Make the Grade
- Services
- Operational Strategy
- User Experience
- Systems Planning
- Digital Product Design
- Data Architecture
- Creative Direction
- Engagement
- Operational Design
- Industry
- Collectibles
- Dates Active
- 2022–2024
In collectibles, rarity, condition and authenticity carry value. Collectible Grading Authority provides an independent standard for those metrics: verifying, grading and casing collectibles so buyers and sellers know what they have or what they’re trying to get.
By 2022, the service and expectations had outgrown the way customers accessed it.
Submissions were confusing, error-prone and largely manual. CGA asked Infernal to bring the process online.
PROCESS BY PRACTICE
Process?
Mapping the submission experience exposed a larger problem.
CGA knew how grading worked. But much of that knowledge lived in practice and veteran staff, not in a shared definition of how submissions moved through the business.
Before the online platform could be designed, the operation had to be defined.
PROCESS BY DESIGN
Good Question
The defined operation became the blueprint.
Customer and internal workflows shaped the UX and platform requirements. CGA's existing grading and collectible data was brought into a modern source of truth.
Infernal recommended First Factory as the specialized development partner, then oversaw implementation as the platform took shape.
INTO PRODUCTION
Open for Business
On May 12, 2023, CGA launched its first end-to-end online submission and payment process.
The initial release covered selected service tiers, with Serial Verification launching alongside it. Paper submissions began phasing out for ordinary customers.
Population Reports and Premium Membership followed.
The system was live. It wasn’t finished.
The Floor Has Notes
Launch put the system under real operating conditions.
In March 2024, Infernal returned to CGA to follow the process through the physical operation. The review exposed where software, legacy systems, paper and physical workflows were still working against each other.
Production showed what needed to change next.
Launch put the system under real operating conditions.
In March 2024, Infernal returned to CGA to follow the process through the physical operation. The review exposed where software, legacy systems, paper and physical workflows were still working against each other.
Production showed what needed to change next.
Under the Hood
The public case study shows what changed and why. The complete case study goes deeper into the workflow architecture, exception handling, implementation decisions, data migration and production findings behind the platform.