AUTUMN · TAKE-HOME

The homepage that sells Autumn; the dashboard that proves it.

THE BRIEF

Owners read email on a phone; they need one answer: what the ads earned and cost.

WHAT I DID

RESULT

2 briefsdelivered in 48 h + 24 h

Hybrid v3after the 02 Sep debrief

Start with the owner’s question

Autumn described its owners as “not tech savvy, mid 50s or 60s.”
Autumn called the dashboard they had “six charts and a bunch of data.”
Only 16% of independent lodging operators run Google Ads. 49% name booking-site commission as their worst pain.
One plain sentence carries the answer, and one reporting-period control drives the summary and the ledger.

The founding engineers liked the headline. They wanted visible charts and campaign-level detail.
I kept the owner-facing sentence and changed how much evidence sits beside it.
Team leads with the charts. Hybrid pairs the booking summary with them.
I split guests who searched the inn by name from guests who had never heard of it.

The prototype runs on 730 days of seeded bookings, not on customer data.
Seed parameters come from Vermont feeder markets, published search benchmarks, and the foliage and ski peaks.
A reconciliation test proves the detailed ledger adds up to the summary sentence.
No hotel has used this dashboard. Every figure on it is sample data.

HYBRID, LIVE — one sentence answers the owner’s question.

DESIGNED IN PAPER

LEARNED: Showing the number that could look worse is what makes the rest believable.
DECIDED: I defended the owner-facing answer and changed how much evidence sat beside it.

HYBRID.TS — Next.js + Postgres; nothing typed by hand.

DESIGNED · BUILT — drag.

SUBMITTED — the answer first.

HYBRID V3 — the debrief wanted charts visible.

COMPONENTS · HYBRID V3 · SAMPLE DATA▶ LIVE · CONTROLS RESPOND, NUMBERS DON’T

DashboardSample data

Nothing needs you right now.Reviewed September 1 · Next check-in October 1

Your Autumn fee$1,80613% of attributed booking value

Your ad-spend cost$0Autumn paid $1,460 for the ads

Example commission comparisonAt an example 17% rate: $2,362. $556 more than your Autumn fee.This is not measured savings.

Your inn’s name17 bookings$8,680

Room-price listings4 bookings$3,396

Bookings made Jun 3–Aug 31, 2026 · Property time · Cancellations excluded

ground #FFFFFFalt #F5F5F5warm #F2F2F0slate tint #ECEFF3slate #6F7E92slate deep #4D5B6Emuted #5F5D57body #4A4945ink #111112

Inter · 32/38 numeral · 20/28 title · 16/24 body · 14/21 captionNo red, no green · labels never under 12px · targets 44px · radius 6 · rule 10% ink

COMPONENTS — no red or green: nobody feels judged.

HOMEPAGE — the cost first: 13%, ad spend covered.

HYBRID AT 390 — the brief's owner reads this on a phone.

TEAM DIRECTION — insights next to visible charts.

“We cannot afford to lose all the charts and all the visibility.”

AUTUMN FOUNDING ENGINEERS · TECHNICAL DEBRIEF · 02 SEP 2026

TAKEAWAYS

Reconciliation is a design tool… you stop writing “up 8%” and start writing “one booking fewer, worth $991 more.”
Put it in front of three owners and have them read the first screen aloud.

IN MOTION — Hybrid v3, natural scale, sample data.

A news feed that shows its work — designed end to end, solo