Matea Raić — Portfolio, 2026 Open to roles
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Euka Creators

From a web app to a native iOS app in six months. The fastest decision was launching before we were ready. The smartest was not building native until we understood why people weren't coming back.

Project
Creator monetization, iOS, 2025–2026
Role
Product Design Manager, sole product designer
Team
PM and engineering. No design manager above me
Platform
Progressive web app, then native iOS
Timeline
6 months, web app to native

Held directly

  • Product decisions
  • User interviews
  • Research synthesis
  • Navigation and IA
  • Onboarding
  • UI design
  • Design system
  • iOS patterns
  • Specs and design reviews
Euka Creators native app screens: contests, retainer application, Spark Codes and Link Booster

8.8K

First-time downloads, January to April 2026

49.7%

Product page conversion, daily average

6

Months from web app to native iOS

1

Designer on the product

Web app first, native second.

Euka connects creators with brand opportunities: creators browse, apply and manage their work in one place. There was no mobile app when I joined, just a product direction and pressure to move fast. We launched a progressive web app first to get something real to creators quickly and learn from how they used it.

  1. Ship the web app

    Functional enough for early adopters, instrumented enough to learn from.

  2. Observe

    Interviews with creators and product analytics on real usage.

  3. Build native

    Redesign based on what we saw, on top of a design system.

  • No native patterns
  • Limited engineering time
  • No design system
  • Shipped unfinished, on purpose

What the data actually said.

Qualitative

Creator interviews

Recruited from Euka's Discord community of 10,000+ creators. Focused on workflows and mobile habits.

Quantitative

Product analytics

PostHog showed where people dropped off, what they couldn't find and which features went unused.

Creators weren't rejecting Euka. They were leaving before they understood it.

FindingResponse
NavigationCreators had to hunt for core features.
Navigation restructured around how creators move through their work
OnboardingNo orientation. Several people said they didn't know what to do first.
A structured onboarding flow that explains the product before asking for anything
Login wallSign-in was required before people saw any value.
Open browsing. Sign-in only when a creator is ready to apply
QualityClunky interactions, no notifications, inconsistent visuals.
Design system, native interactions and push notifications

Open browsing before login.

Before

Open app → Sign in → Browse → Apply

Research showed people leaving at the sign-in screen, before they had seen any opportunities.

After

Open app → Browse → Apply → Sign in

Sign-in moved to the moment a creator wants to apply. Browsing real opportunities first gave creators a reason to create an account.

Before and after: the web app home compared with the native home with guest mode, clear entry points and content first
Before and after: guest mode with a Log in link in the header, collabs, contests, retainers and commission as one row of entry points, and popular content first on home.

Building the system first.

Before redesigning any screen, I built a design system. The team preferred to move straight to screens. I pushed back, because visual debt grows fast on a small team with one designer, and creators were already calling out inconsistency. I used Figma Make to turn designs into working prototypes faster.

  • Type scale
  • Colour tokens
  • Buttons
  • Inputs
  • Cards
  • Navigation

Two things I had to argue for

01

Onboarding

The team wanted to skip it to ship faster. Interviews showed creators landing with no idea what to do, so I made the case with their own words.

02

Holding the design system

There was steady pressure for one-off fixes outside the system. I said no consistently, because a system only works if it's followed, and consistency was one of the things creators asked for.

Designed for native, not a web app in a native shell.

iOS conventions where they help

Standard patterns where they let creators move faster.

Distinct where it matters

Custom patterns where Euka needed its own character.

Push notifications

Something the web app couldn't do, and creators had asked for.

Native interactions

Designed in from the start.

Final design

Contests
Current rank, distance to the next place and prize tiers
Retainers
Apply, receive an offer, accept, with terms shown before committing. Packages, brief and progress in one place
Link Booster
Finds higher-commission links and switches them in one tap
My Work
Actions that need attention first, then active deals
Spark Codes
Browse freely. Sign-in is asked for only at submit
Trends
Top hooks, selling points and transcripts to guide content

Results.

App Store Connect, 10 January to 30 April 2026

24.3K

Impressions

12.1K

Product page views

8.8K

First-time downloads

49.7%

Conversion, daily average

Creators who could browse before signing in had longer first sessions and returned more often, with retention improving by week 5. Average retention (approximate, opt-in users only) was about 30% on day 1, 14% on day 7, 11% on day 14 and 9% on day 28.

What I'd measure next: time to first application, the first real action a creator takes. For a monetization product, it's the event most likely to predict whether someone stays.

Being the only designer in the room.

I made product decisions with PM and engineering, without a design manager to escalate to. I planned, ran and synthesised interviews without a dedicated researcher, and kept engineering and PM aligned through Figma files, written specs and regular design reviews. I moved fast on the web app to learn quickly, and slower on the system and onboarding, where shortcuts would cost more later.

The hardest part of full ownership isn't the craft. It's knowing when to slow down and when to move fast, with no one above you to make that call.

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