Transforming Player Evaluation Through Design Thinking

My Role

Lead a 3 designer project team

Built the product from zero

Design, user research, workshop, prototyping

Co-create with customer

Result

The app became a foundational product in SAP’s emerging Sports & Entertainment vertical

Context

The SAP Scouting app was developed in close collaboration with the San Francisco 49ers to help scouts, trainers, executives, and general managers identify and bring the best players to the team.

“Scouts are on the road 250 days a year, so they’re always working remotely from colleges and universities. They need to have easy access to clear information, and then we, in the front office, get easy access to the scouts and what they’re saying about players.” — Paraag Marathe, 49ers COO

User Problems

Existing UI is a 12+ step process with heavy data entry and dense information.

• Scouts worked remotely, often offline, with limited access to consolidated player data.
• Evaluations came from scattered sources (medical, performance, film, personal impressions), making synthesis time-consuming.
• The existing tools were transactional and made it difficult to form a holistic view of players.

Research

• Contextual Inquiry: Observed and embedded in scouts’ workflows during travel and at Levi’s Stadium.
• User Interviews: Spoke with scouts, coaches, and executives.
• Secondary Research: Industry literature and competitor analysis.

Design Synthesis

• Developed personas to capture distinct needs across scouts and management.
• Created storyboards and mapped scouting workflows.
• Conducted rapid iterations of paper and digital prototypes with weekly user feedback.