Brief
Many art studios run Paint and Sip classes as a side venture to generate revenue. But this creates a whole new set of problems for them - marketing their business, creating and scheduling events, managing staff, receiving payments, all while staying on brand. While there are many website builders, ticketing platforms, and different software solutions to manage reservations, these can often be cost-prohibitive and unintuitive to use for many studio owners.
I chose to solve a problem that would greatly benefit those in the Paint and Sip industry. I built the Popklass platform with the idea of disrupting the registration taboo. For this project, I conducted a series of 6 interviews. Two users who wanted to start in the Paint and Sip business and four users who were already running their paint and sip art studio. Both audiences had the same needs, a website platform that allowed the sale of a ticket and products.
This is why I set out to build Popklass! The All-in-One website and Registration System for the Paint and Sip industry. Fully automated. The Popklass platform is filled with features to solve the registration process while staying in the brand. These features are not longer only available for those who can pay for an expensive website with reservation capabilities. I am making Popklass available to everyone. Either free or for a fraction of the cost of a similar system. Popklass is here to help art studios owner run and manage their events with an automated system.
Client
Paint and Sip Art Studio. A case study for the Paint and Sip industry
Responsibilities
Product Manager, User Research, Personas, Strategy, Feature Prioritization, Wireframes, High-Fidelity Sketches, Prototype, Usability Testing, and UI Specifications.
Tools
Sketch / InVision / Dropbox Paper / Jira / Google Drive, Adobe XD
Popklass, the events registration and ticketing systems
Research
My discovery research phase included user interviews and competitive analysis. I discovered that; new business owners breaking into the Paint and Sip industry were starting their new business because they were lifetime artists and believe they had the artistic skills needed to start their Paint and Sip business. New business owners believed it was an easy business model even if they had no painting experience. Through my initial findings, I discovered that there was an opportunity to build a platform that would serve both, the existing and new artists seeking a reservation or ticketing managing system to run their events. Popklass valued proposition will exist to fulfill the needs of these new entrepreneurs. To allow these users to spend more time building and growing their business and customers rather than dealing with building an expensive website that needs constant plugin updates.
People starting in the paint and sip industry start their painting services as a side business idea. These new artists’ entrepreneurs do not have access to the tools that allow them to create events and manage their online registration process. Current website platforms are not doing enough for the Paint and Sip trend. Custom websites cost is high and new business owners in the paint and sip have to abandon their websites to seek out registration alternatives among them ticketing solutions.
Hypothesis
Framing the problem
How might we create a self-service tool tailored for the Paint and Sip art studio owners to allow these events organizers to create and publish events, sell events tickets, manage registration, help them build customers confidence, build brand recognition, access to share on social media right from their platform, and offer a low cost?
The only options in the market were third-party systems to allow their users to sign up for events. These quick solutions came at a high cost. Paying for a website and a registration system is expensive. These users had no control at that point over their branding. Can customers trust a business where every click takes you to a new interface that had nothing to do with your branding?
I created a Competitive Analysis to understand the complex landscape. I looked at a range of big players in the paint and sip industry, including franchises, and top brands in the Paint and Sip business. I consulted with art studio owners, as well as companies who have piloted and pioneered sip and paint bars and restaurant events.
Analysis
To validate my assumptions, I conducted a series of 6 interviews, three of them over the phone, two via Facebook chat. and one face-to-face for 40 minutes each. All six participants were Paint and Sip art studio owners or looking to start in the business in the near future.
Interviews
Interviews quotes
“The product sale model does not work for my Paint and Sip studio. I had to trick their system on every order with a random tracking number to stop the system prompting the user to ship the item. As we know, the product sale and shipment are two complete different behaviors.” Elena D.
“I get frustrated by the amount of brand inconsistency between my two websites. One for welcoming the customer and another for ticket purchase.” Jenny S.
“Building a custom website with everything I need is expensive” Jenny S.
“I am not a web designer and I don’t have the time to work on my website as often as I would like” Heather W.
“Organizing an event is time consiming and I don’t have the luxury to manage an complex website” Artbug S.
Art Studio Owners
Need inexpensive website alternatives that allow them to sell and promote their services
Need to stay on brand while selling and promoting their events and services
Want to spend more time organizing and running events rather than editing and managing events on a platform
Want a flexible platform that allows them to easily update information
Key insights
Validation
Through my research, my initial hypothesis was validated and the opportunity to develop a product that would offer a platform where Paint and Sip art studios owners and events organizers can create events and manage their information while staying in the brand was identified. The Paint and Sip industry is a very competitive arena, to be able to compete against the largest
This project is in progress. Please check back soon for updates.