TransferRoom · 2025
Redefining the Core User Journey at a Scale-up
Redesigning TransferRoom to improve marketplace health
Introduction
TransferRoom is football’s online transfer marketplace, where clubs connect to buy and sell players.
After years of stability, the health of the marketplace was declining. Understanding why, led me to transforming the platform’s core user journey for the first time in 7 years. The risks were high, and my proposal needed the confidence of both the CEO and Head of Product.
Goal
To improve marketplace health by increasing the number of adverts posted, mutual connections made and deals done.
The platform had been built to prioritise the marketplace feedback loop, measuring interactions, rather than value.
Problems
While the Tinder-style player pitching mechanism was initially celebrated for driving engagement in the early years, the process had become overwhelming, inefficient, and misaligned with user needs.
Decision fatigue contributed to 20% of pitches never being read.
- Irrelevant pitches
Buyers received hundreds of irrelevant pitches that didn’t match the original advert due to loose requirement matching. - Decision fatigue
The card stack forced buyers to make a decision on a pitch before being presented the next one, meaning users couldn’t compare the pitches they’d received. - Misleading UX
The “Save” button allowed buyers to skip a pitch. However the platform communicated this to the seller as a positive signal of intent, resulting in premature follow ups, anger and distrust in the platform.
It’s impossible…I create an ad and within 48 hours I received 150 irrelevant pitches.
Process
My approach blended user interviews, thorough data analysis, thoughtful design iterations, and stakeholder collaboration. One of the biggest challenges involved earning support of the company to move away from their familiar card stack model. I crafted and presented a detailed deck, guiding stakeholders through user feedback and showcasing potential solutions to address key pain points. Ultimately, I gained full support from the CEO and Head of Product, clearing the path to implement the new direction.
Solutions
Highlight recommended pitches to sellers
By introducing a match score - “Marc meets 3 of 5 criteria” sellers would have expectations set on whether a deal is likely to progress, without harming their autonomy.
Required and optional advert criteria
By introducing the option for criteria to be “required”, new criteria fields and additional notes to give buyers more control and pre-filtering.
Replace the card stack with a pitch inbox
I designed an email-style Pitch Inbox to replace the “Tinder” card stack, allowing clubs for the first time ever to sort and filter pitches, compare players and reach their aha moment quicker than ever.
Improved feedback loop
The inbox view removed the need to use the save button, which would reduce the amount of feedback for buyers. I introduced a passive “Your pitch was viewed 3 days ago” status, similar to a message being read on Whatsapp, providing sellers with honest and zero-friction feedback, reducing unnecessary follow-ups and aligning expectations.
New design
The new pitch inbox allows clubs to quickly find, sort and filter the most relevant player pitches. This had a knock-on effect, incentivising sellers to pitch higher quality matches.
Results
The project was rolled out to Beta users in the summer of 2025, with a full release in place for the January 2026 window. I received incredible qualitative feedback from tens of clubs, with some saying they’d been waiting for an overhaul like this for years.
Summer 2025 showed improvement in key metrics, and users completed more deals through the platform than ever before.
“One thing I found very useful, when you changed it to a list of players, rather than clicking one by one.”
“[The pitch inbox] is a great feature, it’s so much better.”“
Conclusion
This project revolutionised how buyers receive pitches on TransferRoom, turning a once-cluttered process into a powerful experience.
Users received a solution that made the experience not just more valuable, but also more transparent, honest and successful.
Bonus: The pitch inbox makes it to FM26
In 2025, Sports Interactive unveiled a complete UI redesign for Football Manager 26, including a collaboration with TransferRoom. I had the opportunity to share our design direction, including the new pitch inbox, which was replicated in the game.
