Rapid change
Over the next five months, we improved onboarding and added payment options, game results, digital waivers, shared players, season standings, custom questions, event calendars, file export options and a powerful administrative dashboard. I worked in both Sketch and code.
Administrative dashboard
Made for club and league administrators, the dashboard included easy-to-use tools such as registration progress reports, financial transactions and high-level summaries of communications, events and operations.
After the sale
We were approached to sell Five Ravens in 2021. After the assets were transferred to its new owner, they took the product in a different direction. Regardless, the experience I gained from making and running it was something I learned a lot from and will forever value.
