ParentPlaybook
ParentPlaybook is a Parent Empowerment Platform that easily connects you to a village of other parents and professionals so you can find, save, and share the best parenting resources for your family!
Lead Product Designer
Lead Product Designer
October 2020 - July 2022 ~ 3,000 hours
The problem(s)
It is extremely hard to find custom solutions that fit a child's exact needs.
Disagreements between spouse, kids, and others to solve problems in their household.
Disconnection from other parents and professionals that can help. Leaving parents feeling lost and alone.
Not knowing what to do in the moment when a problem arises.
Not being able to easily save and share information with other parents, or feeling like if you do share information that it is oversharing.
Fear of judgment over parenting styles.
Wanting to share knowledge, but not knowing the intention and/or needs of the person on the other side.
the how
Empathy: We believe in listening, holding space, withholding judgement, connecting, and communicating the message, “You’re not alone”.
Compassion: We believe true compassion means not only feeling another's pain, but also being moved to help relieve it.
Connection: We believe in increasing the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued.
Wisdom: We believe if all you needed was knowledge we would all have six packs. Wisdom is applying that knowledge.
Safety: We believe in creating a safe environment for all parents and their children.
Inclusivity: Being intentional of planning the success for all. Especially those that are underserved and underrepresented.
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Focus: We believe in having a relentless focus on solving our user’s needs.
the why
To improve the world by increasing love and strengthening relationships in the family. To empower parents with the knowledge and tools to elevate their thoughts, feelings, and actions so that they create a positive future for the next generation.
the process
In product development followed the double-diamond process and operated in agile sprints.
We conducted frequent design sprints that followed the structure below.
Understanding
the Market
Competitor Analysis - SWOT Profiles
We collected a variety of different platforms/information sources that parents are currently using and put them under the microscope to see what cracks those platforms had that we would be able to create opportunities out of.
Understanding
the audience
At ParentPlaybook, we had an unrelenting focus on users, and conducts hundreds of hours of user interviews over the course of 3 years. I will highlight a group of 27 interviews that happened at the conception of ParentPlaybook and ultimately had a massive impact on the decisions we made.
User Interviews
We began our interviews gathering general info about the mothers lifestyles, family structure, and background. After getting to know the moms on a more personal level we were able to dive into the key questions surrounding internal, external, and philosophical challenges they are experiencing as a parent, and what resources and solutions they have or are currently using to combat those challenges.
Note taking was paramount in ensuring that we gathered as much data as possible throughout the many interviews.
After conducting each interview we utilized an empathy map, where we were able to more clearly extract what the interviewee was saying, thinking, doing, and feeling–followed by their main challenges and goals.
Defining our users
Affinity Mapping
It was important that we consolidate the data from all of the interviews into something more understandable that could give some really clear direction. We used affinity mapping to group similar challenges and goals.
We were able to narrow down buckets of similarities and overarching categories for each of those different buckets.
We ultimately found 7 areas of opportunity summed up with these problem statements:
Problem Statements
Find
As a parent, I want to be able to easily access a variety of credible parenting resources, so that I can be well-informed and intentional in handling difficult situations.
As a parent, I want to find resources and information that aligns with my values, so that I can feel empowered in whatever parenting style I follow.
As a parent, I want to have a feed of parenting content generated for me to explore, so that I don’t have to seek out information and can learn more passively.
Save
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As a parent, I want to be able to go back to resources that I found helpful, so that I can implement solutions correctly.
As a parent with a spouse/partner/co-parent, I want to be able to easily save and share resources and collaborate, so that we can be on the same page and feel like a united front when parenting.
Share
As a parent, I want to have a safe space to share my experiences, so that I can feel less alone without fear of judgment.
As a parent of adult children / a child with a disability / etc, I want to be able to share my experiences and things that worked for me, so that I can help other parents with their challenges.
Social / Connect
As a parent, I want to connect with other parents going through a similar situation, so that I don’t feel alone in my challenges.
As a parent, I want to be a part of a community that is going through similar experiences / like-minded, so that I can feel like I have a village to rely on.
Implementation
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As a parent, I want to be able to take notes on resources and be reminded of them, so that I can intentionally implement them.
Professional Services
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As a parent, I want to be able access content from credible professionals, so that I can learn science-backed methods of parenting.
As a parent, I want to have easier access to communicate with professionals, so that I can get help for my children without paying excessive amounts of money.
User Personas & User Journeys
With really clear information on a variety of different parents, we narrowed down to two user personas that would encapsulate all of our problem statements. While we had a wide range of personas for various use-cases (7 total), these were the ones that really evoked who we perceived to be our target users.
explore & create
The process of creating the ParentPlaybook App was split into 7 major sections which were formed in order to answer the main buckets that were presented in the problem statements. We then went through a formal “design sprint” with each of the sections, which involved a rigorous process of ideating, designing, testing, and iterating over the course of two weeks in order to quickly ship fundamental portions of the app. These 7 major sections were:
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Account Creation
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Finding Inspiration
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Finding a Solution to a Specific Problem
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Saving Content & Reviewing at Relevant Times
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Helping Other Parents with their Challenges
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Being on the Same Page as Your Spouse
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Connecting with Community
I will be highlighting “Reviewing & Saving Content at Relevant Times” as that was the pinnacle functionality of our app, allowing parents to gather resources relevant to their struggles and keeping them in one place so they could reference or share them later.
The Design Sprint:
Saving & Reviewing Content at Relevant Times
User Stories
As a parent, I want to be able to go back to resources that I found helpful, so that I can implement solutions correctly.
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As a parent with a spouse/partner/co-parent, I want to be able to easily save and share resources and collaborate, so that we can be on the same page and feel like a united front when parenting.
The Why's & What's & How's
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Sifting through our user interviews, we culled out the "why" behind parents pain points and then created "what's" that we hypothesized would solve this issue for parents, and then proceeded to define the "how", which clarified at a functionality and feature level how we might solve that problem.
User Journey
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User Flow / Information Architecture​
Low-Fidelity Sketches
High-Fidelity Designs
Interactive Prototype
User Testing
With the above prototype, we went through 2 full rounds of user tests with 5 users each time.
Test Objectives:
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Gather relevant background information on our target users that can help us refine our user personas
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Observe the user’s body language and emotional reactions to the app to determine the value they see in it
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Identify potential pain points and roadblocks as the user navigates the app
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Gathering Test Data
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We took notes using Mural, giving each user their own column. The most important portions of our note taking (seen below) was the mid-section. The green cards meaning they successfully completed the task, yellow meaning we detected they were having to think for a bit or they shared an idea or feature that they would find helpful, and red meaning they actually indicated they were struggling to understand something or they did not successfully complete the task. Outside of the actual usability test, we gathered background info, had a follow up question series after the test, and also had a team member writing down notable quotes or actions the user took down below.
With all of the user tests completed, we organized the data to celebrate what was working, and identify specifically what we could iterate on.
Final Iteration
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After testing, we went back for a final round of iteration & testing to validate our final user flow for saving & reviewing content.
Parent playbook
As I stated before, what I've just shared with you was only a small piece of the massive design process of creating each of the core 7 sections as well as making them come together seamlessly into one experience.​​
The Full Information Architecture
Here is the final information architecture of the app with all sections.
Full App Walkthrough
Style Guide
Learnings
To have had the opportunity to be the lead product designer on a project of this scale was an incredible experience for me. ParentPlaybook's product development team was unmatched in it's process and was unrelenting in their dedication to their users--something that will stick with me for the rest of my career and is (unfortunately) a rare-find.
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My greatest takeaway from this project was seeing the importance of really strict and in-depth UX research and testing processes that give you solidified data and action items to move forward on. Being a product designer should never be guesswork, it should be a combination of beautifully-inspired design and calculated, data-driven decisions.
