Benite
The best way to connect with beauty professionals
Introduction
I co-founded Benite alongside a full-stack engineer, wearing multiple hats as Product Manager, Brand Designer, and Product Designer. This comprehensive role allowed me to shape the product from concept to launch, managing everything from strategic product decisions to visual identity and user experience.
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The tools I used include:
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Figma
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FigJam
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Adobe Photoshop
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Adobe Illustrator
The problem
To begin, we decided to start small and zero in on one target user. ​
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Our research and experience mapping revealed that finding a hairdresser available on a bride's wedding day was an incredibly difficult and time consuming process.
Our belief was that Benite could help bridge that gap and make this process smoother by better connecting brides with hairdressers who had availability on their wedding day. ​​​​​
Product Design and Management
Our initial research involved in-depth interviews with both hairdressers and clients, revealing a valuable insight: hairdressers were hesitant to join existing platforms due to the financial burden of listing fees. This highlighted our key challenge, creating enough value for hairdressers to ensure platform adoption.
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We developed an innovative solution by flipping the traditional model and having clients post their requirements as paid listings rather than charging hairdressers to participate. We also identified an opportunity to target emerging hairdressers looking to build their client base, creating a win-win scenario for both sides of the marketplace.
UI Design
I strategically chose to leverage Google's Material Design framework rather than building a custom design system from scratch.
This decision accelerated our development process, particularly for complex UI elements like calendar components, while maintaining a cohesive user experience.
This approach enabled us to rapidly create and test high-fidelity Figma prototypes with users, helping us validate our concepts earlier in the development cycle.
Branding
I chose a muted pink colour palette for a calm and feminine feel that would appeal to our target users.
I wanted to stay away from any obnoxiously loud colours in order to not take away from the porfolio of the hairdressers who displayed their work within the app.