Musync: Where Music Careers Begin and Grow.
How I innovated a 1-month MVP from 0 to 1 for early career music artists.
So What was the issue, Dear?
While experienced artists are actively promoted and booked, emerging musicians often get left behind.
Like many of us early in our careers, they struggled with:
🎤 Lacked access to venues
No idea how to get booked or noticed
🤝 No direct connections
Weak line to collaborators and organizers
What did I deliver?
A Handoff-ready MVP for Early-career Music Artists to Break Into the Scene.
Artists land gigs. Venues find artists. Guests enjoy shows.
How I influenced the product and team?
🎯 Redefined the product direction
Reframed around artists' actual struggles and goals
🧪 Brought research into the process
Brought new clarity to what the MVP should (and shouldn't) include
🤝 Built trust and buy-in with cofounders
Made design decisions transparent and evidence-based
🧭 The Challenge
As the solo UX designer at our studio agency, I was tasked with turning all the client's visions into a coherent product.
However, during the initial debrief and requirement walkthrough, it became clear:
the scope was massive but wasn't grounded in real user insights and our limited dev resource.
The excitements had led to feature creep—everything from booking to in-app ticketing.
🔄 My Process: How I Bridged the Gap
From Feature Overload to a Clear MVP Strategy
To align the team and refocus the product, I led a structured process:
User Research
Conducted interviews and competitive analysis alongside cofounders to uncover gaps in existing solutions.
Problem Reframing
Analyzed user data and aligned it with business objectives to focus on features that solved real problems.
MVP Re-definition
Targeted pain points to ideate solutions, which guided a clear, user-centered product direction.
🧭 The Insights -> Problem Reframing
We thought it was about booking — but artists had some other barriers first.
By analyzing user interviews, I identified some recurring emotional and real-world barriers.
Lack of personal branding
EPK, Electronic Press Kit, serves as the music artist's professional resume. However, many young artists didn't have one to secure gig opportunities.
One-sided outreach
"I only got 10-20% callback whenever I called the venues, which was very low to be honest."
Low confidence
"The biggest challenge when I first started out was that I was not confident to put myself out there."
MVP Re-definition
A supportive space that helps early-career music artists to increase visibility for more effective connections
Visibility
Before artists get booked, they need to be seen.
Confidence
lowering emotional barriers to sharing and engaging
The cofounders were hesitant at first, but after I emphasized the necessity of focusing on core pain points first, they agreed to delay monetization feature (gig booking) and test a user-first MVP.
🔑 Key solution: music personalities Showcasing
Scannable, expressive, and shareable
Pain Point
"I don't know how to present myself professionally. I don't have anything like an EPK.”
Design Goal
🎸 For artists can showcase their identity clearly
🏟 For talent seekers can easily scan EPK and evaluate them.
🔑 Key Solution: A two-way reachout
Keeping the communications always on
Pain Point
"I only got 10-20% callback whenever I called the venues, which was very low to be honest."
Design Goal
Make outreach more meaningful and efficient by surfacing mutual interest and giving both sides clarity and agency.
🔑 Key solution: A supportive music community
Encouraging early engagement
Pain Point
"The biggest challenge when I first started out was that I was not confident to put myself out there."
Design Goal
Lower the emotional barrier for artists to share work-in-progress and express themselves without fear of judgment.
After the project
Lessons Learned.
User Research Sampling:
Due to the tight timeline, I only conducted a very small sampling user interviews.
Next time, if time is allowed, I will strive to extend it to involve at least 5 people to the interviews.
Networking Platform Design:
Even though Musync is about early musicians, essentially, they are all trying to solve one problem:
how might we connect two group of people who need each other?