Project Overview
SayBlowe was preparing to launch a digital marketplace for artists to publish and sell collectible content. While the public-facing marketplace was live and gaining attention, the internal team lacked the infrastructure to onboard creators, manage content, monitor activity, and audit transactions.
My Role
I designed the full CMS from the ground up — defining the IA, workflows, dashboards, and content creation tools that enabled the team to operate the marketplace without engineering dependencies.
The Problem
The marketplace could not scale without a unified admin platform.
Before this platform existed, four operational gaps blocked growth:
1. Fragmented workflows
Admins used spreadsheets, DMs, blockchain explorers, Slack and email threads to track activity. Nothing lived in one place, making daily operations chaotic.
2. Creators lacked a simple publishing workflow
Most creators weren’t technical. They needed a guided process for uploading assets, adding metadata, and publishing content.
3. No visibility into platform health
Admins couldn't see activity, sales, or creator behavior in one system. They lacked insight into marketplace performance or anomalies.
4. Total engineering dependency
Because SayBlowe had no in-house developer, the founding team relied entirely on an overseas engineering team for publishing drops. This dependency slowed down launches, increased costs, and made it impossible to scale or react quickly.
To support a commercial launch, SayBlowe needed a scalable, creator-friendly admin platform that brought all operations into a centralized, intuitive system.
Goal
Build a simple, scalable system that enables creators to publish content and the team to operate the marketplace without engineering bottlenecks.
Users & Their Needs
Three personas shaped the IA and workflows:
Admin / Operations
Manages marketplace performance and creator activity.
• Monitor users, creators, and asset activity
• Investigate transactions
• Approve content
• Export data for reporting
• Identify issues quickly
Creator
Publishes and manages digital content.
• Upload media + metadata
• Set pricing and rarity
• Assign content to packs
• Preview listings
• Update content without dev help
Moderator
Ensures quality and safety.
• Review submissions
• Track creator history
• Flag risky patterns
• Validate identity
• Monitor suspicious transactions
Constraints
1. No In-House Engineering
All development was outsourced to an overseas dev team. This meant:
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limited access to engineers
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long turnaround on questions
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unclear technical feasibility
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added delays for even small updates
2. Tight Timeline
The CMS had to be designed in a 4-week sprint to support an upcoming marketplace announcement and onboarding push.
3. High Simplicity Requirements
Creators and internal staff were non-technical. Flows had to be intuitive, guided, and low-friction.
4. Unclear Early Requirements
Founders had a strong vision but needed help translating it into:
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workflows
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IA
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screen-level detail
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operational logic
Design Principles
1. Reduce Operational Friction
Daily tasks should require as few steps as possible.
2. Empower Non-Technical Creators
Publishing should feel as simple as posting content on social platforms.
3. Build for Scale
The IA needed to support future content types, creators, and marketplace features.
4. Prioritize Clarity
Admins must quickly see what requires attention.
Information Architecture
The CMS structure was shaped around the operational lifecycle of the marketplace: creators → content → distribution → monitoring. After mapping core objects (Creators, Users, NFTs, Packs, Transactions) and the workflows of Admins, Creators, and Moderators, I organized the system into clear, task-driven zones.
The top-level IA supports how teams naturally work:
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Dashboard for real-time visibility
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Users & Creators to manage the people powering the marketplace
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NFTs & Packs to publish and structure content
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Marketplace to control what goes live
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Activity History to audit transactions and investigate behavior
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Settings for system-wide configuration
This IA reduced friction, clarified ownership, and created a scalable foundation for future content types and operational tools.
Key Workflows Designed
1. Admin Dashboard
High-level insights for daily operations.
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Users
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NFTs sold
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Revenue
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Visitors
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Recent activity
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Growth overview chart
Dashboard consolidates platform KPIs into a single operational view.
2. Activity & Transaction Monitoring
A real-time view into marketplace activity.
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Mint / sale / transfer events
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Address-level drilldown
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Filters (event type, date, price, creator)
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CSV export
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Pagination for long data tables
Transaction explorer helps ops teams audit creator and user activity quickly.
3. Creator Management System
Everything needed to verify, track, and support creators.
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Creator profiles
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Content assigned to each creator
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Approval workflows
Creators have unified profiles showing assets, performance, and publishing activity.
4. NFT / Digital Asset Creation Workflow
A multi-step publishing flow for creators and admins.
Steps included:
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Upload media (image or video)
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Add metadata
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Set list price
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Assign to Packs
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Choose rarity
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Preview final listing
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Publish
Content creation flow reduces publishing from hours to minutes.
5. Pack (Collection) Management
Organizing content into themed groups.
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Add/remove NFTs
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Batch metadata updates
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Visibility controls
Content creation flow reduces publishing from hours to minutes.
Solution Summary
Through a cohesive IA, reusable component system, and task-focused flows, the admin platform:
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Centralized all operational work
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Empowered creators to self-manage content
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Reduced reliance on engineering
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Improved publishing turnaround time
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Provided real-time visibility into marketplace performance
Product Roadmap
After delivering the MVP admin platform and creator tools, I mapped the logical evolution of Sayblowe’s product ecosystem. This roadmap highlights how the marketplace could scale, from operational infrastructure to creator monetization to community-driven discovery.
Reflections and Outcome
The SayBlowe marketplace launched publicly in 2022 and was highlighted in hip-hop and digital creator media outlets.
The admin platform I designed served as the operational backbone for:
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onboarding creators
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publishing digital assets
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monitoring sales and transactions
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supporting day-to-day marketplace management
The platform successfully supported:
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150+ early whitelist signups in the system for the first drop
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1,000+ assets handled in admin workflows
The biggest success? SayBlowe could run marketplace operations without engineering dependencies.
Overall, this project taught me how to pitch by design ideas to leadership and engineering with supporting data. I also learned how to design admin interfaces for complex, data-driven systems and build scalable IA for an ecosystem of connected tools.
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