At a Glance
Overview
TicketGenie partnered with Valere to transform a functional but inconsistent platform into a cohesive product experience that professional brokers would actually want to use daily. The platform serves ticket brokers who manage complex workflows tracking sold inventory, pricing trends, market share data, and historical venue performance. Through comprehensive user research, UX audit, and systematic redesign, Valere helped TicketGenie evolve from a feature-heavy tool into a streamlined, data-intelligent platform grounded in real broker behavior.
The Challenge
Professional ticket brokers live in dashboards tracking inventory, pricing trends, and market intelligence, but TicketGenie’s platform suffered from a disconnect between its data capabilities and user experience.
The interface was cluttered with too many features creating confusion, data inconsistency undermined trust, insufficient secondary market coverage limited utility, and the lack of a coherent design system prevented scalability. Users needed a platform that could surface complex market insights without overwhelming them and provide accurate, real-time data they could trust for purchasing decisions worth millions of dollars annually.
Solution Implemented
Valere conducted comprehensive user research with seasoned ticket brokers managing $2.5M to $15M in annual sales volume to understand their workflows and pain points. The team performed a complete UX audit, developed user personas for different broker types, created a scalable design system with reusable components and patterns, redesigned dashboards for sold inventory tracking and pricing analytics, built wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes for new features, and collaborated on product roadmap prioritization based on user research findings. The solution brought structure to the product roadmap and gave the platform a design system that scales.
About the Company
TicketGenie provides professional ticket brokers with desktop software tools for managing their businesses across primary and secondary ticket markets.
Daniel I. (CEO & Founder) leads TicketGenie with a clear vision for bringing professional-grade data intelligence to ticket brokers. His commitment to understanding the specific needs of this niche market was evident throughout the engagement.
The ticket brokering industry operates at the intersection of real-time data analysis and rapid financial decision-making. Brokers need to track events nearing sell-out status, identify undervalued opportunities, monitor sales velocity, compare pre-sale performance against secondary markets, and access historical data to inform buying strategies. TicketGenie’s platform aggregates data from primary ticketing platforms and secondary marketplaces, providing brokers with a centralized command center for their operations.
The Challenge of Serving Professional Power Users
Disconnect Between Data and Experience
TicketGenie possessed powerful data capabilities, but the platform failed to present that information in ways that matched broker workflows. Users struggled to extract actionable insights from dense interfaces, and critical data points were buried under layers of navigation.
Feature Overload Creating Cognitive Burden
The previous version attempted to serve every possible use case, resulting in what users described as “too many features” and “too much going on in each page.” Brokers reported that the original version of TicketGenie was actually easier to use despite having fewer capabilities.
Data Trust and Accuracy Issues
Professional brokers make purchasing decisions worth thousands of dollars based on platform data. Users consistently emphasized that accuracy of information was their top priority when evaluating tools. TicketGenie suffered from data inconsistency issues and broken filters that undermined user trust.
Insufficient Secondary Market Coverage
While the platform performed well with primary market data (Ticketmaster), users reported insufficient coverage of secondary markets. Professional brokers need comprehensive visibility across multiple secondary marketplaces to identify arbitrage opportunities and understand market sentiment.
Complex User Personas with Diverse Needs
User research revealed six distinct broker personas ranging from solo operators managing $2.5M annually to teams of 40+ managing $15M in concert ticket sales. Their workflows varied significantly: some focused primarily on presale purchases, others specialized in secondary market flips, and many worked across season tickets, presales, and secondary buying.
No Scalable Design Foundation
The absence of a coherent design system meant that new features were built inconsistently, creating a fragmented user experience. Components didn’t follow predictable patterns, visual hierarchy was unclear, and the interface lacked the polish expected of professional business software.
The Partnership Approach
TicketGenie selected Valere after evaluating multiple design and product development firms. Several factors distinguished Valere during the selection process:
- Genuine Understanding of B2B SaaS Complexity: During discovery calls, Valere demonstrated credible knowledge of data-dense interfaces and spoke intelligently about product-led growth strategy. Other firms presented consumer-app portfolios that didn’t translate to professional user bases.
- Deep Dive into Domain Understanding: Rather than applying generic SaaS patterns, Valere invested in learning how professional ticket brokers think about inventory, pricing, and market dynamics. The team conducted extensive user research to understand broker decision-making processes and critical pain points.
- Collaborative Product Thinking: Valere operated as an extension of the TicketGenie team rather than an outside vendor. The approach spanned design, product management, and marketing strategy in an integrated way.
- Responsive Iteration: When initial directions didn’t land, the team adjusted quickly without friction. Valere consistently refined deliverables to meet success requirements, demonstrating flexibility and commitment to getting the outcome right.
As Daniel I. noted, Valere brought ideas to the table that TicketGenie hadn’t considered, operating as true design partners who understood the relationship between user experience and business growth.
The Solution: Human-Centered Redesign Grounded in Broker Workflows
Valere engineered a systematic transformation of TicketGenie’s platform through user-centered design methodology, balancing comprehensive research, strategic simplification, and scalable design systems.
Core Platform Capabilities
Comprehensive User Research with Professional Brokers
Valere conducted in-depth interviews with six seasoned ticket brokers representing diverse business models and sales volumes ($2.5M to $15M annually). The research uncovered critical insights:
User Demographics & Workflows:
- Brokers ranged from solo operators to teams of 40+ employees.
- Years in profession: 3 to 10+ years.
- Primary business models: season tickets, presale purchases, secondary market flips, or hybrid approaches.
- All brokers checked ticket data daily, with some monitoring “by the minute”.
- Both primary and secondary market data essential; particular emphasis on sold ticket data.
Critical Decision-Making Metrics:
- Ticket availability, especially events approaching sell-out status.
- Pricing trends across primary and secondary markets.
- Sales velocity to identify fast-moving events.
- Historical data for similar artists/venues.
- Market share analysis for specific events within tours.
- Price breaks and unique availability signals.
Desired Capabilities:
- Tracking events nearing sell-out without manual monitoring.
- Identifying sold-out primary events trading below face value.
- Monitoring sales velocity in real-time.
- Automated pricing change tracking.
- Bulk alerts across multiple events with customizable conditions.
- AI-powered summaries incorporating event data and contextual signals.
Pain Points with Previous Platform:
- “Too many features” creating confusion.
- Data inconsistency undermining trust.
- Difficult UX requiring too much effort.
- Insufficient secondary market data.
- Filters applying incorrect values.
- Original version was easier to use despite fewer features.
This research provided the foundation for all subsequent design decisions, ensuring solutions addressed actual broker workflows rather than assumed needs.
Complete UX Audit and Heuristic Analysis
The team conducted a systematic evaluation of the existing platform against usability heuristics and industry best practices for B2B SaaS applications. The audit identified specific issues with information architecture, visual hierarchy, interaction patterns, and data visualization effectiveness. Recommendations were prioritized based on impact and implementation complexity.
User Persona Development
Research insights were synthesized into detailed personas representing different broker archetypes with varying business models, sales volumes, and primary workflows. These personas guided feature prioritization and design decisions throughout the engagement.
Scalable Design System Creation
Valere built a comprehensive design system providing the foundation for consistent, professional user experience. The system included components, patterns, and documentation to ensure the platform could scale without fragmenting the experience. This transformed TicketGenie from a collection of disparate features into a cohesive product with predictable interaction patterns.
Dashboard Redesign for Analytics and Inventory Management
Core dashboards were reimagined to support rapid decision-making across complex data sets, including sold inventory tracking, pricing analytics, and market intelligence views. The redesigned dashboards prioritized information density without sacrificing clarity, enabling brokers to process large volumes of data efficiently. The multi-view experience allowed rapid sorting and processing of hundreds of events simultaneously.
Wireframes and High-Fidelity Prototypes
The team created detailed wireframes for new features identified through user research and high-fidelity interactive prototypes that enabled stakeholder validation before engineering investment, reducing the risk of building features that wouldn’t serve user needs effectively.
Product Roadmap Collaboration
Valere worked closely with TicketGenie’s product team to prioritize the feature backlog based on user research findings, technical feasibility, and business impact. Weekly meetings reviewed user feedback, assessed feasibility for proposed capabilities, analyzed ROI for major features, and planned phased implementation.
Marketing and Brand Alignment
With the product experience evolving significantly, Valere created brand guidelines ensuring consistency across touchpoints and marketing collateral aligned with the updated product identity. This alignment ensured potential customers encountered consistent messaging from first contact through daily usage.
The Results
Valere delivered a transformational redesign that exceeded expectations across usability, engagement, and strategic positioning. The platform evolved from a feature-heavy tool that overwhelmed users into a streamlined, intelligent assistant that professional brokers rely on for critical business decisions.
Key Outcomes
User Experience Transformation
- Reduced onboarding friction measured through decreased support ticket volume for new users learning the platform.
- Increased daily active usage of analytics features as brokers found the redesigned dashboards more accessible and actionable.
- Positive qualitative feedback from broker users specifically praising interface clarity and ease of finding critical information.
- Improved feature discoverability as the coherent design system helped users understand capabilities without explicit training.
Product-Market Fit Strengthening
- Deeper understanding of broker workflows translated into features that matched actual decision-making processes.
- Credible B2B positioning as the platform’s polish now matched the professional expectations of users managing millions in inventory.
- Foundation for scalable growth through design system enabling consistent feature expansion.
- Competitive differentiation by focusing on usability and clarity rather than feature quantity.
Strategic Business Impact
- Structure brought to product roadmap with user research providing clear prioritization framework.
- Marketing alignment enabling consistent messaging about platform capabilities
- Foundation for enterprise expansion as improved UX made the platform viable for larger broker operations.
- Validated product direction through user research confirming which capabilities truly mattered to brokers.
Conclusion
TicketGenie’s partnership with Valere demonstrates the power of human-centered design in transforming complex B2B software. By investing in deep user research with professional ticket brokers, the team moved beyond surface-level improvements to fundamental reimagining of how the platform presents data and supports decision-making. With comprehensive user research, validated personas, and a clear understanding of broker workflows, TicketGenie can confidently prioritize features and make design decisions aligned with real user needs.
