Starcast – Proof of Concept Delivery
Overview
Starcast is a wellness startup developing a video-based platform for immersive group workouts with gamified elements. The goal of the MVP was to validate interest from both users and investors by demonstrating a working proof of concept.
LeisureLabs was responsible for product strategy, delivery management, user experience design, and engineering coordination. The scope included translating an early concept into a functional MVP that could be tested with real users and showcased to potential partners and funders.
LeisureLabs was responsible for product strategy, delivery management, user experience design, and engineering coordination. The scope included translating an early concept into a functional MVP that could be tested with real users and showcased to potential partners and funders.
Challenge
The Starcast MVP required delivering a functional, testable proof of concept that could illustrate the platform’s core value proposition to both users and investors. Key challenges included:
- Conceptual Translation: Structuring a clear and usable product experience around a new category of group-based digital workouts with social and gamified elements.
- Third-Party Coordination: Aligning frontend and backend implementation with external partners responsible for audio, video, and streaming infrastructure.
- Simulated Functionality: Implementing lightweight versions of features such as reward tracking and admin tools to illustrate the platform vision without full feature development.
- Stakeholder Expectations: Ensuring the MVP would serve both as a demonstration tool and as the foundation for internal testing, content production, and future iterations.
Approach
The MVP delivery was structured across three iterative stages:
Scope Definition
The project began with an initial product discovery phase. LeisureLabs facilitated the definition of key user personas, end-to-end user journeys, and early feature prioritization. These inputs helped shape the early scope of the MVP, while allowing flexibility for creative direction from the founding team.
Product Build
The build phase focused on delivering a usable MVP that could support both solo and group workout sessions with basic interactivity and gamified elements.
In the final phase, LeisureLabs provided ongoing support to accommodate requests from both the founding team and external technical partners. This included rapid iterations, clarification of flows, and adjustments to ensure the MVP was stable and functional for demonstration. The final output was suitable for both community testing and early investor conversations.
Scope Definition
The project began with an initial product discovery phase. LeisureLabs facilitated the definition of key user personas, end-to-end user journeys, and early feature prioritization. These inputs helped shape the early scope of the MVP, while allowing flexibility for creative direction from the founding team.
Product Build
The build phase focused on delivering a usable MVP that could support both solo and group workout sessions with basic interactivity and gamified elements.
- UX/UI Design: We designed two core user experiences—Director and Audience—covering flows such as account creation, login, user profile setup, interest tagging, session launch, and dashboards.
- Engineering: A scalable backend was built on AWS using Java to support future expansion. For the front-end, we used Bubble (a low-code platform) to accelerate development and reduce complexity during the MVP stage. This allowed the team to focus on validating the concept and refining the user experience before committing to a commercial-grade UI layer.
In the final phase, LeisureLabs provided ongoing support to accommodate requests from both the founding team and external technical partners. This included rapid iterations, clarification of flows, and adjustments to ensure the MVP was stable and functional for demonstration. The final output was suitable for both community testing and early investor conversations.
Solution
LeisureLabs delivered the core platform infrastructure for user management, engagement logic, and communication flows. Our contributions focused on enabling a functional MVP to support testing, demonstration, and investor outreach. Key deliverables included:
- User management flows: Built and deployed account creation, login, and onboarding logic for both Directors and Audience roles, including team creation and invite-based registration.
- Rewards tracking: Developed a simplified version of the Starcast points system (MANA), allowing participants and teams to view basic progress metrics post-session.
- Email and comms engine: Implemented backend email automation to support user notifications, session confirmations, and sponsor/advertising links tied to user actions.
Results
The Starcast MVP was successfully delivered and prepared for a 3-month trial with real users. While not intended for commercial release in its current state, the product achieved its core objective: to demonstrate the viability of the concept to users, partners, and potential investors. Key outcomes include:
- Trial-ready platform: A working system that supports group session flows, reward tracking, and user engagement via email automation.
- User and team flows tested: Core logic for Director and Audience experiences was implemented and validated through internal testing ahead of the public trial.
- Backend prepared for scale: The Java-based backend is modular and scalable, supporting future replatforming away from Bubble as the product evolves.
- Foundation for learning: The MVP enables the team to gather structured feedback from users and identify technical and experiential priorities for future development.
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