Wevolv: Crafting the Future of Contract Negotiations for Athletes with AI
Introduction
Wevolv’s origin: Building a Digital Community to Empower Athletes’ Professional Journeys
Driven by a mission to create a supportive space, Jori Davis’s vision goes beyond the digital world—aiming to foster a holistic platform where athletes can navigate opportunities, connect with industry experts, and elevate their careers. Focusing on innovation, community, and user-centric experiences, Wevolv is redefining how athletes interact with their careers in the digital age.
As former professional basketball athletes with successful careers, Jori Davis and Julie Wojta faced unique challenges, such as navigating contracts and building trusted networks while playing internationally.
Although the founders didn’t have a technical background when the Wevolv team approached us, they already had a community-focused mobile app in the stores to address some of the main pain points athletes encounter off the court. However, they were unsatisfied with the usability and interface elements and wanted a closer partnership to prioritize user-centric decisions for both the product and the business. That’s where Nolte stepped in to elevate their vision by leveraging our digital expertise, adding advanced features, and empowering athletes to confidently manage their careers and navigate the complexities of the sports landscape.
Project Overview
Expertise
Product Management
Strategy & Design
Brand & Positioning
Web Engineering
Mobile Engineering
AI Integration
Platforms
Mobile
Web
API
AI
About
Seed
Sports Tech
The Nolte Way
Time, strategy, and innovation were at the core of Wevolv’s project evolution. With a functional mobile app already in the market, Wevolv and Nolte identified together an opportunity to enhance their existing product with a cutting-edge AI-powered contract analysis tool that would set them apart in the industry. The project kicked off with a month-long Strategy and Plan phase, during which we conducted an in-depth assessment of their existing architecture and identified opportunities for integrating AI technology in a way that aligned with Wevolv’s user experience goals. Once the product vision was established, we transitioned into a two-month launch phase, building the AI Contract Tool from scratch. Despite the complexity and the tight timeline, the project was completed with a high level of quality, resulting in a powerful tool that aligns with Wevolv’s mission and sets a solid foundation for future growth and enhancement.
Our goal was to revolutionize athlete support by creating a digital solution prioritizing user trust and a seamless experience while navigating complex career decisions.
We saw in AI’s transformative power an opportunity to position Wevolv at the forefront of technological evolution, enhancing trust and efficiency in contract analysis. By integrating AI, we streamlined a traditionally manual review process, enabling the Wevolv team to confidently replace time-intensive legal reviews with automated precision—empowering them to focus on delivering more strategic support to their athlete community.
Defining the Road Ahead: Analyzing the Present to Build the Most Valuable Future
Strategy: 1 Month
Our first step was to thoroughly analyze Wevolv’s existing product, gaining a deep understanding of its strengths, areas for improvement, and the team’s vision.
During this Strategy and Planning phase, we conducted comprehensive workshops, market analysis, and user-focused research to uncover Wevolv’s core challenges and opportunities. We meticulously reviewed their existing architecture, product design, and brand strategy, ensuring every decision we made would align with their mission to support athletes’ journeys in a digital space. Additionally, we analyzed the communication approach on their existing landing page and identified ways to enhance it based on industry best practices for brand communication, aiming to establish a stronger connection with their audience. The objective wasn’t just to build a feature but to optimize a product that could scale sustainably while delivering real value to athletes, the Wevolv team, and the business.
01
Research
Week 1 – 2
Documentation Analysis
Strategy Workshops
Market Research
Competitive Analysis
Current Mobile App Assessment
Current Landing Page Assessment
02
Define
Week 3 – 4
Brand Guidelines
Customer Profile
Tech Architecture
Design Direction
AI Implementation Structure
Product Release Strategy
Our main goal during the Strategy and Plan phase is to mitigate risks and ensure that every solution we propose is truly meaningful for the user and impactful for the business. By focusing on viability, desirability, and feasibility, we create solutions that are not only technically achievable but are also designed to resonate deeply with the needs of both the product and its users. This approach enables us to deliver sustainable and effective results, meeting expectations while driving meaningful business outcomes.
Pains and Needs
Lack of Transparency in Contracts
Complex Legal Language
Limited Access to Legal Support
Trust Issues with Agents
Time-Consuming Manual Analysis
Different Concerns Beyond Contract Terms
Solutions
User-Friendly Report Summaries
Personalized Risk Alerts
Direct Access to Legal Support
AI-Powered Contract Analysis
Comprehensive Issue-Tracking and Recommendations
Athlete-Centric Design and Intuitive Navigation
Designing the Future of Athlete Empowerment: Bold, Functional, and Engaging
Our design journey with Wevolv began with an in-depth analysis of their existing mobile app, focusing on identifying areas for enhancement in both UX and UI to align more closely with the athletes’ needs. We gathered extensive past user feedback and raised improvement points, ensuring our design recommendations addressed real pain points.
Additionally, we reviewed Wevolv’s previous design assets and examined the broader sports and contract management landscape, studying competitor and benchmark designs in areas like color palettes, typography, and interface components. This market research provided valuable insights, enabling us to craft a design strategy that would position Wevolv as a unique and authoritative presence in the sports tech industry, balancing familiarity with a fresh, distinctive look.
Our Styleguide
Crafting a new standard in athlete support where design meets empowerment.
Pillars
Clarity, Trust, Precision, Empowerment, Innovation
With Wevolv, our design approach centered on creating a powerful yet intuitive interface that aligns with the current mobile app while elevating the athlete’s digital experience. We focused on consistency across web and mobile, integrating a user-centric layout that would resonate with athletes navigating critical contract decisions.
To achieve this, we implemented a clear visual hierarchy that uses Wevolv’s bold color palette to enhance readability and draw attention to important insights. The color coding in the contract analysis results allows athletes to quickly interpret their contract status, empowering them to make informed decisions with ease. In addition, subtle animations were integrated to guide users through the AI analysis process, creating an engaging and reassuring experience that emphasizes precision and reliability.
Wevolv Tech Architecture
We crafted a robust and scalable tech architecture tailored to elevate the athlete experience.
Our primary focus was integrating modern AI technologies and a mobile-first approach into Wevolv’s existing digital ecosystem, ensuring high performance and an intuitive user experience. This architecture allows seamless scalability for future enhancements while maintaining a cohesive platform.
Harnessing AI for Smarter Contract Analysis
To build Wevolv’s AI-powered Contract Tool, we harnessed the power of Large Language Models (LLMs) to create a reliable, domain-specific solution. This process required extensive sessions with Wevolv’s legal team, who provided critical input on business rules, real-world scenarios, and contract intricacies. We used prompt engineering and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) by leveraging OpenAI’s Assistants and OpenAI’s vector store. New knowledge was introduced through RAG using FIBA regulations and legal frameworks, ensuring the tool had a solid foundation in athlete contract analysis. We ensured the response structure with Function Calling, allowing for precise output formatting. Throughout the process, we iterated on the prompt engineering with various contract types and tested the system, calculating metrics such as accuracy. This iterative approach helped us refine the tool to achieve high reliability for agent-athlete contracts in the basketball domain.
Launch: 7 Weeks
Revolutionizing Contract Management for Athletes
Guided by insights from our Strategy and Plan phase, we aimed to revolutionize athlete contract management by delivering a robust AI-powered solution in a record timeline of 7 weeks. We focused on AI analysis specifically for Athlete x Agent contracts within the basketball domain to get to market quickly and provide immediate value. Other sports and contract types were handled through a manual review flow. This strategic decision was based on prior analysis of existing and potential user data, ensuring we targeted the most relevant use cases for our initial launch.
Personalized Onboarding
New users are guided through a tailored onboarding process that captures essential information like name, sport, and background details. This allows Wevolv to customize the experience right from the start, creating a welcoming and user-focused environment.
Sport and Contract Type Selection
Athletes can specify their sport and the type of contract they need analyzed, enabling a refined and targeted analysis. Currently, only Basketball contracts are AI-powered for immediate feedback, while other sports undergo manual review.
Share Your Concerns
Athletes can select specific areas of concern—such as salary compensation or termination clauses—allowing the AI to prioritize those aspects during the analysis. This ensures a more tailored review process, focusing on what matters most to the user.
Salary Coalition
A dedicated section where athletes can contribute anonymously to the salary database, promoting transparency and helping peers understand market trends. This feature fosters community collaboration and trust.
AI-Powered Contract Analysis with Real-Time Contract Review and Insights
Once a contract is uploaded, the AI leverages fine-tuned models trained with sport-specific regulations and contract samples to deliver insights. The user receives a detailed breakdown of critical contract elements like salary clauses, agent agreements, and potential risks. The system generates insights in real time, highlighting potential issues and suggesting negotiation strategies. This includes agent fees, contract duration, and exclusivity clauses, providing athletes with a clearer understanding of their agreements.
Legal Support Access
If needed, athletes can connect directly with legal professionals through the platform for more personalized guidance, ensuring that users have expert support when required.
Communication System for Legal & Internal Teams
We implemented a robust communication system, allowing athletes to interact with both legal teams and Wevolv’s internal team seamlessly within the platform.
Swift Integration in Existing Mobile App
All features were built as a mobile-first web view and integrated directly into the current iOS Swift codebase, ensuring a smooth user experience within the existing Wevolv mobile app.
By combining Wevolv’s athlete-focused vision with our digital expertise, we set a new standard in how athletes interact with complex contracts, paving the way for innovation in athlete career management.
These features were built with a core mission: to empower athletes to navigate complex career decisions with clarity, trust, and confidence. By leveraging advanced AI and streamlining legal support, we’ve created a product that not only provides actionable insights but also fosters a transparent and supportive environment for athletes.
Expanding the Horizon of AI in Sports
The initial launch of the AI-powered contract tool was just the beginning, validating how impactful AI can be in transforming sports contracts. As Wevolv moves forward, we truly believe the vision should be to scale this potential to encompass other sports, diverse contract types, and broader athlete scenarios. By refining and expanding AI capabilities, Wevolv can shape a new era of athlete empowerment—where AI technology provides clarity, trust, and strategic insights for athletes navigating complex career decisions.
Team & Roles
Nolte Team
Yanna Lopes
Head of Products
Daniel Urruela
Sr. Product Designer
Mauricio Miño
Sr. Product Engineer
Andres Malvestiti
Sr. Product Engineer
Wevolv Team
Jori Davis
Founder & CEO
Julie Wojta
Co-Founder
Bria Clemmons
Chief Strategist & Legal Engineer
Dhruv Kumar
General Counsel
Together we launch!
We are deeply committed to empowering non-tech founders to build successful tech companies and have a strong track record of doing so.
Are you an early-stage non-tech founder with an existing product or looking to launch a new one?
Austin Texas
2021 Guadalupe St #260
Austin, TX 78705
Mexico City
Amsterdam 255 #217
Hipódromo Condesa,
Cuauthémoc, 06100 CDMX
© 2024 Nolte. All Rights Reserved
