Angel · 2025–Present
Pay It Forward
Shipping a Revenue-Generating Product Surface While Leading the Design Function
PM + Senior Product Designer, Pay It Forward · November 2025 – Present
Concurrent with: Lead Product Designer, Angel
Executive Summary
In November 2025, the VP of Theatrical Marketing brought me onto Pay It Forward as PM and Senior Product Designer for the Christmas release of DAVID, our animated musical. I held that role concurrently with my Lead Product Designer role at Angel.
In six months, the bespoke DAVID Pay It Forward page generated $6.5M and helped hundreds of thousands of kids see the film for free. Four shipped experiments across checkout, order confirmation, and the in-theater QR code experience drove double-digit conversion lifts. The design function I lead at Angel kept running in parallel.
This is the case where I shipped at altitude while leading the function. It's also where I learned how much faster a small team can move when AI is in the room and the leader knows when to drive and when to step back.
Business Challenge
Angel had a Christmas theatrical release coming. DAVID, an animated musical. The brief was to drive meaningful Pay It Forward impact during the theatrical window — to help kids see the film for free at scale.
Pay It Forward is how Angel turns ticket buyers into ticket givers. At checkout, in confirmation, on the in-theater QR code at the end of credits — every surface is an opportunity to ask one viewer to buy a ticket for another. The mechanics work. The question is always conversion: how many people, at each surface, decide to pay it forward.
For DAVID, the bar was higher than usual. A Christmas family release, an animated musical, a film that needed to reach kids who might not otherwise see it. The opportunity was real.
The DAVID bespoke page had a few weeks to be ready a month before the theatrical release. The other surfaces shipped as experiments to improve performance through the theatrical run.
Organizational Challenge
I came onto Pay It Forward in November while still running the design function at Angel. The Pay It Forward team was small. One Senior Engineer, the PM of Theatrical, the VP of Theatrical Marketing, and now me wearing two hats.
A new bespoke theatrical experience, four shipped experiments, and a holiday release window — with me as both the PM and the sole product designer on the surface, while also leading the team I'd built.
AI was part of how we worked. Angel had a company-wide push to find where AI could make people more productive, and Pay It Forward was a chance to test that on a real release.
Leadership Role
I owned product direction on Pay It Forward end-to-end. PM and Senior Product Designer at the same time. I partnered with my Senior Engineer as my closest collaborator, with the VP of Theatrical Marketing for direction and buy-in, and with the PM of Theatrical to make sure the scope aligned with theatrical goals and timelines.
The partnerships mattered as much as the design. The VP and the theatrical PM weren't approval gates. They were peers I pulled in early and often, so the work pointed in the right direction before I went deep on any of it. I'd show direction, get their feedback, and immediately go back to carrying the project forward. The rhythm kept us aligned without slowing the build.
And I did all of this while continuing to lead the design function at Angel. Six designers, the team's operating model, the 1:1s. None of that paused.
Strategy
The bespoke DAVID page was the headline build.
I designed the DAVID page in Figma, then took it into Figma Make to build a rich prototype with the animations, interactions, and dynamic data I wanted. That prototype gave my Senior Engineer something concrete to react to — he could see exactly what I was trying to build, including the things Figma couldn't show. Iterative revisions got faster. The path to production got shorter.
Once we had direction, I brought in the VP of Theatrical Marketing for buy-in, then the theatrical PM to make sure scope aligned with theatrical goals and timelines.
The end result was a bespoke, DAVID-themed Pay It Forward page that resonated with users and generated $6.5M in revenue for Pay It Forward, helping hundreds of thousands of kids redeem free tickets to see the film in theaters.
Cross-Functional Alignment
The Pay It Forward work touched three surfaces beyond the bespoke page. Each one was a different experiment with different partners.
Checkout summary. The existing Pay It Forward ask at checkout was offering 8–10 options. Too much cognitive load. I tested a redesign: a clearer message ("help one kid go free"), one primary CTA to add one ticket, and a secondary option for users who wanted to give more. Conversion lifted 30%. That meant 30% more ticket buyers were paying it forward at least one ticket.
Order confirmation. We extended the same model to the order confirmation page. Same result — 30% conversion lift. Two data points, same direction.
In-theater QR code. This is the experience that runs at the end of the credits. Attendees scan a QR code to pay it forward for someone else to see the film. It's a unique surface — dark room, weak cell coverage, concrete building, distracted audience. My Senior Engineer flagged that page performance was the lever. He had a vision for stripping the experience down to a fast-loading, single-action page, using a new performant code base. I became the cheerleader. He led the initiative; I fulfilled the product design needs as he called them out.
Result: double-digit conversion lifts on nearly every metric we measured.
Decision-Making
The QR code beat is where the case study earns its leadership altitude.
My engineer was uniquely qualified to see this problem and address it. The dark room, the weak signal, the page-weight constraints — he understood the technical reality of that surface better than anyone else on the team. My job was to empower and support him to execute his vision. I cleared the path, fulfilled the design needs as he called them out, and let him lead.
That's the pattern I want every designer and engineer I work with to know they have access to. When you've got a stronger thesis than I do, take the lead. I'll come in behind you with whatever you need. The best idea wins, not the title.
Outcomes
In six months, working as PM and Senior Product Designer on Pay It Forward while continuing to lead the design function at Angel:
→ Bespoke DAVID-themed Pay It Forward page generated $6.5M in revenue, helping hundreds of thousands of kids redeem free tickets to see the film in theaters
→ Checkout summary redesign drove a 30% conversion lift on Pay It Forward conversions
→ Order confirmation extension drove a matching 30% conversion lift
→ In-theater QR code experience, led by my Senior Engineer, drove double-digit conversion lifts across nearly every metric
→ The design function at Angel kept running. Six designers shipped across their surfaces. No pause, no degradation.
Lessons Learned
Two things I'll carry forward.
The first is what AI actually changes. It's not that AI replaces designers or engineers. It's that AI makes it possible for anyone to stay in the work at a higher altitude than they otherwise could. I didn't moonlight as an IC. I led the function, and AI helped me move through the IC work fast enough that I could ship a revenue-generating product surface alongside the leadership role. The two reinforced each other. The leadership informed the build. The build kept me sharp on the craft my designers do every day.
The second is when to step back. The QR code experience was a better product because my engineer led it. He saw something I didn't. The job of a design leader isn't to be the smartest person on every surface. It's to recognize when someone else has the stronger thesis and to clear the path for them to run.
I continue to operate Pay It Forward this way. AI compressing the work where it can. Strong partners running the surfaces where they have the better read. The function at Angel continuing to ship in parallel.