Product designer (iOS and Android)
2018–2021
A mobile app with 1 billion monthly video views and a single product designer
Dubsmash was one of the pioneers of the short-form video format. Our main competitor was this app called TikTok.
+300%
Yearly growth in active users
$1B
TikTok's annual marketing budget
$0
Our annual marketing budget
2,000+
TikTok's team size
15
Our team size
In 2015, Neymar, Jennifer Lopez, and 50 million others had one thing in common: a Dubsmash account (that they weren't using)
The original app became a global viral phenomenon. It generated a lot of media attention and broke several App Store records. However, users weren't sticking around, and retention was low.
Say goodbye to Emma Stone and welcome the dancing teens: a journey from a one-hit-wonder to a wonderful product begins
From the giant lip-syncing crowd of one-time users emerged a community of young minority teens. They were inventing new dance moves and sharing them with their friends online.
Dubsmash became a place where new trends are born when Jalaiah Harmon created the Renegade Dance
The community helped her gain recognition despite the "borrowing" of the viral dance moves by more famous users on TikTok and other platforms.
My main focus as a product designer was on video creation features and user retention
I was responsible for the UI, user experience, and everything design-related — from creating animated stickers in After Effects to building custom video filters in collaboration with Snapchat.
Video
Video
Every two weeks, we shipped new features designed to provide users with new ways to create videos. The app supported advanced editing workflows and various video formats, such as duets and reactions.
As a matchmaking business, our primary job was connecting creators with their audience as soon as possible
Data analysis showed that people on Dubsmash naturally formed clusters or groups around the specific interests of artists.
We needed to make sure that the new users could immediately find their "tribe." We spent a lot of time ironing out the onboarding and discovery flows, increasing our annual retention rate to 30%. Additionally, we built a community feature to facilitate the social element further.
Our custom-built share sheet increased the off-platform sharing rate by 400%.
We also focused on smart "transactional" notifications, encouraging the users to interact with each other.
Ads? No, thanks. We based the monetization strategy on taking a cut whenever a follower supported their favorite artist
People could use in-app tokens to purchase gifts for other community members. Another way of supporting the artists was for followers to receive a paid "shoutout" from them.
Video
Dubsmash doesn't exist anymore, but this story has a happy ending: in 2021, we joined Reddit to build one of the largest community platforms in the world
It's safe to say people loved Dubsmash. In terms of numbers, we consistently reached more than 10% of TikTok's DAU and a double-digit 30-day retention rate.
It might not sound that impressive until we compare our team to that of our largest competitor — a 15-person organization vs. 2000 people. And did I mention all our app downloads were organic? $0 spent on marketing vs. a $1 billion annual budget.
It's just a great story, isn't it?
