Message Blocks

Objective: Get an event product to market, fast

Planning a conference meant juggling an agenda in one tool, registration in another, and handouts and feedback forms on paper. The founders of Message Blocks saw a simpler product: one place to build an event’s schedule, register attendees, share documents, and collect feedback session by session, from any device.

They needed a first version they could sell. Web Ascender designed and built the MVP.

What Web Ascender Did

• Product design - research into how leading SaaS tools handled accounts and billing, wireframes, and the interface and brand for both the app and the marketing site
• Agenda scheduler - events, days, sessions, and presenters, with a session calendar and changes that can be made in real time
• Custom registration - organizers build their own registration forms, with reports on who signed up
• Document management - files attached to each session, available before, during, and after the event
• Session surveys - short surveys at the end of each session, with response screens and reporting
• QR codes for sessions and registration pages
• Notifications to keep attendees current when the schedule changes
• Dashboards - activity charts and a sample event so new users see the product at work right away
• Subscription billing - plans, a 14-day free trial with no card required, card billing for companies and individuals, and payment webhooks
• Mobile-friendly - the whole app works on phones and tablets as well as desktops
• The marketing site - features, plans and pricing, news, and sign-up, plus launch, SSL, and hosting

The Outcome

Message Blocks launched about four months after the first wireframes, taking real customers through a free trial and onto paid plans. The product did what an MVP has to do: it proved there was a business.