Spry
app development, concept and ideation; UX design; brand identity; creative direction and design; messaging strategy; development oversight In July of 2021 the world of college sports changed forever when the NCAA made a historic rule change, allowing college athletes to profit off of their name, image and likeness (NIL). For decades, athletes were strictly prohibited from accepting payments or compensation of any kind. Now, athletes can earn money doing anything from training lessons, summer camps, sponsored social posts, autograph sessions and endorsements—as long as the payment has been vetted and approved by both school and NCAA administrators. This is where Spry comes in. Partnering with Spry’s CEO Lyle Adams, we developed a SaaS platform from scratch that provides both student athletes and college administrators a technical solution for navigating NIL deals with efficiency and accuracy. Because this rule change had never been done before, schools aren’t equipped to properly manage and oversee the flood of NIL deals from athletes across several sports. Ensuring compliance is essential, as well as educating student athletes around financial planning, legal matters, or mentorship. Spry’s goal is to address all of these concerns through an integrated software that connects students, collegiate administrators and the NCAA to ensure deals are compliant and safe for student athletes. Spry makes it possible for a student-athlete to disclose business opportunities to their institution in a seamless, transparent way to ensure their activities are compliant with all NIL regulations. Moreover, this platform enables compliance departments to identify potential conflicts of interest between existing institution contracts and student-athlete opportunities, and then quickly and efficiently approve or deny incoming requests. Partnering with Factor San Francisco and Smart by Design, I led creative direction for the development of the Spry brand including the logo, colors, and brand application. We first developed the application architecture through several months of wireframe ideation, evolving our thinking as we interviewed several stakeholders across athletic departments of prominent universities, including the UCLA, Wake Forest, and the University of Colorado. Improving the platform in this way allowed us to build a working prototype that was beta tested at several universities including Wake Forest and Oral Roberts. Spry is currently being used by over 50 schools and universities and continues to grow.
