Understanding Desire At Scale

Context

Ticketmaster was my first experience operating at truly massive scale.

Millions of users. Global events.

Moments where demand exceeded supply by orders of magnitude.

The stakes felt different because people weren’t purchasing software.

They were pursuing experiences they deeply cared about.

Concerts.

Games.

Memories.

Identity.

Belonging.

My Role

I led product strategy and execution across ticket discovery, purchase experiences, conversion optimization, and high-demand event systems.

I worked across engineering, design, operations, artist relations, and executive stakeholders to improve both customer experience and business outcomes.

Outcomes

• Led UX and funnel optimization initiatives that increased conversion approximately 5%.
• Contributed to 4% year-over-year growth in completed transactions across experiences serving millions of users.
• Co-developed and patented a triggered queueing system for high-demand events that improved reliability, customer satisfaction, artist retention, and purchase completion rates.
• Helped create scalable discovery systems supporting global event inventory and massive traffic volumes.  

What It Taught Me

Human behavior changes when desire intensifies.

Scarcity amplifies emotion.

Emotion changes decision-making.

The best systems don’t try to eliminate human behavior.

They acknowledge it and design for it.

Many of the insights I later developed around anticipation, longing, desire, nervous systems, and human motivation have surprising roots in what I learned at Ticketmaster.