Instavails Case Study
Instavails was a feature I led in Q4 2022 as part of FilmTrack’s flagship rights management platform. The goal was to enable sales teams to instantly identify which titles were available to sell based on dynamic rights criteria—such as region, platform, and time window. Prior to Instavails, this process was slow, manual, and error-prone, often requiring cross-referencing multiple internal tools. This feature gave sellers the ability to filter a large catalog in real-time, empowering them to act quickly and confidently during sales opportunities.
My Role
I served as the Lead UX Designer on the Instavails feature, partnering closely with a product manager, business stakeholder, and development team to define and deliver this net-new functionality. Because the feature didn’t previously exist, I was responsible for shaping the experience from the ground up—starting with aligning on business goals and user needs, through to wireframing, prototyping, and collaborating with engineering on implementation. I also facilitated design reviews and worked cross-functionally to ensure the solution was both intuitive for users and feasible for the development timeline.
Project Process
Documentation & Research
Project Kick-Off (Problem & Predispositions)
We began the project with a structured kick-off meeting to align on the opportunity space, target users, and success criteria. During this session, I collaborated with the product manager, business stakeholder, and engineering lead to define:
Who we were designing for – primarily sales reps and rights managers looking to identify available titles quickly and accurately
The core problem – the existing rights search process was fragmented, manual, and time-consuming, often requiring users to cross-reference data across multiple systems
Our primary goals – to create a fast, intuitive, and reliable filtering experience that surfaced real-time availability based on contractual rights data
Assumptions – we documented initial beliefs, including the idea that users wanted speed and simplicity over granularity, and that they often needed to perform searches in live conversations or time-sensitive moments
Timeline and constraints – the feature was scoped for delivery within Q4 2022, with considerations around platform limitations and upcoming feature freezes
This kickoff helped ensure everyone was aligned on what we were solving, who we were solving it for, and how we’d measure success, while also capturing early assumptions we could validate or challenge through the design process.
Competitive Analysis & Inspiration
With a clear understanding of the goals, users, and problem space, I moved into the conceptual phase by conducting a competitive analysis and gathering inspiration from a range of platforms. I looked both within and outside the entertainment industry to identify common patterns for filtering, availability logic, and real-time search experiences.
I reviewed platforms such as Amazon, for its robust search and filtering capabilities, IMDB, for its handling of multi-parameter media searches, Yelp, for its categorical filtering across diverse business types, Priceline, for its dynamic availability-based results, and Molten, for its industry-specific availability filtering tools
This research helped me evaluate how different platforms visually structured filters, surfaced results, and communicated availability, providing useful patterns and interaction models that could inform Instavails. I also collected visual inspiration to explore layout, grouping, and affordance ideas that would help make the filtering experience feel intuitive and responsive.
This phase gave me a broad set of references to pull from as I began translating early ideas into concepts tailored to the unique needs of FilmTrack’s users and rights data structure.
What Exists Today
While Instavails was a net-new feature, I was able to review a few early concepts and exploratory mockups that had been created prior to my joining the team. These artifacts provided insight into initial thinking around filtering logic and layout, but they had not yet been validated, refined, or aligned with the new design system.
Although there was no functional version of the feature in the product, these early materials helped me understand past conversations, stakeholder priorities, and technical considerations, serving as a helpful starting point as I began crafting a more cohesive and user-centered solution.
Concepts
Information Architecture
Because Instavails was a highly requested feature with strong demand from customers, it was prioritized as a top-level feature within the platform’s navigation. Its importance to sales workflows meant it needed to be easily discoverable, quickly accessible, and clearly distinct from other reporting or search tools.
I collaborated with the product manager and stakeholders to evaluate potential placements and ensure the feature aligned with user expectations and platform hierarchy. Ultimately, we positioned it as a primary entry point in the navigation to reflect its critical role in driving sales decisions and to streamline access during time-sensitive scenarios.
This decision shaped how I approached the rest of the experience, ensuring it felt like a core part of the product, not a bolt-on tool.
User Flows
Drawings
Concepts
Hi-Fidelity Designs + Prototypes
Figma File
Prototype
Results & Conclusion
Instavails was the final feature I led before leaving FilmTrack, and I was proud to see it move into development before my departure. I took the feature from early discovery through high-fidelity design and developer handoff, ensuring the team had everything they needed to carry it forward.
Shortly after, FilmTrack was acquired by Rightsline, and while I wasn’t there to see the final launch, I’m hopeful that my contributions to Instavails—and to the overall user experience of the platform—played a role in moving the product and the company toward a stronger, more competitive future.
This project was a meaningful capstone to my time at FilmTrack and a great example of designing with speed, clarity, and long-term impact in mind.