PR and media technology · Founder-led platform
Built for two audiences who want opposite things.
Synapse set out to replace mass email pitching with a marketplace where PRs share stories and journalists choose the ones they want. We helped the founder shape the first version in 2020. In 2024 we came back to turn it into a product people use every day.
- SectorPR and media technology
- EngagementUX, specification, prototyping and delivery oversight
- Duration2020 to 2025, across two phases
- Key constraintTwo user groups with competing goals, on a live platform
1.0
The challenge
Every PR wants their story in front of more journalists. Every journalist wants fewer pitches.
A marketplace that serves one side at the other’s expense fails both. If journalists stop logging in, PRs have no one to pitch, and everyone goes back to email.
So the hard questions had to be answered before any screens were designed. What counts as a pitch? Who can see it? How does a journalist say “not now” without saying “never”? Getting those wrong would have produced a platform that looked finished but taught people to leave.
By 2024 the question had changed. The first version had proved the idea, but too many users were logging in, looking around and leaving. Synapse had a new brand and a fixed budget. They also wanted AI in the product in a way both sides would trust.
2.0
What we did
Map both sides first
We mapped the PR and journalist journeys side by side and gave each audience navigation built around its own job. Three decisions shaped the first version:
- Three pitch types let PRs choose between reach and exclusivity.
- Journalists got a graded way to say no (hide for now, mark irrelevant, or flag), so PRs get feedback instead of silence.
- Statuses like “Pitch me” and “On deadline” tell PRs when to approach.
Review the build against the design
Where the build drifted from the design, we produced a 25-page review, screen by screen, with amended wireframes. We restructured the navigation while changing as little of the core platform as possible. That kept the first phase on schedule and saved bigger changes for later.
Turn browsing into work
In the first version, journalists accepted one pitch at a time. We redesigned the workflow so they can accept several and build a story from them, tracked from planning to publication. Pitches they don’t want are “spiked”, the word journalists already use, and can be unspiked later.
Prototype before building
We built a clickable prototype of the whole refreshed portal, so decisions were made by using it rather than discovered during development. That included the AI: recommended pitches sit below the ones sent directly, labelled with why they appear.
Listen past the brief
Synapse asked for a way for journalists to share pitches within their teams. While looking into it, we found a bigger reason some newsrooms underused the platform: many journalists are assigned stories by a news desk rather than choosing them. We specified news desk roles and story allocation, with a visible history of who was assigned what.
What we produced
- Information architecture and wireframes for both audiences
- A 25-page design review with amended wireframes
- A clickable prototype of the refreshed portal, with component guidance for developers
- A story workflow from accepted pitch to published piece
- Specifications for news desk allocation and AI recommendations
- A terms re-acceptance flow that records what each user agreed to, and when
3.0
The outcome
The first version proved the idea. The second made it a daily tool.
Journalists sort pitches using their own terms, accept several at once and write stories from them. PRs can pitch to individuals or the whole marketplace, and they know where they stand.
Because the first phase was properly documented, the refresh started from a clear record of how the platform worked and why, not from guesswork.
Building a new, first-of-its-kind product was a tough challenge. Square Owl took the time to understand our business, think carefully about the desired outcomes and then provided tangible design and user-flow changes, which took us from good to great.
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