Bailey Thigpen

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Bailey Thigpen

2026 · Martial Arts Gyms · 4 Weeks

Natural language + agentic AI unlocks key gym staff workflows

Helping martial arts instructors confidently plan belt promotions without manually tracking every student's progress.

AI Feature

AI Design

User Insights

Opportunity Workshop

DISCOVERY RESEARCH

Uncovering top friction

Looking for our next initiative, we started gathering data sets.

Claude NPS dashboard

I had Claude create a dashboard of our last 3 quarters of NPS feedback (a high-response survey where users often take the opportunity to note their frustrations with the software).

Belt ranking and testing emerged as a consistent pain point, though the details were vague.

Follow-Up Survey

A survey dove deeper into the belt and promotions area to narrow in on where the highest friction was coming from.

KEY INSIGHT

Student progress tracking, eligibility, and registration related to promotions emerges as top friction.

UNDERSTANDING

Contextualizing the friction

User interviews unlocked our understanding of the problems, personas impacted, and the current user journey.

User Interviews

Key workflows were identified that our product wasn't solving for—and it needed to.

Long, grueling workarounds

Registering eligible students for a promotional test is a 10 step, multi-screen workflow.

No analysis at scale

Staff think about student belt progression in groups, not individuals, yet we only offer individual analysis.

Thinking beyond the software

Spending time on what actually matters to them—progressing students' skills—is a luxury due to the admin our software requires.

Long, grueling workarounds

Registering eligible students for a promotional test is a 10 step, multi-screen workflow.

No analysis at scale

Staff think about student belt progression in groups, not individuals, yet we only offer individual analysis.

Thinking beyond the software

Spending time on what actually matters to them—progressing students' skills—is a luxury due to the admin our software requires.

Current journey

Interviews uncovered the following workarounds to identify students' belt ranks and register them for promotional tests:

Student Profile
Detailed stats on individual students - belt, attendance, skills, instructor notes, testing history
There's no easy way for instructors to evaluate these metrics across multiple students at once
Reports
To identify students by belt and test eligibility, instructors have to…
Navigate to the Reports center   → Create a report   → Know which data fields matter   → Set thresholds   → Run it → Interpret the results
Scheduling a Promotional Test
Instructors reference the report they ran to remember who was eligible
They manually register each student on the test event
Student Profile
Detailed stats on individual students - belt, attendance, skills, instructor notes, testing history
There's no easy way for instructors to evaluate these metrics across multiple students at once
Reports
To identify students by belt and test eligibility, instructors have to…
Navigate to the Reports center   → Create a report   → Know which data fields matter   → Set thresholds   → Run it → Interpret the results
Scheduling a Promotional Test
Instructors reference the report they ran to remember who was eligible
They manually register each student on the test event
Student Profile
Detailed stats on individual students - belt, attendance, skills, instructor notes, testing history
There's no easy way for instructors to evaluate these metrics across multiple students at once
Reports
To identify students by belt and test eligibility, instructors have to…
Navigate to the Reports center   → Create a report   → Know which data fields matter   → Set thresholds   → Run it → Interpret the results
Scheduling a Promotional Test
Instructors reference the report they ran to remember who was eligible
They manually register each student on the test event
Student Profile
Detailed stats on individual students - belt, attendance, skills, instructor notes, testing history
There's no easy way for instructors to evaluate these metrics across multiple students at once
Reports
To identify students by belt and test eligibility, instructors have to…
Navigate to the Reports center   → Create a report   → Know which data fields matter   → Set thresholds   → Run it → Interpret the results
Scheduling a Promotional Test
Instructors reference the report they ran to remember who was eligible
They manually register each student on the test event

Student Profile
Detailed stats on individual students - belt, attendance, skills, instructor notes, testing history
There's no easy way for instructors to evaluate these metrics across multiple students at once
Reports
To identify students by belt and test eligibility, instructors have to…
Navigate to the Reports center   → Create a report   → Know which data fields matter   → Set thresholds   → Run it → Interpret the results
Scheduling a Promotional Test
Instructors reference the report they ran to remember who was eligible
They manually register each student on the test event
Student Profile
Detailed stats on individual students - belt, attendance, skills, instructor notes, testing history
There's no easy way for instructors to evaluate these metrics across multiple students at once
Reports
To identify students by belt and test eligibility, instructors have to…
Navigate to the Reports center   → Create a report   → Know which data fields matter   → Set thresholds   → Run it → Interpret the results
Scheduling a Promotional Test
Instructors reference the report they ran to remember who was eligible
They manually register each student on the test event
Student Profile
Detailed stats on individual students - belt, attendance, skills, instructor notes, testing history
There's no easy way for instructors to evaluate these metrics across multiple students at once
Reports
To identify students by belt and test eligibility, instructors have to…
Navigate to the Reports center   → Create a report   → Know which data fields matter   → Set thresholds   → Run it → Interpret the results
Scheduling a Promotional Test
Instructors reference the report they ran to remember who was eligible
They manually register each student on the test event
Student Profile
Detailed stats on individual students - belt, attendance, skills, instructor notes, testing history
There's no easy way for instructors to evaluate these metrics across multiple students at once
Reports
To identify students by belt and test eligibility, instructors have to…
Navigate to the Reports center   → Create a report   → Know which data fields matter   → Set thresholds   → Run it → Interpret the results
Scheduling a Promotional Test
Instructors reference the report they ran to remember who was eligible
They manually register each student on the test event

Student Profile
Detailed stats on individual students - belt, attendance, skills, instructor notes, testing history
There's no easy way for instructors to evaluate these metrics across multiple students at once
Reports
To identify students by belt and test eligibility, instructors have to…
Navigate to the Reports center   → Create a report   → Know which data fields matter   → Set thresholds   → Run it → Interpret the results
Scheduling a Promotional Test
Instructors reference the report they ran to remember who was eligible
They manually register each student on the test event
Student Profile
Detailed stats on individual students - belt, attendance, skills, instructor notes, testing history
There's no easy way for instructors to evaluate these metrics across multiple students at once
Reports
To identify students by belt and test eligibility, instructors have to…
Navigate to the Reports center   → Create a report   → Know which data fields matter   → Set thresholds   → Run it → Interpret the results
Scheduling a Promotional Test
Instructors reference the report they ran to remember who was eligible
They manually register each student on the test event
Student Profile
Detailed stats on individual students - belt, attendance, skills, instructor notes, testing history
There's no easy way for instructors to evaluate these metrics across multiple students at once
Reports
To identify students by belt and test eligibility, instructors have to…
Navigate to the Reports center   → Create a report   → Know which data fields matter   → Set thresholds   → Run it → Interpret the results
Scheduling a Promotional Test
Instructors reference the report they ran to remember who was eligible
They manually register each student on the test event
Student Profile
Detailed stats on individual students - belt, attendance, skills, instructor notes, testing history
There's no easy way for instructors to evaluate these metrics across multiple students at once
Reports
To identify students by belt and test eligibility, instructors have to…
Navigate to the Reports center   → Create a report   → Know which data fields matter   → Set thresholds   → Run it → Interpret the results
Scheduling a Promotional Test
Instructors reference the report they ran to remember who was eligible
They manually register each student on the test event

Primary impacted persona

Looking at my user personas, while owners and front desk staff will benefit, this work centers staff instructors.

DEFINING

Determining the project

…

One thing was clear in the research:

Belt ranking and promotions are core to instructors’ day-to-day, yet our software barely supports it. It’s time to address this in a big way.

PRD

…

HMW

…

HMW

…

HMW

…

UI or AI? Opportunity sort

…

Results & Beta Testing

Some improvements were immediate and measurable from day one. Others will be tested over time.

Immediate Impact

…

Iterations — what we'll test over time

…

What I Learned

There was a lot to this project, and it moved incredibly fast! Here are my personal takeaways.

Lesson 1

…

Lesson 2

…

Let's Build Together!

Reach out—I'm always open to new opportunities to connect and create.

Contact Me

thigpen.j.bailey@gmail.com

+1 (919) 818-0813

Let's Build Together!

Reach out—I'm always open to new opportunities to connect and create.

Contact Me

thigpen.j.bailey@gmail.com

+1 (919) 818-0813

Natural language + agentic AI unlocks key gym staff workflows

Uncovering top friction

Claude NPS dashboard

Follow-Up Survey

Student progress tracking, eligibility, and registration related to promotions emerges as top friction.

Contextualizing the friction

User Interviews

Current journey

Student Profile

Reports

Scheduling a Promotional Test

Student Profile

Reports

Scheduling a Promotional Test

Student Profile

Reports

Scheduling a Promotional Test

Primary impacted persona

Determining the project

Belt ranking and promotions are core to instructors’ day-to-day, yet our software barely supports it. It’s time to address this in a big way.

Belt ranking and promotions are core to instructors’ day-to-day, yet our software barely supports it. It’s time to address this in a big way.

PRD

UI or AI? Opportunity sort

Results & Beta Testing

Immediate Impact

…

…

…

…

Iterations — what we'll test over time

…

…

…

…

What I Learned

…

…

Let's Build Together!

Let's Build Together!