Michael Hirst PRODUCT · ENGINEERING · DESIGN
sportsYou · 2016 — present

Zero to 3M+ MAU.

Founding designer turned Head of Product. Built the #1 communication platform for high school athletics from the ground up.

The product

What we built.

sportsYou Posts screen — team announcements and content feed
Posts Critical updates that do not get buried
sportsYou Chat screen — real-time team messaging
Chat Team conversations without group text noise
sportsYou Calendar screen — team schedule and event management
Calendar Schedules, RSVPs, and locations kept in sync
sportsYou Media screen — team photo and video gallery
Media A shared home for team photos and videos
3M+ Monthly active users
59K+ Teams on platform
1M+ Teammates
4M+ Posts created
4.8 ★ App Store rating
31K+ App Store reviews

I joined sportsYou as the founding designer when it was just an idea. Over the next nine years I grew with the company through every stage — Lead Designer, Senior PM, and eventually Head of Product — owning strategy, vision, and roadmap across iOS, Android, and Web.

The core challenge was product-market fit in a crowded space. High school athletics programs had communication problems that generic tools couldn't solve: privacy requirements for minors, multi-team management, season-based churn, coach and parent dynamics. We obsessed over those specifics until the product clicked.

Adoption came through the product and through real relationships in high school athletics — athletic directors, coaches, and association partners who understood the communication problem firsthand. My role was to strengthen the product loops that supported that motion: onboarding, discovery, activation, and retention. Every quarter was a tighter loop of ship, measure, iterate.

Today sportsYou is the #1 communication platform for high school athletics. I lead product across iOS, Android, and Web, working closely with engineering, design, support, and partnership conversations to keep customer feedback, product quality, and roadmap decisions tightly connected.

What I did

Scope of work.

  1. Product strategy & roadmap

    Owned the full product roadmap across iOS, Android, and Web. Defined vision, set priorities, and kept the team aligned across a fast-moving market.

    Product

  2. Zero-to-one design

    Designed the original product from scratch. Built the design system, established the visual language, and shipped the first versions of every core feature.

    Design

  3. Adoption & partnerships

    Improved the product surfaces that supported coach-led adoption while partnering with athletic directors, coach associations, and school athletics communities to understand needs, build trust, and help teams bring their communities with them.

    Product

  4. Customer-informed planning

    Led product planning across engineering and design, using feedback from coaches, athletic directors, association partners, and support conversations to keep roadmap decisions grounded in real athletics workflows.

    Product
4.8 ★★★★★ 31,000+ ratings on the App Store

"Super easy to set up and allows seamless communication between players, parents and coaches."

— App Store review