Pottery Friends
Community Platform Ecosystem
After embedding at Red Ox Ceramics 6 days a week for a year, I identified an unowned vertical: no one has built purpose-built software for craft studio communities. I built a connected platform, including a native app, web app, analytics dashboards, and docs, to prove the thesis.
Visit Live Site
The Problem
The ops manager was spending 5+ hours per week on manual admin. Members missed 2-3 events per month because announcements got buried in group texts. And the community knowledge that makes a studio special, like glaze recipes, techniques, and inspiration, had no digital home. Mindbody and Glofox serve gyms, not craft communities.
Research & Discovery
Embedded 6 days/week for a year and watched the ops manager run everything through Square, paper binders, and group texts. 5+ hours/week on manual admin alone
Members at retreats confirmed the same problems exist at every studio. No one has purpose-built software
Top user request wasn't scheduling. It was 'What glaze should I try next.' Community inspiration was the killer feature, not logistics
Strategy
Target
Independent studios with 30 to 200 members, too small for enterprise software, too large for group texts.
Go-to-Market
Lead with free analytics dashboards, then expand to the full platform once studios see engagement data.
Business Model
Freemium subscriptions: free for events and messaging, paid for analytics, payments, and gamification.
Vision
Start with pottery, expand to woodworking, glassblowing, and other craft communities.
What I Built
Social Feed & Content Creation
Instagram-style photo editing (filters, adjustments, cropping) and video support, because potters are visual creators who want to showcase work without leaving the app.
Events & Workshops
Missing events was the #1 complaint. 6-step creation flow lets owners publish a workshop in under 2 minutes. RSVP tracking replaced the paper sign-up sheets.
Forums & Glaze Library
Searchable home for tribal knowledge: glaze recipes, firing schedules, and technique tips. Organized by topic because every studio conversation falls into the same natural categories.
Key Decisions
Started with a feed-first home screen, but usage data showed members skipped it and went straight to Events. Redesigned around upcoming events and quick actions. Engagement doubled.
Cut the planned marketplace after user interviews revealed studio owners saw it as competition with their own retail. Redirected effort into analytics dashboards, the feature they actually wanted to pay for.
Results & Impact
150
Beta Members
2x
Engagement After Redesign
20+
User Interviews
5+hrs
Weekly Admin Time Saved
- 150 beta members onboarded with consistent weekly usage, validating that a purpose-built tool outperforms the Square + paper binders + group chat stack
- Gamification completion rates jumped from 5% to 35% after cutting 40 quests to 8 tied to real studio actions
- Home screen redesign (feed-first to events-first) doubled engagement. Data contradicted the original hypothesis, so I killed it and rebuilt around what users actually did