Rank upgrade feature didn't match how instructors work, forcing them into manual workarounds. I led the redesign to reframe rank upgrades as event-based rituals, replacing spreadsheets with a system for eligibility and grading. This reduced test prep time to 3 days -> 40 minutes.
Role
Product designer (acting pm + system owner)
Time & company
1 year | Mystudio | Martial arts
Collaboration
Junior designer, Front-Backend engineers, 2 QA
Context
MyStudio is a membership management platform for martial arts studios. A core part of its value is rank and level management, which tracks student progress through belt testing.
Instructors must verify eligibility based on attendance, grade students in real time, and process promotions in bulk—often for hundreds of students in a single session.
These events directly impact revenue, retention, and instructor credibility for studios.
Problem
The rank promotions feature did not support how belt testing actually works.
It only handled the final action—updating a rank—and was buried behind event filters that most instructors never discovered. As a result, adoption was just 4%.
Even when instructors found the feature, they still had to rely on spreadsheets and paper to manage eligibility, grading, invitations, and certificates. The product supported the last step of belt testing, but not the workflow that led up to it.
Decisions and tradeoffs
Create a Rank Promotions area with a manual eligibility list
Decision:
We introduced a dedicated Rank Promotions area and surfaced eligibility as a list that instructors could manage manually. This gave instructors a clear starting point to prepare for belt tests without searching across tables or exporting CSVs.
Tradeoffs:
Manual list management meant instructors still needed to make judgment calls.
Constraints:
Eligibility rules varied widely across martial arts styles and studios and existing data only reliably supported attendance and skills, not all real-world criteria
Result:
Instructors had a clear place in the product to manage belt testing, which improved discoverability and reduced reliance on external tools.
Add automations to keep eligibility lists updated.
Decision:
We added automation so participants were automatically added to the eligibility list as they completed attendance and skills. Manual control remained available, but automation reduced the need for constant monitoring.
Tradeoffs:
Automation was designed to handle the most common eligibility scenarios rather than every studio-specific edge case. To avoid incorrect promotions, instructors retained the ability to review and override eligibility when needed. And the automation was off by default.
Constraints:
Time-in-rank was not a consistently reliable or available data point across studios, which limited how far eligibility automation could go. In addition, the automation had to integrate with existing attendance logic without disrupting current workflows.
Result:
Eligibility lists stayed up to date without relying on spreadsheets. Once eligibility became reliable, instructors could confidently move into test preparation, which exposed the next gap.
Support test preparation with grading sheets and belt inventory.
Decision:
We added one-click generation of grading sheets and belt inventory summaries so instructors could prepare for test day without manual counting or paperwork.
Tradeoffs:
We initially explored two grading sheet approaches: a fully customizable version for individual studios and a standardized, enterprise-grade format required by our largest client, ATA. To avoid delaying delivery, we prioritized the ATA grading format and deferred custom sheet creation. This meant other studios had to use the standardized format in the short term.
Constraints:
Building a flexible grading sheet builder would have required significant UI and backend investment and would have delayed support for active enterprise testing workflows. Given limited engineering capacity and the urgency of supporting ATA’s testing model, we constrained the first release to a single, standardized grading format.
Result:
Test-day preparation dropped from days to minutes. With preparation handled, the next bottleneck became certificates, which were still manual.
Enable bulk certificate generation with customization.
Decision:
We enabled instructors to generate certificates in bulk with basic customization, replacing one-by-one creation in Google Slides.
Tradeoffs:
Certificate design flexibility was intentionally limited in the first release. Advanced branding and layout controls were deferred to avoid slowing down delivery
Constraints:
Certificates had to print reliably across different paper types and printers. Design complexity needed to be balanced against speed, consistency, and operational reliability.
Result:
ertificate preparation no longer blocked belt tests. With eligibility, preparation, and certificates addressed, the final missing piece was grading outcomes and promotions.
Support grading outcomes and rank promotion
Decision:
We designed a grading flow where instructors could mark pass or fail outcomes and promote students who appeared for the test, completing the belt testing workflow inside the product.
Tradeoffs:
Promotions remained tied to existing membership and rank structures rather than introducing a new global model. Edge cases required careful handling instead of full automation.
Constraints:
Students could belong to multiple memberships, and event registrations were not always cleanly mapped to rank data. Performance limits also shaped how many updates could be processed safely during grading.
Result:
Instructors could complete belt tests end to end without leaving MyStudio. Rank promotions shifted from an underused feature into a core operational workflow.
Outcome
Adoption increased
from 4% → ~70% after launch
Test preparation time reduced
from several days to ~40 minutes
Studios eliminated spreadsheets and paper workflows
for eligibility, grading, and certificates
Belt testing was fully managed inside MyStudio
from preparation to promotion
Solution
I built a dedicated Rank Promotions system that treats belt testing as a real, end-to-end workflow rather than a hidden admin action.
The system centralizes everything instructors need to run a belt test in one place. Instructors manage upcoming tests from a single Rank Promotions area, see who is eligible through manual or automated eligibility lists based on attendance and completed skills, and send test invitations with clear visibility into registration status.
To support test-day preparation, the system provides printable grading sheets, a belt inventory view to plan orders, and bulk certificate generation. During the test, instructors record outcomes and upgrade ranks using a grading flow that supports pass, fail, no-show, rank selection, and membership transfers at scale.
The solution was delivered in phases to work within existing architecture while handling real-world complexity such as multiple memberships, unmapped registrations, and large grading volumes.
As a result, instructors can run belt testing entirely inside MyStudio—from preparation to grading to promotion—without relying on spreadsheets or paper workflows.
Behind the scenes
This was a long-running, multi-phase project that evolved as we uncovered real operational and technical constraints.
I led discovery with studio owners to understand how belt testing actually happens in practice—not just how ranks are updated in the system.
That research revealed that the core problem wasn’t missing features, but a missing workflow. I continuously validated early concepts with instructors while working closely with engineering to assess feasibility.
I acted as both designer and de facto product manager, defining scope, sequencing work across phases, and making tradeoffs when complexity threatened timelines.
Many decisions required balancing enterprise needs against long-tail studio workflows, such as prioritizing standardized grading sheets for a large client while deferring full customization.
The most complex part of the project was grading and promotion logic. Ranks were tied to memberships, students could belong to multiple memberships, and event registrations weren’t always cleanly mapped. Solving this required multiple iterations with backend engineers, careful performance planning, and explicit handling of edge cases like no-shows and membership transfers.
I also mentored a junior designer on the project, delegating execution work while providing direction on system flows, edge cases, and interaction patterns. As the system shipped in phases, real usage informed what we refined next.
This project reinforced my approach to complex products: design around real workflows, ship incrementally within constraints, and let operational reality—not idealized flows—shape the solution.
