Tiny Dinner

From idea to 1,000 strangers at a dinner table.

Upcoming dinner feed, notifications page and "my events" page.

Upcoming dinner feed, notifications page and "my events" page.

Role

Design Engineer

Year

2025 to present

Team

2 founders
1 technical advisor
1 backend engineer
+ me

Deliverables

👉 Full product
Gated onboarding
Referral System
Code prototypes for new features

Bringing people together for a one-time dinner is not so hard, but how do you scale it?

"I keep a growing list of people I'd like to invite to dinner, but I'm not sure how to make it happen."

– Morgan Hirsch, Founder of Tiny Dinner [Previous founder of Public Goods]

Group chats are great for a one time event, but not for a growing network of dinner party attendees.

Group chats are great for a one time event, but not for a growing network of dinner party attendees.

Scaling a community is hard

The problem: invite-only clubs die or lose intimacy when they grow. How do you go from creating group chats to having access to a revolving cast of people at your dinner table?

Guest RSVP/registration form, member invitation and member referral.

Guest RSVP/registration form, member invitation and member referral.

Invitations are a core feature

One core UX insight: without a structured referral flow, growth was hard to track and felt arbitrary rather than intentional. With a tiered system of guests, members and hosts, I designed an invitation system.

MVP product map with core features for hosting dinners.

MVP product map with core features for hosting dinners.

Mapping the full product, not just the feature

In order to start hosting dinners, I designed an MVP that contained the core features we needed to get started: host, attend, refer and invite.

Gated onboarding flow designed to feel earned and playful.

Gated onboarding flow designed to feel earned and playful.

We chose to design for trust and playfulness, not just access

Tiny dinner brings people together, and the most important part of the user experience happens outside of the app.

Notification settings and in-app notification UI.

Notification settings and in-app notification UI.

Spreadsheet mapping notification types, triggers, recipients, and channels.

Spreadsheet mapping notification types, triggers, recipients, and channels.

Notification system overview and decision logic.

Notification system overview and decision logic.

Detour — rethinking notifications

Notifications were particularly challenging because they are key to user journeys. How do hosts know who has RSVP'd?

Shipped product: sign-up, notifications, and profile.

Shipped product: sign-up, notifications, and profile.

Where we landed

Shipped product, 1,000+ sign-ups, 100+ dinners hosted. Iterations continue as we add new features and improve the user experience.

Next case study

MacStadium