01 - The Problem
If you're a musician just starting out, there's no way to prove you're reliable to someone who's never worked with you. You can't point to a track record. You depend on someone vouching for you. And if you don't know the right people yet, you're stuck.
apps exist, none give musicians a verified track record
apps let musicians build credibility from real attendance data
connection can make or break a musician's career
The original brief:
AI platform that finds and centralizes audition listings across Europe · Free access vs. €59/year paywalls · Scan 500+ organization websites daily
02 - WHERE IT STARTED
This started as something else: a free, AI-powered platform that centralizes audition listings across Europe. I wrote the brief myself, I'm an opera singer, and I live this frustration daily. Then I did the research, and the research had other plans.
03 - RESEARCH: INTERVIEWS
8 in-person, semi-structured interviews at MUK Vienna: 3 orchestral musicians, 4 pianists, 1 opera singer, all current students or emerging artists. All but one were strangers, recruited on campus, so answers stayed honest.
One finding was unanimous: getting hired depends on who already knows you, not how good you are.
"If all opportunities were in ONE database, super great!"
Baritone singer
"Have to re-enter information each time."
Percussionist
"Why should I pay YOU when I'm providing the service?"
Violinist
04 - RESEARCH: COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
15 apps. None of them can prove you'll show up.
I reviewed 15+ platforms, then went deep on the four musicians actually use: YAP Tracker, Audition Cafe, Audition Oracle, Musical Chairs. All of them are listings. None of them are proof. Paywalls lock students out, most have no mobile app, Europe is an afterthought. The gap wasn't a missing feature. It was a missing category: verifiable reliability.
05 - RESEARCH SYNTHESIS
The interviews pointed somewhere the brief didn't. A centralized database fixes an inconvenience. A verified track record fixes a career.
So the project pivoted: from finding opportunities to proving reliability. Two gaps became two scores.
Almost every musician said the same thing: “It’s not about how good you are. It’s about who already knows you.”
08 - persona
Every decision was tested against Sofia.
The interviews produced four distinct types of musician, each locked out of work in a different way. Sofia became the primary persona, the informal gig seeker with no platform, no network, and no way to prove herself. If a feature didn't help Sofia get hired and show she can be trusted, it didn't ship.
09 - INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
The app's structure follows the musician's real loop; find or receive an opportunity, confirm, attend, and let the record build itself.
10 - WIREFRAMES & ITERATION
I sketched the core loop first no styling, just the flow.
The reliability score is yours, so it lives on your profile.
Invitations sit at the top of Home. When someone asks for you, it shouldn't hide under a search bar.
11 - THE SOLUTION
When you accept a gig, the app tracks it. Show up, it records it. Cancel, it records that too. Over time, that builds into something real: a reliability score nobody can fake, manipulate, or write their way out of.
12 - USABILITY TESTING & REVISIONS
I tested with musicians in person, moderated, thinking out loud.
All three finished every task. But watching them, the gaps were obvious they hesitated, backtracked, and asked questions the interface should have answered.
Every hesitation became a fix.
100%
task completion in testing
2
critical issues found and fixed
7
MUK students tested the app in person
Task 01
Accept an invitation, then confirm attendance for an event inside that project.
Task 02
Find a missed rehearsal and upload a note about it.
Task 03
Explain both scores in your own words.
13 - BRANDING
Overture is the music before the show, the moment everything comes together before the curtain rises. That felt exactly right for an app that connects people before the performance happens.
Font
Satoshi. Clean and easy to read at any age.
Colours
Inspired by Vienna. Navy from the Staatsoper, cream from Schönbrunn, gold from the Musikverein, teal from the Palace gardens.
Research showed musicians are sensitive to colour, loud palettes feel stressful. Everything here was chosen to feel calm.
Overture began as a bootcamp project. Now it's being built for real with a team of collaborators. The musician side is designed and done. The organizer side is still being shaped through research, that's a whole separate story.
This version is about one thing: giving musicians a way to get hired based on what they've actually done, not who they happen to know.
Score you can trust
Built from real attendance data. Every gig, every rehearsal, every cancellation counts.
Right fit, not just available
Match score means you show up where you actually fit, not just anywhere there's an opening.
Fair for both sides
New to the scene or not, your profile speaks for you.
15 - Learnings
One score wasn't enough
Reliability and fit are different things. Combining them into one number made both useless.
Finishing doesn't mean understanding
Everyone got through the flows. Two people were still confused about the basics. I almost missed it.
The best idea came from a participant
The colour system that makes everything clear? A participant suggested it mid-session. I just wrote it down.
Obvious to me, confusing to everyone else
Projects vs Events was obvious to me. Nobody else saw it that way at first. It took iteration.
With Stitch, describe the feeling
Short, evocative prompts always got better results than long detailed specs.
I learned that making something feel trustworthy is just as hard as making it easy to use. People can figure out how your app works, but if they don’t believe what it’s telling them, none of that matters.
Get in touch
Have a project in mind? I’d love to hear about it. Fill in the form and I’ll get back to you.