Eventbrite Reserved seating

In 2013 I was hired by Eventbrite to lead a small cross functional team to create the Reserved Seating product. A reserved seating event is typically an event where a seat is assigned at the time of ticket purchase. Up until then Eventbrite had only ticketed general admission events which was their mainstay. 

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With the launch of the Seat Designer application, Eventbrite was able to target larger more complex events that use seated venues. These venues included traditional theaters, conference and dining spaces as well as auditoriums and arenas.

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There are many benefits to reserved seating events over general admission events. Attendees are generally more satisfied as they have greater control over the event experience, and feel more confident knowing a seat is waiting for them upon arrival. Organizers benefit from being able to optimize revenue through tiered pricing based on seat location and experience smoother operations on the day of the event itself.

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I was part of a team of talented designers, engineers, product managers and marketers - each contributing to the product you see today. Within 9 months the first version of the designer tool had launched and we spent the following 3 years iterating, rebuilding core elements and progressively adding new features to keep us moving towards product market fit.

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High Level Goals

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• Develop a self service platform that enables event organizers to design seat maps, manage their events, sell tickets to specific seats and optimize sales through a tiered ticket pricing strategy.
   

• Generate a new revenue stream from the sale of tickets to reserved seating events. Grow this audience through a go to market strategy acquiring new event organizers and venues looking for a more affordable/better solution.
   

• Fill a major feature gap, by providing solutions to existing organizers dissuading them from leaving the platform due to the growing complexity and size of their events. When successful general admission events often move into larger seated venues. Our goal was to retain these organizers and bring new organizers onto Eventbrite who are looking for a reserved seating solution.
   

• Achieve product market fit through understanding user needs, segment by segment. Defining a comprehensive feature set and thoughtfully building it out capturing users in targeted segments.
   

• Drive growth and revenue through increasing the capability to host larger more complex events. Initially targeting 3,000 seat theaters the system is now able to handle in excess of 40,000 seat venues.
   

• Ability to sell tickets in two modes, seats can be assigned via an automated best available approach (needed for busy on-sales) or manually where attendees pick their preferred seat.
   

• Create a simple, visually engaging, on brand interactive set of experiences across numerous touch points, that is delightful to use.

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My Role

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• I was hired to lead a small team of product designers and engineers to define, design and produce the Reserved Seating product. 
   

• My background in UX and system design was a natural fit for this project. I love big complex system problems. I was focussed on the Reserved Seating product for many years with numerous feature releases, big and small (examples below). This is my legacy at Eventbrite, and what I'm most known for.
   

• I partnered closely with Product Managers, subject matter experts and cross functional peers to help define requirements and scope of work.
   

• I was responsible for the UX/UI work and performed numerous rounds of user research including foundational, generative and evaluative methods. I would take other designers and engineers on field trips to tour venues to understand the problems in the real world and build empathy towards solving user needs.
   

• I partnered with a cross functional team to decide on the problems to solve and ideate on potential solutions. I created design wireframes and functional specifications to define the solution, and collaborated with two product designers to realize the end result.
   

• I worked alongside engineers to ensure the highly interactive features worked as expected and lived up to the potential of the high end visual design. The tools needed to appear simple, elegant and visually inspired - this elegance draws people in and makes completing tasks fun.

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