UMA
Outcome
- 6 wks
- Delivered ahead of schedule 2 weeks early
- 87%
- Task completion Round 3, zero prompting
- 0
- Design questions in sprint 1 Engineering team, post-handoff
- 0
- Layout changes after handoff First time for this client
Problem statement
UMA came to us with a big vision and an unclear product. The founding team understood what they wanted to achieve — help people manage their chronic health conditions — but had no framework for how to structure the experience, prioritise features, or communicate the product to investors or engineers.
The core challenge: turn ambiguity into a shippable product structure without overbuilding before the first user test.
My role and constraints
I joined as Lead Product Designer with full ownership of the UX strategy, information architecture, interaction design, and visual system.
Constraints:
- 8-week runway before a seed fundraise presentation
- Engineering team of two, no dedicated QA
- No existing design assets or component library
Process
Research and discovery
Starting with a two-week research sprint, I conducted structured discovery across three tracks:
The biggest insight: users don't want more tracking — they want fewer decisions. The product had to reduce cognitive load, not add to it.
Ideation
Ran a structured design sprint with the founders to narrow from five product directions to one testable concept: a daily check-in flow that surfaces only the decisions that matter that day.
Key decisions made in this phase:
| Decision | Option A | Option B (chosen) | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core metaphor | Dashboard | Daily brief | Reduced overwhelm in user tests |
| Primary input method | Forms | Voice + tap | Lower friction for daily habit |
| Progress model | Streak counter | Trend line | Less punitive when users miss days |
Prototyping and testing
Built three rounds of prototypes at increasing fidelity. By round three, task completion on the core check-in flow reached 87% with zero prompting.
Round 1: Paper wireframes → concept validation
Round 2: Figma lo-fi → flow and navigation
Round 3: Interactive prototype → usability and delight
Key decisions and trade-offs
Betting on a single daily moment. Rather than a persistent dashboard, I designed around one intentional daily touchpoint. This was a risk — it required strong push notification strategy — but dramatically simplified the IA and the visual hierarchy.
Deferred the analytics layer. The founders wanted rich historical charts in v1. I pushed back: our users were not data analysts. We shipped the trend line only, with a clear hook for the analytics view in v2. This saved approximately three engineering weeks.
Results and impact
- UX system delivered in 6 weeks, two weeks ahead of schedule
- Seed deck featuring the prototype raised the round at the target valuation
- Engineering team began implementation with zero design questions in the first sprint
- Zero layout changes requested after handoff (first time for this client)
Learnings
The most valuable skill was knowing what not to design. Every feature we cut made the product stronger. The constraint of a two-person engineering team was ultimately a creative gift — it forced radical prioritisation.
Next time, I would involve engineering earlier in the ideation phase. Their constraints would have sharpened the decisions faster.
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