StepOne Ministry
Step One Ministry is a faith-centered platform that uses AI automation to streamline volunteer onboarding, cutting the process from weeks to days and saving ~10 hrs/week. Through QR-enabled Step Cards, it connects communities to gospel-centered videos and mental health resources, while enabling cross-church collaboration at scale.
My Role & Work
As the sole UX Designer & Researcher, I led the end-to-end design of Step One’s volunteer onboarding system, powered by AI Agents (Application Screening, Document Collection, Scheduling, Training, Role Assignment, and Follow-Up).
Key Contributions
Designed Airtable databases linking volunteers to documents, training, and assignments.
Built AI-driven workflows to automate repetitive tasks (screening, tagging, follow-ups).
Developed QR-enabled StepCards and Webflow landing pages for simple, branded access.
Created a scalable design system ensuring consistency across church communications.
The Challenge
Before: Churches struggled with manual onboarding, but more importantly, they couldn’t scale evangelism and outreach because:
Churches relied on manual onboarding, wasting time and losing volunteers.
Coordinators couldn’t scale AI-free systems to handle multi-role volunteers (design, video, outreach).
Because of this, communities missed timely access to QR Step Cards that could connect them to resources on anxiety, depression, and pastoral support.
The Solution
I designed an AI-powered onboarding system that automated repetitive tasks, freeing coordinators to lead evangelism and mental health outreach projects.
AI Screening & Tagging → quickly placed volunteers in roles (graphic design, video editing, outreach).
AI Scheduling & Follow-Up → ensured projects like poster design or video filming stayed on track.
QR Step Cards → distributed in the community, connecting people instantly to videos on hope, faith, and local pastoral care.
Church Content Design Flow — Empowering Churches to Create and Customize
To equip partner churches with creative control, I designed a guided content-creation flow that lets them produce and personalize the materials displayed in Step One’s mobile experience.
Through this system, churches can:
• Upload and edit videos that align with their ministry’s message and outreach tone.
• Tailor landing pages and gospel presentations with editable titles and descriptions.
• Choose StepCard designs and color themes with built-in QR codes that connect to church-specific pages.
• Preview customized assets before publishing, ensuring brand consistency and message clarity.
This flow was built to make customization intuitive while maintaining Step One’s visual identity. It bridges the creative process between church partners and the Step One platform—transforming static outreach tools into dynamic, branded experiences.
Churches begin by selecting the landing pages they’d like Step One to set up—each one uniquely branded for their ministry. These pages serve different outreach goals, from inviting newcomers to explaining the gospel message, ensuring every video and QR card leads to a meaningful point of connection.
Churches upload their outreach videos directly through a simple, guided interface. Clear video requirements help maintain quality and consistency across every submission, ensuring each message is optimized for mobile viewing and engagement.
After uploading, churches personalize their message by adding a video title and description that reflect their ministry’s voice. They can also opt for AI-assisted copywriting by selecting “Please write this for me,” ensuring every message communicates clearly and consistently.
Once videos are uploaded, churches can preview how each message will appear within the mobile layout. This step helps them tailor tone, visuals, and structure—ensuring every video feels intentional, polished, and ready to connect with their audience.
Churches choose from a library of vibrant StepCard designs—each automatically paired with a unique QR code. These cards serve as physical touchpoints that lead viewers directly to personalized landing pages and videos, blending print and digital outreach into one cohesive experience.
After submitting their materials, churches receive confirmation that they’ve officially joined the Step One Ministry network. This screen outlines the next steps—custom landing page creation, QR card delivery, and optional video or printing support—bringing the full content design process to completion.
Extending Step One’s Mission
The content design flow integrates seamlessly with Step One’s web dashboard and AI onboarding agents, forming a unified ecosystem that connects creativity, automation, and ministry impact. Churches can now create outreach materials tailored to their communities—while Step One’s AI agents handle onboarding, communication, and follow-up. This collaboration empowers both church leaders and volunteers to focus on what truly matters: building connection, not managing logistics.
Research & Analysis
Approach
I conducted interviews, surveys, and audits with church leaders, coordinators, and volunteers, while also benchmarking against non-profit/SaaS onboarding tools.
Key Findings
Coordinators said: “I spend hours chasing documents — I don’t have time to plan outreach.”
Volunteers wanted clarity on how their skills (design, media, outreach) tied into real impact.
Pastors needed affordable, AI-supported tools to scale outreach into mental health and evangelism.
👉 Research showed the need for AI as a force multiplier for the mission.
Impact on Design
Built AI-powered workflows that reduced admin by 10–15 hrs/wk, directly freeing capacity for evangelism projects.
Created linked Airtable dashboards to track volunteer assignments across design, video, and outreach.
Developed QR landing pages as the central tool for delivering evangelism + mental health content.
Observations
Insights
How Might We (HMW) Questions
HMW leverage AI to reduce manual workload so coordinators can focus on evangelism and outreach?
HMW use AI skill-matching to place volunteers into roles (design, video, outreach)?
HMW deliver mental health support through a scalable AI + QR workflow?
User Personas
I created three personas to guide design decisions:
Volunteer → Wants to know their design/video skills are making a real impact.
Coordinator → Needs AI tools to manage admin while leading evangelism efforts.
Pastor/Leader → Wants a scalable AI-powered system to distribute Step Cards and connect people with mental health + faith resources.
Journey Mapping
Mapped the volunteer lifecycle from interest → application → active service to identify bottlenecks:
Volunteer applies → AI screening tags role preference.
AI assigns to project team (poster design, video shoot, outreach).
Coordinator tracks progress in Airtable → AI reminders keep flow moving.
QR Step Cards distributed → Community scans → watches video on anxiety/depression → connects to local pastorThis revealed where automation and clear flows would add the most value.
User Flows
To align with the mission, the volunteer journey was designed around both AI automation and evangelism outcomes:
Application Flow → Volunteer scans a QR → applies online → AI Agent auto-tags by skill (design, video, outreach).
Document Flow → AI Agent requests/upload docs → linked in Airtable → coordinator notified.
Training Flow → Volunteers receive auto-invites to training (e.g., creating evangelism Step Cards, filming pastor videos).
Assignment Flow → AI Agent matches volunteer to specific project (poster design, video editing, outreach) → coordinator approves.
Outreach Flow → Volunteers create assets → Step Cards distributed → community scans QR → watches mental health/evangelism videos → connects to a local pastor.
Follow-Up Flow → AI reminders and feedback loops keep volunteers engaged across multiple projects.
Benchmarking Audit
To understand how Step One Ministry could best serve churches, I reviewed two categories of tools:
Business SaaS platforms (Asana, Monday.com) – widely used for project management and collaboration.
Church platforms and networks (Planning Center, Pillar Network) – built to manage church operations and foster collaboration across congregations.
Competitive Matrix
Building on the benchmark audit, I created a competitive matrix comparing Step One Ministry against both business SaaS tools and church platforms/networks.
Asana / Monday.com → powerful task managers, but too complex and expensive for smaller churches, and lack ministry context.
Planning Center → helps churches manage admin, but stops short of enabling evangelism or volunteer-driven outreach.
Pillar Network → excels at connecting churches relationally, but has no tech infrastructure for onboarding or project execution.
Step One Ministry → uniquely combines AI automation, volunteer onboarding, and ministry-focused outreach (QR Step Cards, mental health resources) in a single system that can scale across churches.
Key Takeaway
Step One sits at the intersection of SaaS efficiency and ministry collaboration, enhanced by AI automation. Unlike competitors, it enables churches to scale evangelism and provide mental health support at the same time, all while remaining accessible and affordable.
Impact At-a-Glance
The platform enabled churches to streamline volunteer onboarding, scale evangelism, and support communities with mental health resources. AI automation cut onboarding from weeks to days, saving coordinators ~10 hrs/week, while QR Step Cards connected people directly to gospel-centered videos and local pastors. The result: a scalable, repeatable AI-driven system for the Pillar Network that blended SaaS-level efficiency with ministry-specific outreach.
Outcomes at a Glance
Time Savings → Reduced onboarding from weeks to days, saving ~10 hrs/week for coordinators.
AI Efficiency → Automated screening, document collection, scheduling, and follow-ups, freeing leaders to focus on ministry.
Scalable Evangelism → QR Step Cards connected communities to pastors and gospel content.
Mental Health Support → Volunteers created videos addressing anxiety, depression, and hope.
Cross-Church Collaboration → Built for adoption across the Pillar Network, bridging SaaS efficiency with relational ministry.
Accessibility → Affordable, volunteer-friendly alternative to Asana/Monday and church platforms like Planning Center.
Takeaway
Step One Ministry proved that AI-driven onboarding can cut processes from weeks to days, saving ~10 hrs/week and enabling scalable evangelism and mental health outreach through QR Step Cards and volunteer media projects. This project taught me to use AI as a tool for human impact, designing for scalability while keeping volunteers, coordinators, and pastors at the center. It reinforced my belief that design can both solve problems and deliver hope.