Sonar
O V E R V I E W
Empowering students and their families with personalized mental health resources.
Sonar is a digital mental health platform that uses artificial intelligence to identify when Gen Alpha and Gen Z are in distress, personalizing resources for them and their support network of peers, family members, and educators (youth have the power to choose their community members!) to empower them as they navigate their mental health journey.
80% of students who show signs of mental illness don’t receive any support or treatment (CDC, 2023). To address these issues, our algorithm analyzes students’ online and mobile activity (with their consent, of course!) to provide them with an outlet for support/ seek anonymous support, and personalized recommendations.
I spearheaded the product and brand design of Sonar, an early-stage mental health startup with 10+ team members, as the Founding Product Designer from September 2022 - May 2023.
During my time at Sonar, I built our design system from the ground up, executed lo-fi to hi-fi wireframes and prototypes on Figma, and established our design process while collaborating cross-functionally with different departments. I collaborated with a UX Researcher (Cheryl Man), 2 co-founders (Drew Barvir and Gabe Moynihan), and 2 front-end engineers (Uyen Hoang and Taha Zaryab) to create a seamless experience for thousands of Gen Alpha, Gen Z, and their communities between the ages of 13-50 based on 50+ user interviews and testing sessions.
Journey into the Unknown: Expressing the Emotions of Being a Founding Product Designer in Memes
The nervousness…
During my first day, I remember feeling a little anxious about being the first and only product designer on the team. Sonar had started as just an empty Figma file. I felt like…
…But also, the excitement…
I was passionate about Sonar’s mission to make mental health accessible and I was ready to build the direction and the future of the platform. Overall, I was feeling like…
A glimpse into Sonar’s world of product design…
Within 9 months, I shaped Sonar’s user experience in collaboration with my amazing team at Sonar. I learned many lessons from leading design at an early-stage startup, such as creating a flexible brand and design identity for Gen Z, Gen Alpha, Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers as the platform’s priorities evolve in a fast-paced startup environment.
You can find a quick overview of the work I did at Sonar below. ↓
(Please note that this doesn’t encompass all of the work I did at Sonar. Just a little sneak peek into Sonar’s design world. 😉)
Personalizing Sonar’s onboarding experience
View a sneak peek of Sonar’s onboarding flow!
From December 2022 - March 2023, I spearheaded the design of the onboarding experience for Gen Z, Gen Alpha, parents, and school administrators to guide them through Sonar’s platform.
After collaborating with Cheryl to conduct user testing sessions on the first iteration of the onboarding flow, we discovered that users were skeptical about the product since they couldn’t understand how our algorithm worked and were concerned about their data security and privacy.
As a result, I developed a survey-like format to collect demographic information about our users while asking questions to understand their prior knowledge of Sonar to create an onboarding experience personalized to their age group and needs. After many iterations, 90% of our research participants were less skeptical about signing up for Sonar and using the platform.
T A K E A W A Y S
👑 I learned how to wear multiple hats… or as I like to say, multiple crowns… 💅
As a Founding Product Designer, I’ve learned so much! Spearheading product design at a startup gave me the invaluable skill of being flexible and quickly adapting to change. I learned how to make ambiguity my bestie! Sonar gave me the opportunity to learn how to assume multiple roles at once (being a product manager, graphic designer, UX writer, and product design lead).
I’m also super grateful to have had the opportunity to work with such an amazing and talented team. By collaborating with my team, I learned how to balance business needs with user needs and to communicate with multiple engineers regularly to implement my designs.
✨ Projects that will add more sparkle to your day…
Keep in Touch
☕ For work inquiries or to grab a cup of coffee (… or bubble tea), e-mail me at hello@alyssaguo.me.
Thank you so much for reading! 💖