Dreami
Founding Front-End Engineer & UX/UI Designer
4+ years
As the founding Front-End Engineer and UX/UI Designer, I transformed the Dreami platform from an early concept into a fully functional product, leading to its successful acquisition. A standout achievement was designing and developing the Admin Panel; a transformative tool that redefined how program administrators manage mentorship programs by streamlining participant matching, progress tracking, and data reporting.
Dreami is a B2B SaaS platform that streamlines mentorship and workforce development programs for organizations. It empowers users to focus on impact by automating and customizing program management tasks, ensuring success for both administrators and participants.
What is Dreami?
Program administrators managing mentorship programs faced significant challenges with Dreami’s platform:
Lack of visibility into program data
Reliance on manual processes for tracking sign-ups, retrieving match data, and generating reports
Frustration from depending on Dreami’s team for tasks they wished to handle independently
These inefficiencies led to frustration and even failed program renewals, highlighting the need for a more intuitive, self-service admin solution.
Problem
Before conducting interviews, I reviewed customer feedback to identify recurring themes. This helped me craft targeted questions that could uncover deeper insights about the pain points admins face.
Interview Structure:
Opening Questions: I started by asking participants to describe their role and how they use Dreami in their day-to-day program management.
Current Challenges: Next, I delved into their frustrations with the current system, focusing on pain points like tracking data, managing matches, and accessing reports.
Feature Wishlist: To guide potential solutions, I asked admins what tools or functionalities they felt would make their job easier.
Analysis: After the interviews, I synthesized the responses to identify common patterns. For instance, all three participants expressed frustration with the lack of real-time data and the need to rely on Dreami’s team for simple tasks like generating reports or matching participants.
Empathize
Research Method
The research revealed that administrators had varying preferences for data access and support. Some preferred more real-time data access while still relying on Dreami’s team for assistance, while others wanted a single, comprehensive tool that would give them full control.
Regardless of preference, a common challenge was the struggle to provide timely updates and demonstrate program impact to stakeholders. Many admins felt overwhelmed by the manual processes involved in data tracking, frustrated by the lack of visibility into their program’s performance, and hindered by their reliance on Dreami’s team for every data request and match.
This left them feeling disconnected from the success of their programs and highlighted the need for a flexible solution that empowers admins with autonomy, while still providing support when needed.
Define
Pain Points
User Personas
Sarah’s persona identifies program administrators' common struggles and diving deeper into Dreami's primary customer base.
Background:
By understanding Sarah’s role in a nonprofit, I recognized her need for a more efficient system to manage her growing program. Her experience highlights the need for tools that can scale and simplify program management.
Goals & Opportunities:
Sarah aims to improve efficiency and gain more autonomy in managing her program. She wants to streamline administrative tasks like matching participants and tracking data. Automating these tasks and providing easy access to real-time data are essential solutions to support her goals.
Observations:
Sarah’s struggle with manual tasks and lack of streamlined processes is common among administrators. The absence of a centralized system and real-time data creates significant friction.
I was particularly interested in understanding the volume of tasks Sarah handles daily and how much support she needs from Dreami. As a program manager, Sarah juggles various responsibilities—managing participants, tracking progress, generating reports, and handling queries. This helped me identify where Dreami could reduce her workload and inform the design of a solution that balances autonomy with support.
Journey Mapping
Creating a journey map was essential to understand Sarah's experience as a Program Manager at NextGen Nonprofit. By mapping her interactions with Dreami's platform, I identified key touchpoints, emotions, pain points, and opportunities for improvement. This process provided a comprehensive view of her workflow.
Ideate
Pain Points
The research revealed that administrators had varying preferences for data access and support. Some preferred more real-time data access while still relying on Dreami’s team for assistance, while others wanted a single, comprehensive tool that would give them full control.
Regardless of preference, a common challenge was the struggle to provide timely updates and demonstrate program impact to stakeholders. Many admins felt overwhelmed by the manual processes involved in data tracking, frustrated by the lack of visibility into their program’s performance, and hindered by their reliance on Dreami’s team for every data request and match.
This left them feeling disconnected from the success of their programs and highlighted the need for a flexible solution that empowers admins with autonomy, while still providing support when needed.
Hypothesis
By improving the program management features and providing admins with more autonomy and real-time data access, we can increase their efficiency, reduce frustration, and enhance their connection to the success of their programs. This, in turn, will lead to higher program renewals and greater user satisfaction.
Wireframes
Low-Fi Wireframe
Design Philosophy
When designing the low-fi wireframes, I kept a clear focus on user needs, technical feasibility, and simplicity. The admin panel was designed as a comprehensive tool for program administrators, but early iterations didn’t include a dashboard.
Key Features in the Initial Admin Panel
User Management: A streamlined way for admins to manage participants, track sign-ups, and oversee matching processes.
Data Exploration: Tools to let admins generate reports and review detailed program metrics on demand.
The Evolution of the Dashboard
During testing, I noticed that admins like Sarah still felt overwhelmed navigating the admin panel for specific updates. They needed a simpler way to view key program data at a glance without diving into multiple tools.
This feedback led to the introduction of a dashboard in the admin panel. The dashboard became the go-to hub for quick insights, featuring:
Recent Sign-Ups: A real-time view of who had joined.
Top-Level Metrics: Data summaries that helped admins quickly gauge their program’s health.
The dashboard simplified the admin experience, ensuring admins could quickly locate essential information while still having the option to dig deeper if needed.
Solution
A Dynamic Admin Panel
After designing and testing the Admin Panel prototypes, we transitioned to development, bringing the vision to life. The result? A robust, user-centric tool tailored to the needs of program administrators. Unlike the static designs seen in earlier phases, the final version of the Admin Panel reflects both the core features and the additional insights we gathered post-launch.
Key Enhancements:
Onboarding Guide: To ensure a smooth start, we introduced a checklist feature that guides admins through their first interaction with the panel. This helps them set up their programs with confidence and eliminates any initial confusion.
Program Milestones: To give admins even greater customization, we introduced the ability to create and track custom milestones. This feature allows programs to better align with their goals, fostering meaningful outcomes for users and driving program success.
The fully developed Admin Panel now serves as a central hub for program management, streamlining tasks that were once tedious and manual. It empowers administrators to take control, create impact, and deliver value to their users—all while showcasing the thoughtful design and functionality that defines Dreami's mission.
What Could Be Next
How might advanced reporting tools, such as predictive analytics, provide more value to program administrators?
Could a mobile version of the Admin Panel enhance accessibility and empower admins to manage their programs on the go?
How could AI-powered features like automated match suggestions improve outcomes?
What I’ve Learned
Empathy is the foundation of meaningful design—understanding user challenges shapes better solutions.
Iteration is key; balancing user needs with technical constraints leads to stronger outcomes.
Simple, user-focused workflows empower users and drive real impact.
Scalable solutions create long-term value, making even small features feel transformative.