ARENA CLUB | SHIPPED + HANDED OFF

ARENA CLUB | SHIPPED + HANDED OFF

ARENA CLUB | SHIPPED + HANDED OFF

Designing the next-gen marketplace for collectors at Arena Club

Designing the next-gen marketplace for collectors at Arena Club
Designing the next-gen marketplace for collectors at Arena Club

ROLE

Product Designer

TEAM

2 Designers , 1 PM, 4 Devs

TIMELINE

Apr 2025 - Jul 2025

TOOLS

Figma, Jira, Notion, AI

OVERVIEW

OVERVIEW

OVERVIEW

Arena Club is a rapidly growing digital collectible marketplace co-founded by baseball legend Derek Jeter.

Arena Club is a rapidly growing digital collectible marketplace co-founded by baseball legend Derek Jeter.
Arena Club is a rapidly growing digital collectible marketplace co-founded by baseball legend Derek Jeter.

During my internship, I collaborated closely with product managers, stakeholders, users, and fellow designers to design and develop both new and existing features. Working on-site at the Santa Monica office, I led design reviews, conducted user interviews, and participated in cross-functional meetings to contribute to the growth for this company.

CONTRIBUTIONS

CONTRIBUTIONS

CONTRIBUTIONS

In just two months, I collaborated closely with product managers, stakeholders, users, and fellow designers to design and develop both new and existing features. Working on-site at the Santa Monica office, I led design reviews, conducted user interviews, and participated in cross-functional meetings to support successful feature launches.

Shipped core features across iOS, Android, and web platforms.

With dev hand-off and stakeholder pitches with PMs, marketing, and founders.

Facilitated design reviews and stakeholder pitches to guide roadmap.

Kept the team aligned by conducting detailed design reviews and pitching to my managers.

Led user research efforts with weekly interviews, testing, and evaluation.

Worked closely with real users, developing in-app issues and reporting back to the team.

DISCOVERY

DISCOVERY

DISCOVERY

Users wanted more features, transparency, and a more optimized collecting experience.

Users wanted more features, transparency, and a more optimized collecting experience.
Users wanted more features, transparency, and a more optimized collecting experience.

Leading the user research efforts at Arena Club, I conducted interviews, usability tests, and heuristic evaluations with our customer base.

National Sports Collectors Convention in Cleveland

Photos taken by Jeff Owens

@ Sports Collector Digest

@ Sports Collector Digest

INSIGHTS

INSIGHTS

INSIGHTS

Conversations with users surfaced valuable insights, which I shared with the team. These findings guided new design solutions, feature improvements, and clear parameters for our next iterations.

Noticed a drop in new user sign-ups and account creations.

30% of new users didn't make accounts.

Users voiced frustration over the lack of 1:1 messaging.

They wanted to chat to other users about trades, cards, & bids.

We found an abnormally high number of unpaid auction bids.

Users did not fully understand where to pay for their auctions.

Users found Arena Club’s Pop Report hard to use properly.

Navigation issues made Pop Report inefficient for users.

DEFINING THE FLOWS

DEFINING THE FLOWS

DEFINING THE FLOWS

At Arena Club, innovation and design consistency sit at the core.

At Arena Club, innovation and design consistency sit at the core.
At Arena Club, innovation and design consistency sit at the core.

While designing solutions, I balanced the need to innovate for competitiveness with the importance of design consistency. Leveraging the existing design system, I outlined the flows for each project.

Outlining my flows and design thinking was critical to both the team and the final solution.

FINAL PRODUCT + CHALLENGES

FINAL PRODUCT + CHALLENGES

FINAL PRODUCT + CHALLENGES

End-to-end solutions from problem to launch

End-to-end solutions from problem to launch
End-to-end solutions from problem to launch

  1. Full design flows, research, and Figma files for multiple core features.

  2. Designed and handed off guest mode, digital wallet payouts, pop report, messaging, web navigation, & mobile flows.

  3. Designs launched to over 50,000 users across both web and mobile.

I am not allowed to show full designs here, but if you are interested in learning more about my experience at Arena Club
feel free to email me: plexomc@gmail.com

Embracing challenges, learning from them, and moving forward.

This internship pushed my design thinking and gave me experience designing in a fast-paced, agile environment.

DESIGN CONSTRAINTS

One challenge was balancing design solutions with engineering constraints while clearly communicating my process. To address this, I collaborated closely with developers to understand technical limitations and identify feasible alternatives. This ensured the final designs were both innovative and realistic to implement.

DETAILS MATTER

A challenge was creating design flows detailed enough for developers, including all use cases and visual specs. To solve this, I documented edge cases and provided clear annotations to avoid ambiguity. This helped streamline handoff and reduced back-and-forth during development.

ITERATING FASTER

Another challenge was learning to iterate faster while balancing feedback, deadlines, and design quality. To overcome this, I refined my workflow with quicker low-fidelity explorations before moving to high-fidelity designs. This allowed me to incorporate feedback earlier and still deliver polished outcomes on time.

DESIGN CONSTRAINTS

One challenge was balancing design solutions with engineering constraints while clearly communicating my process. To address this, I collaborated closely with developers to understand technical limitations and identify feasible alternatives. This ensured the final designs were both innovative and realistic to implement.

DETAILS MATTER

A challenge was creating design flows detailed enough for developers, including all use cases and visual specs. To solve this, I documented edge cases and provided clear annotations to avoid ambiguity. This helped streamline handoff and reduced back-and-forth during development.

ITERATING FASTER

Another challenge was learning to iterate faster while balancing feedback, deadlines, and design quality. To overcome this, I refined my workflow with quicker low-fidelity explorations before moving to high-fidelity designs. This allowed me to incorporate feedback earlier and still deliver polished outcomes on time.

LEARNINGS + REFLECTION

LEARNINGS + REFLECTION

LEARNINGS + REFLECTION

Rapid growth as a designer, strategic thinker, and professional.

Rapid growth as a designer, strategic thinker, and professional.
Rapid growth as a designer, strategic thinker, and professional.

My two month internship was filled with both successes and challenges, giving me the opportunity to work on over five core features, support more than ten smaller projects, and interview over twenty real users. Being in person exposed me to new experiences and led to meaningful growth as a product designer that I will carry with me moving forward.

Arena Club Snapshots

A well-deserved dinner with the team after launching a feature :D

My desk setup! This is me trying to stand up while working.

There were SO many cards in the office. It was fascinating to see.

TAKEAWAYS

TAKEAWAYS

TAKEAWAYS

Collaboration moves design forward

By conducting more design reviews, hosting brainstorming sessions, and seeking feedback from teammates, I was able to push designs faster and with better quality.

Holding no attachment to my designs

In the fast pace of a tech startup, I learned to prioritize what matters, take feedback openly, scrap ideas when needed, and iterate in line with business goals.

Interviewing users uncover hidden issues

Each week, I conducted user interviews on current and upcoming designs. Real user stories revealed new problems, making my design direction clearer and more effective.

Vicky Jen

Product Design Lead @ Arena Club

" Dylan was proactive in seeking feedback and open to being pushed outside his comfort zone. Once given direction, he took it seriously and put in the work to improve. It was clear he was invested in growing as a designer and open to learning from every experience. He’d be a strong addition to any team looking for someone with solid UX instincts, a great attitude, and a drive to keep getting better. "