Team Excel
Turning Student Performance into a Team Sport
My Contribution
Role
Lead UX/UI Designer
Platform
Flutter
Output for iOS and Android
Company
Team Excel
via Capital one 1717 Innovation Lab & Startup Virginia
Target
High school educators & their students
Overview
As part of Capital One’s Impact Initiative housed within Richmond’s 1717 Innovation Lab, I volunteered to help Team Excel, a startup helping students succeed through gamified performance tracking. Their model, based on fantasy sports, motivates students using team-based leagues and point systems tied to academic and personal milestones.
Problem
Team Excel needed to transform their web platform into a scalable mobile app, while also rebranding and enhancing their marketing. They lacked a native mobile experience and needed UX support to translate their concept effectively to iOS and Android.
Action
Partnering closely with a small internal tech team eager to learn Flutter, I led design efforts from initial wireframes to final UI. Starting with Android-first design, I:
- Identified usability gaps in the web product
- Designed native flows that preserved Team Excel’s gamified vision
- Collaborated across branding, engineering, and the client team to iterate quickly
- Delivered a flexible UI that could scale across platforms and evolve with their rebrand
We used platform-native components for the MVP, launching initially with placeholder visuals, then reskinning with the new brand once finalized.
Results
- The MVP app launched successfully on both Android and iOS, helping Team Excel unlock the power of peer accountability and healthy competition to maximize human potential and achieve better outcomes.
- The app played a key role in delivering Team Excel’s mission to more schools and students, offering a mobile-first platform for tracking and engaging in team-based challenges that fostered growth and performance.
- The project fostered valuable collaboration between design and engineering, providing a learning opportunity for engineers and contributing to the development of a community success story within Capital One’s innovation ecosystem.
- As a result of the app’s early success, Team Excel continues to grow, leveraging the design and development foundation established during the project to scale its impact.
Impact
- Long-term growth: The app helped position Team Excel for sustained success, contributing to its ongoing expansion and adaptation in a competitive environment.
- The app enhanced accessibility to Team Excel’s core features, making it easier for students and schools to engage with challenges that promote healthy competition and accountability.
- The collaboration between design and engineering set the stage for future innovation, strengthening the team’s ability to expand and refine their mobile experience.
