Hive3.ai aimed to create a new model for brand engagement— using AI-driven competitions to fuel brand activations, build libraries of original assets, and invite consumers into the creative process. We needed to build an MVP that made it easy and exciting for AI creators to participate, while showing brands that the platform could deliver high-quality, on-brand submissions at scale.

As the sole Product Designer, I collaborated closely with a Brand Designer (shout out Ashley Mattieu!) to design a playful platform experience and customize Google’s Material UI system to fit Hive3’s fun, energetic identity. We needed to build quick with limited resources, so I created templates for our engineers so they could build faster and re-use components without relying on me for every screen.

We had initially assumed that cash prizes would be enough to incentivize AI creators, but we struggled to gather enough submissions to fulfill our promise to brands of high-quality, usable content. To address this, we launched a season of challenges to continuously engage and retain our creator community. I led the design of our voting system, which aggregated likes from both the website and Instagram to display 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. However, we realized we were still primarily recapturing submissions from the same group of creators.

To expand participation, we turned to our #feedback Discord channel to validate ideas for new features.

Armed with new insights, I designed the Hive3.ai Image GPT: a tool that enabled users to generate images based on our original challenge prompts. Users could interact with and tweak their creations, and because the GPT had brand context, they could constantly check if their work aligned with the brand’s ethos. This was particularly effective — brands appreciated submissions that stayed within guidelines, and we successfully captured the attention of amateur creators. In our most recent challenge, we recorded over 1,000 chats with the GPT and dozens of new creators submitting their designs to the competition.