Product and Strategy Development
Elis Audio App

Your world, without noise.

Elis began as an app to explore audio. In a moment saturated with podcasts, and coming off the heels of the Clubhouse hype, our goal was to build on the attention towards audio, but return to an early-internet ethos of democratic promise and earnest sociality.

Challenge
Establish the Elis brand across product and socials, develop features that align with brand and ethos, and create content that resonates with internet-native artists, writers and public intellectuals.

Work
Led research & development alongside Ayesha Sidiqqi, to design and launch the iOS version of the app to alpha and beta users. Worked with a network of content creators to develop compelling “audio stories” for an audio incubator program that would attract the first thousand users. Supported Design, Engineering, and Leadership to develop features that encouraged behavior aligned with design principles and ethos.

Sama’an Ashrawi made this story about his father, homeland and the memories created when listening to music.
The Elis audio incubator developed hundreds of “audio stories” that allowed users to express themselves in long-form without the necessity of equipment or clout.

Elis Audio — with its audio creation features, integration with audio libraries and an iOS platform — was an invitation to speak and listen, not a demand to consume.

Process

I conducted visual, audio and theoretical research about platforms in the early web as well as current landscape trends. I translated these findings into insights about our first target users, compelling content, and discovery loops that could exist within our greater ethos.

In addition, this research led to the creation of design principles, originating from desired outcomes given broader cultural systems, social trends and platform economies.

A sound card is a way to listen to short (<30 second) clips of your favorite, artist, author or leader.

I led ideation of creation and listening interface, creation tools and discovery loops. Working with Design and Engineering, I also led short prototype sprints in which features were created and tested with real users in weekly cycles.

These prototypes were built using Figma or developed quickly on web and mobile. I lead participant recruitment, research design and conducted interviews, before translating feedback into broader insights.

An Elis menu presents “audio spaces” as an orbit, as opposed to a list.

I supported our GTM strategy, including developing Elis’ messaging, positioning, tactics and channels.

Upon launch, Elis onboarded thousands of users, introducing this creation and platform experience as a new frontier in digital asset production. This was a call to turn the world around you into audio through a campaign that focused on returning to a better version of the internet.