Due: Production Planner for Small Business
Role
Product Designer
Product Manager
Timeline
October 2025
2 days
Team
1 Data Analyst
CONTEXT
For Kapwa Codefest (a Filipino American Heritage Month hackathon), participants were allowed to choose which small business to focus on. My team focused on Toasty Polvo, a small-but-growing dessert brand reimagining polvoron — a rich, crumbly Filipino shortbread traditionally gifted during holidays and milestones.
PROBLEM & CONSTRAINTS
2 people relying on intuition, messy spreadsheets, and last-minute decisions.
This small business needed a simple, easy-to-use system that helped them answer questions like:
How much should they make for an upcoming market or wholesale order?
Are they making the most of our time, labor, and ingredients?
Should they say yes to this opportunity or is it not worth the effort?
Toasty Polvo was scaling, but they wanted to do it intentionally. The last thing they want to do is burn out.
Constraints (aka Real-Life Stuff They're Dealing With)
Only 1–2 people are making the product and staffing in-person events
Everything is handmade (no machines or co-packers… yet)
On a tight budget, so they need solutions that are free or low-cost
SUBMISSION
Front-End: Figma Prototype
I created a lightweight dashboard and visual production planner that aimed to help forecast demand, plan production batches, and evaluate new opportunities.
VISUAL DESIGN
Warm, Simple Branding
As the sole designer, I was responsible for how Toasty Polvo's brand was applied to this visual dashboard. My goal was to create a complementary palette with the logo in mind, so the company's identity was simple and warm.
Logo
Colors
Fonts
Poppins
Work Sans
Component
REFLECTION
My Takeaways
Less organization, more experimentation
In a limited timeframe, just get to wireframing and less time on Miro managing tasks.
Aim for existence, not perfection
Not every design can be developed on a tight deadline and have faith in iteration.
Teamwork makes the dream work
Clear communication at the beginning opens up more time for fun and innovation.
If Given More Time
More components & interactive elements
Button components, slider components, etc. for better workflow and a smoother prototype.
Real data for visualization & forecasting
Better accuracy and can use other tools, like Tableau, for a more user-friendly system.
Link front-end and back-end together
Connecting the dashboard and prototype to a product the user can test.
Thank you!
Shoutout to the Filipino Americans in Tech community for providing an opportunity to show support to Filipino businesses & to my teammate for an adrenaline-filled 2 days of learning to navigate our first hackathon!