Joining Tom today is Danny Zagorski, the former Director of Product Design at SpotHero, a two-sided parking reservation marketplace that has connected more than 20 million drivers with their perfect parking spaces. While Danny recently took on a new role as Product Design Manager with Vivid Seats, his conversation with Tom is all about how his teams at SpotHero are dedicated to creating the perfect “Park” for their users.

Focused on a problem all-too familiar for most, SpotHero makes finding a parking spot seamless for their users, and Danny stresses the importance of offering drivers a range of options for how to reserve their spot. Whether it be through their mobile web browser, over a phone call, on their mobile app, or even while you’re already accessing one of their partners such as Apple Maps, they enable their users to utilize the functionality of their choice.

Danny also talks about what key factors drive SpotHero’s retention, the ways they increase engagement without spamming notifications, and how they have expanded the value they provide through their partnerships with venues such as Madison Square Garden, Oracle Park, and even more.

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Guest Bio

Danny Zagorski is a product design leader, with experience growing multiple startups and product teams from 0-$500M+. He recently departed from SpotHero in August of 2023, and has taken his years of experience to Vivid Seats to lead as a Product Design Manager.

In his role at SpotHero, he led the B2B design teams, where he focused on helping parking facilities improve their operations and create fantastic partner experiences to drive retention and higher revenue.

He spends his days thinking about OKRs, how to improve research processes, and coaching designers to be better than they were the day before. We wish him all the best in his new role!

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Guest Quote

"When we do our testing, discovery, and actual design, we do try to go out there and meet the users where they are. It is a very real hands-on design experience and I think that contributes deeply to, you know, building that empathy for: ‘What is a user actually going through?’" – Danny Zagorski

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Time Stamps

*(01:05) Danny’s Background

*(02:15) What is SpotHero?

*(05:56) What comes after “The Park?”

*(08:19) What variables drive SpotHero retention?

*(10:18) The importance of partnerships

*(12:46) How SpotHero maintains consistency across mobile and web

*(17:11) The ways you can increase your engagement

*(19:36) Practical design systems

*(21:52) SpotHero's "It" Factor when it comes to venues

*(23:45) Rapid Fire Questions

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Links