Olo / AI Creation Platform

Olo is an AI-native platform for creators to make and share multimedia content, built from the ground up as a personal project exploring what a creation tool looks like when AI is the foundation, not a feature.

About the idea

Most creation tools bolt AI on top of existing workflows. Olo starts from a different premise: what if the entire platform were designed around AI from day one? This project was my opportunity to answer that question end-to-end, from concept and strategy through product design and vision.

My Role

I led all aspects of design on this project, defining the product vision, mapping user needs, exploring interaction models, and designing the end-to-end experience. Working independently gave me the freedom to move fast and take creative risks I wouldn't always get in a larger org. Utilizing AI tools in the process, I was able to go from idea to prototype within a few days.

Process

I began by pressure-testing the core concept: who is Olo for, and what does it actually unlock for them? From there I moved into mapping the creation journey, identifying where AI could genuinely reduce friction versus where it would feel gimmicky. The design went through multiple rounds of exploration across layout, navigation, and the core creation flow before landing on the final direction.

Design Strategy

From my years as an artist and designer at YouTube, I learned that collaborative creation produces meaningfully better work. Building on shared, modular components, from AI, other users, or your own past work, makes the process faster and the output richer. Olo is built on that: a system where everything can be reused, remixed, and built upon.

Living Creation Environment

Olo isn't a static canvas, it's alive. Characters come with personalities, backstories, and presence, and everything updates in real time. As the world evolves, so does your creation, a living environment that grows with you rather than freezing the moment you hit save.

Community

Olo makes it easier to tell stories together and leverage every user’s strength as a community. A character becomes someone else's hero. A beat becomes the backbone of a new scene. The more people create, the richer the shared library, a living creative commons that makes every project better.

Edit

Every element in Olo is connected. Update a character and every scene updates with them. Shift the mood of a beat and the whole project feels it. Nothing exists in isolation, the story stays coherent as it evolves, so creators can focus on shaping the world, not managing assets.

Takeaway

Olo was a chance to ask the questions that don't always fit inside a product roadmap. What would a creation platform look like if collaboration was the architecture, not a feature? What if the tool grew richer the more people used it?

Those questions shaped every decision. The work at YouTube taught me how to design for scale. Olo taught me how to design for possibility.