Overview

The Problem: the founders — two practicing therapists — approached me with a challenge: existing therapy platforms felt transactional, overwhelming, and opaque.

Clients: struggled to find support that felt persona

Therapists: burdened with high fees, admin overload, poor usability

My Role in the Solution:

Design a therapy platform from scratch that feels safe, warm, and easy-to-navigate — for both clients and therapists.

The Impact:

Core MVP was delivered in 8 months, then expanded with strategic add-ons (note management, contract builders, dashboards) for a full launch at 15 months, helping secure funding for continued growth.

* Landing page

Team

Design:

• Lead Designer

• UX/UI → Product Designer (Me)

• Short collaboration with Illustrator, UX Researcher, Junior Designer

Product and Marketing:

• Product Manager

• Senior Marketing Manager

• Content Creator

• SEO Specialist

Engineering and Support:

• 5 Developers

• QA Engineer

• Customer Support

Domain Experts:

• 2 Founding Therapists

• Contributing Therapist Community (47 members)

* Therapist search panel

My Role in the Solution

Role: UX/UI → Product Designer.

Early stage focus:

• Translated product decisions into high-fidelity, user-ready designs

• Collaborated closely with the Lead Designer and PM to align on product decisions

• Delivered smooth developer handovers with clear specs & assets

• Supported visual identity development to establish trust and clarity

Later stage growth:

• Conducted user interviews with therapists & clients

• Analyzed clarity metrics and spotted usability leaks

• Iterated flows & visuals to improve trust and reduce friction

• Collaborated closely with Customer Support to identify user pain points

• Partnered with the Marketing team to align product design with positioning and growth goals, and supported the content creation process

This evolution gave me hands-on experience in both executional craft and product-level problem solving, bridging the gap between design delivery and measurable impact.

*Improved navigation, reducing navigation-related confusion and cutting support tickets by ~30%.

Challenge

The key challenge was building trust in a sensitive domain while balancing speed. Therapists wanted a platform that felt personal and intuitive, but the team also needed to deliver an MVP quickly to validate the idea and raise funding.

*Intuitive onboarding flow, resulted in 300+ therapists registered after launch

Approach

Discovery and Research

• Conducted therapist & client interviews to uncover pain points

• Discovered the main audience: non-technical women over 35, requiring simpler navigation and friendlier copy

• Mapped therapy journey: onboarding → discovery → booking → session → payment → follow-up

Design and Iteration

• Refined calendar to allow 15-min slot flexibility (vs. 30-min only)

• Introduced free 15-min intro sessions to build therapist trust

• Designed guest checkout + follow-up assessment after intro sessions

• Improved navigation, added favorites + search to find therapists easily

• Added articles about therapy types to educate clients

• Integrated video calling directly into the platform

• Built on-platform payments for a seamless, secure flow

• Adjusted copy & flows to be friendly for non-tech users

• Created high-fidelity UI with warm, trust-building visuals and clear layouts

Testing and Feedback

• Ran walkthroughs with therapists and clients

• Iterated based on feedback from Customer Support + early testers

• Refined booking and discovery flows to reduce friction

*Video call on the platform

Outcomes

For Clients

• Flexible scheduling → increased completed bookings

• Free intro sessions → lowered barriers and built trust

• Guest checkout → improved conversion for first-time users

• Improved navigation + favorites/search → easier therapist discovery

• Therapy-type articles → reduced confusion, improved confidence in choice

• Integrated video & payments → smoother, end-to-end therapy journey

• Clear copy & simplified flows → more accessible for non-technical users

For Therapists

• Intuitive dashboard → faster scheduling & client management

• Transparent payments → reduced admin stress

• Free intro sessions → easier to connect with new clients

*Refined calendar to support 15-minute slots (vs. 30 min only), making scheduling more flexible for both therapists and clients

Impact

• Speed: Delivered core MVP in 8 months, competitive with industry benchmarks

• Expansion: Launched a full platform in 15 months with advanced features

• Business: Strong traction + product improvements helped secure funding

• Usability: Early testers reported higher clarity and confidence compared to competitors

• Adoption: Iterations to booking and discovery flows directly increased client bookings and lowered drop-off

* Redesigned onboarding flows for both therapists and users to reduce friction and build trust from the first interaction

Reflection

What worked well

• Close co-design with therapists built credibility and alignment

• Warm visual language supported trust and accessibility

• Rapid iteration loops with support & marketing accelerated improvements

Trade-offs

• Expanding scope delayed launch by ~7 months

• Advanced features slowed early validation but created a stickier product

What I’d do differently

• Release MVP earlier for validation, move features like notes/contracts to Phase 2

• Integrate analytics sooner for quantitative tracking

What I learned

• Clear MVP scope is critical in startups

• In health tech, emotional tone matters as much as usability

• Great product design = balancing user needs, business goals, and speed to market

* Design System v1 improved handoffs, minimized dev–design friction and kept delivery on track.

* Design System v1 improved handoffs, minimized dev–design friction and kept delivery on track.