Joining a start-up to launch a new mobile app for young people?
Thrilling, for sure.
But the opportunity to fuel the mental healthcare accessibility movement in a role where my professional passions for education, mental health, and content would collide?
Historic and life-changing was more like it.
Undaunted by the fact that I was hired at Kooth US as a team of one with the clock ticking relentlessly toward the app’s beta launch, I got to work:
• Conducted an audit of the app’s proof of concept to analyze, organize, and refresh over 1000 screens of existing in-app content
• Defined and applied brand style guide conventions in an app-wide edit to promote consistency, brand voice, and user safety
• Designed and launched a robust user study in collaboration with the User Research team to inform short- and long-term content strategy
• Developed a data-informed content strategy and calendar phased out for pre-beta, beta, full launch, and post-launch
• Replaced all stock art with new custom, branded illustrations
• Increased volume of in-app content from 63 to 201 research- and data-informed pieces over the course of three months
• Collaborated with the Product, Design, and Engineering teams to resolve bugs, launch new app features, improve user experience, and optimize the use of Contentful for content management
• Designed a competitor research study, identified the most viable potential content partners, and inked partnership deals with household-name industry leaders in the digital health space to feature syndicated multimedia content in app
• Authored a (22-page!) contractual summary of content deliverables which I managed from initial payor pitch through final payor approval
• Architected and negotiated a team restructure and budget increase with Finance, HR, and C-Suite leadership, ultimately bolstering my team headcount from three to ten
Oh, and one more thing.
After a months-long debate and countless failed attempts to win our payor’s approval of the app’s name, I suggested we call it Soluna — because the sun (sol) and moon (luna) served as an eloquent metaphor for the app's purpose: to support users in their mental health and wellbeing journeys in times of both light and darkness.
And just like that, Soluna was born.