yShip (WIP name) - Product and Frontend Coordinator

[rossgalloway]

Scope

This budget request proposes creating a new role: a Product Coordinator/Owner. This role will be responsible for ensuring clear goals, priorities, and effective communication across the various yTeams at Yearn, with an initial focus on the yVault products and their front-ends. The coordinator will collaborate with teams working on Yearn’s backend elements (smart contracts and strategies) and the frontend components (e.g., the Yearn.fi website and its supporting infrastructure).

Key responsibilities include:

• Collecting and managing feature requests and bug reports.
• Coordinating new product launches and feature rollouts.
• Managing project requirements to prevent scope creep and maintain focus.
• Collaborating with stakeholders to document a long-term product roadmap for yVaults and the Yearn.fi frontend.
• Conducting testing and quality assurance on Yearn products and websites.

Given the changes to MOM's budget requests as seen in their latest BR, any front-end project work outside of bug fixes and maintanence will require separate BRs. This moves the relationship between Yearn and MOM much closer to that of a client/agency relationship, which requires management on both sides to be successful.

I will also help coordinate a search for development and design talent to continue working on and improving the front-end, assessing internal and external options.

Plan

Infrastructure/Setup

To enable this role, certain infrastructure will need to be established or adapted. This may involve creating a new GitHub repository or other product management tools, or repurposing an existing system. The chosen infrastructure will facilitate day-to-day management of issues, feature requests, bugs, projects, and long-term strategy.

Unless alternative suggestions are made, the initial implementation will use a GitHub repository and project for these purposes. Setup costs are essentially 0.

Fixes/Low-Hanging Fruit

A priority for this role will be coordinating a comprehensive list of outstanding feature requests and bug reports for the Yearn.fi website. These tasks will be categorized based on their importance. While this effort will be distinct from similar work conducted by MOM, alignment and collaboration with MOM will be essential.

Given the scope changes to MOM's front-end work, defining and agreeing on fixes and other requests will need to be coordinated with MOM and categorized separately if they do not fall under MOM's scope.

Upon approval of this budget request, I will:

1. Work with ySupport to issue a call for bugs, issues, and desired changes from team members, users, and the community.
2. Review and consolidate existing wish lists.
3. Curate a prioritized list of issues for discussion and action.
4. Coordinate with MOM to determine what items fall under their scope and get those items fixed/implemented.

This process will provide an opportunity for broad input, including from community members, to identify and address the most pressing needs.

Strategy

A key objective will be developing a long-term comprehensive strategy for Yearn’s frontends and products. This will involve analyzing competitors and the market to identify Yearn’s strengths and areas for improvement. Given the decentralized nature of the DAO, this strategy will require thorough presentations and discussions to secure buy-in, enabling downstream decisions to align with a shared vision.

Mockups

To complement strategy work and and feature requests/fixes, I will work (independently or alongside MOM) to provide mockups of important changes and flows as needed to get buy in. I have a unique opportunity to use the DevDocs as a test bed for new ideas and UX flows and I hope to craft work around the docs to better support Yearn's needs.

Deadline

05/01/2025 (3 months), although the role is expected to continue until yBudget determines it is no longer needed.

People

@rossgalloway

Money

Coordination with MOM on Bug fixes and "low hanging fruit" improvements:

• 3k USDC in yvUSDC per month

Strategy, Coordination, design around Yearn's front-end and product offerings:

• 3k USDC in yvUSDC per month

Amount (Total)

$6,000 * 3 months = $18,000

Wallet address

0xA7b6f3d18db39F65C8056d0892Af76c07d15Fc5a

Reporting

Monthly

[rossgalloway]

End of Q1 yShip Report

Hey all, the first BR period for yShip is complete and here is the report:

Listed Goals

• Set up infrastructure for Issue tracking

  • This is complete and you can see the yShip repo and project board here: https://github.com/rossgalloway/ySHIP and yShip
  • I'm still working on the flow and will continue iterating as our workflows change with new front-end maintainers.

• Document needed fixes, changes and hit low-hanging fruit.

  • The project board is tracking 69 issues (nice!) and 23 of them have been completed as of 4/28/2025.
  • The board is a consolidation of multiple other feature requests as well as new items that have come up recently. If you have a change that you would like to see, please reach out and I will find the right spot to add it.
  • I did not issue a call for broad community input, although I have been keeping track of things that have been brought up on discord and telegram over the last 6-9 months.
  • Most of the fixes at the beginning of the 3 month period were Bug fixes that had never been addressed.
  • More recently, the changes have been UX improvements
    • Better flow for depositing and staking: Deposit/Withdraw Flow Improvements rossgalloway/ySHIP#56
    • Better visibility into whether your funds are staked or not.
    • Ability to see your actual APR from boost if you have veYFI
    • New Strategy views for vaults that show consistent information between different strategies. Strategy Display Improvements rossgalloway/ySHIP#57
      • Not yet merged, but close: https://yearnfi-q4k8cyh9s.builtby.dad/v3/1/0x182863131F9a4630fF9E27830d945B1413e347E8?tab=strategies.
      • Initial implementation is the strategies tab in PowerGlove: https://yearn-powerglove.vercel.app/vaults/1/0xa258C4606Ca8206D8aA700cE2143D7db854D168c
    • Improve Navigation across the site by making the nav menu when hovering over the logo more consistent across apps. Not yet merged, but close: https://yearnfi-qmtr67re2-yearn.vercel.app/v3 (hover over the logo to see changes)

• Strategy
  I have been thinking hard about strategy for the front-end and product positioning within it.

  • Product Focus and Recommendation Writeup: https://specificarchitectures.notion.site/Product-Strategy-Ideas-192182e5c28580ac9cd0c9d1b36367f3
  • A Report written with Deep Research on Opportunities for Yearn if we hit a bad recession: https://specificarchitectures.notion.site/Yearn-Strategy-Recession-Opportunities-1cd182e5c28580ef8a9debd09614f4f3
  • A report written with Deep Research on Decentralizing crypto front-ends. It seems we are mentioned (unprompted) but the information about Yearn is wrong, so I guess take it all with a grain of salt! https://specificarchitectures.notion.site/Decentralized-Front-Ends-for-DeFi-Protocols-Research-Recommendations-1b5182e5c28580e6b934eea630d2bf89
  • Alongside pure product strategy, I have looked at marketing and brand strategy and evaluated the recent Twitter marketing work and compared it to older work. This includes some speculative work on a branding idea for Yearn called "Yearn Heavy Industries: Building Middle_Machines and the Future of Finance". https://specificarchitectures.notion.site/Yearn-Branding-1c9182e5c285801093f5d34dff9ff19e

• Mockups
  I have provided mockups of multiple different front-end elements in the course of working with MOM on changes. I have also provided other mock-ups that are useful in the context of other more forward looking improvements.

  • Figma: https://www.figma.com/design/CjA0gRa5ize7Po9oJCt7r7/Yearn-Website-mockups?node-id=0-1&t=Hy78LQ5kMb1yscJa-1

  • Nav Modal:
    
    

  • Deposit/Withdraw flow ideas
    

  • Heavily Simplified Vaults Page:
    

  • Landing Page / Apps combo mockup: