Reach Progress
Grassroots organizing platform for campaigns, organizers and activists.
The Challenge
Reach was born during Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's historic 2018 primary campaign, built to solve a fundamental problem in grassroots organizing: how do you turn thousands of volunteers into an effective voter contact operation without the infrastructure of established political machines?
After AOC's victory, we spun Reach out as a standalone platform to bring these capabilities to progressive campaigns, organizers, and activists nationwide. My role was to design the product that would make sophisticated voter contact accessible to any campaign, regardless of size or technical resources.
My Role
Product Designer & Product Manager · Led design and product strategy for the Reach mobile platform. Responsible for user research, interaction design, visual design, and coordinating with engineering on implementation.
Design Process
Understanding Grassroots Organizing
Effective voter contact requires a delicate balance: campaigns need data (who did you talk to? what did they say?) but volunteers need simplicity (don't make me learn complex software while I'm knocking on doors in the rain).
I spent time in the field with organizers and volunteers across multiple campaigns, observing how they actually worked. The insights were clear:
Context matters: Volunteers are often outdoors, in poor lighting, with spotty cell service Speed matters: Every second spent navigating an app is a second not talking to voters Motivation matters: Volunteers are giving their time for free—the experience should feel rewarding, not frustrating
Designing the Core Experience
Live Search The killer feature of Reach is the ability to search for any voter, anywhere. Meet someone at a coffee shop who mentions they're undecided? Search their name, pull up their record, and capture that conversation. I designed the search experience to be fast, forgiving of typos, and usable with one hand.
Voter Record & Survey Capture The voter detail view needed to balance information density with usability. Volunteers need context (has this person been contacted before? what did they say?) but shouldn't be overwhelmed. I designed a progressive disclosure system that surfaces the most important information first, with survey questions front and center.
Actions Feed Keeping volunteers connected to the broader campaign momentum is crucial for retention. I designed the actions feed to surface the latest campaign news, upcoming events, and calls to action—making the app a hub for engagement, not just a data collection tool.
Gamification & Community
Volunteer retention is one of the biggest challenges in organizing. I designed a leaderboard system that creates friendly competition while celebrating collective achievement. The team chat feature keeps volunteers connected to each other, building the community bonds that sustain movements.
Contact Import Innovation
One of our most innovative features was contact import: volunteers could import their personal contacts and the system would automatically match them against the voter file. This enabled a powerful organizing tactic—reaching out to people you actually know—with seamless data integration.
Outcome
Reach has been used by dozens of progressive campaigns and organizations to power millions of voter contacts. The platform played a role in several high-profile victories, proving that sophisticated organizing technology doesn't have to be reserved for well-funded campaigns.
The project also demonstrated that design can be a form of political action—every UX decision either empowered or hindered organizers in their work to strengthen democracy.
