Evolve is a self-care app focused on mood tracking, guided journaling, and daily self-care routines. While working as a Product Designer, I led a long-term exploration to understand how we could create deeper value for one specific user segment: users who were already in therapy.
Core Project Question
“If many of our users are already in therapy, what role should Evolve play alongside it?”
Introduction
Over time, we noticed an increasing number of users asking whether they could share their reflections with their therapist.
To validate this, we added a simple onboarding question:
- I'm currently in therapy
- I've tried therapy before
- I'm not in therapy
63% of users selected that they were currently in therapy or had previously tried therapy.
We also observed that users in therapy:
- Logged moods more consistently.
- Completed more routines.
- Added medication tracking.
- Showed higher purchase intent when shown a higher premium tier.
These users were highly engaged and already investing in mental health.
Where their real pain points were. Whether Evolve was meaningfully supporting therapy.
We decided to focus on this segment and explore the opportunity further.
Problem discovery, UX research, user journeys, interaction design, therapist dashboard design, usability testing
- Nanika Hira — Researcher
- Sridhar Rajendra — UX Researcher
- Palash — Assistant Product Manager
- Swayam — Frontend Developer
- Rohan — Product Manager
- Nidhi Kumar — Product Designer
- Deeptanshu — Full-stack Developer
- Shiv — Backend Developer
6 Months (Oct 2025 – Mar 2026)
Research
After identifying therapy users as a high-intent segment, we wanted to deeply understand their experience before building anything.
We wanted to understand whether therapy and daily self-care were meaningfully connected or operating separately.
Secondary research
forget what they want to discuss
involves agenda setting
using shared agenda
Participants
To understand both sides of the ecosystem, we conducted:
- 12 interviews with users currently in therapy
- 5 interviews with users who had previously tried therapy
- 6 licensed therapists
Each conversation lasted 45–60 minutes and followed a semi-structured format.
In parallel, we analyzed behavioral data inside the app to compare therapy and non-therapy users.
- How are users currently preparing for therapy sessions?
- What happens between two therapy sessions?
- Where does Evolve already fit in users' self-care routines?
- How can we support therapy session?
- What information do therapists actually need before a session?
What we started noticing
Talking to both therapists and active therapy clients revealed 5 recurring breakdowns:
Users journal regularly, but not intentionally for therapy.
Most reflection happens daily, but it isn't structured around upcoming sessions.
Sessions rely heavily on recall.
Therapists depend on what clients remember. Smaller patterns during the week are easily missed.
Homework lacks structure between sessions.
Exercises are suggested, but there is no simple way to track follow-through week to week.
Important discussion points are often forgotten.
Several users said they spend the first few minutes of therapy remembering what happened during the week.
There is effort from both sides, but no system connecting them.
Daily reflection and weekly sessions exist separately, without a structured bridge.
Problem statement
Even though users tracked moods and reflections daily in the app, therapy sessions still depended heavily on memory. Important emotional moments from the week were often forgotten, which made sessions less productive.
How might we help users organize their
week in a way that supports therapy?
Evolve already supports mood tracking, journaling, routines, and assessments. Users were actively reflecting throughout the week. The problem was not lack of reflection.It was lack of structure for therapy context.
This project was not about building a therapy product.
It was about extending Evolve's existing behavior into something more intentional.
What we are not building
- •Not a therapy replacement
- •Not therapist-client chat
- •Not a clinical diagnosis tool
Opportunity
If Evolve already captures daily emotional signals, can we help user structure those signs in a way that meaningfully supports therapy, without overwhelming therapists or medicalizing the product?
The Therapy-Selfcare Loop
The solution
Our data showed that 70% of users consistently tracked their mood and 42% journaled regularly, meaning reflection was already part of their routine. The real problem wasn't lack of reflection — it was that these signals were scattered across the week and rarely connected to therapy sessions.
Instead of introducing a new behavior, we structured what users were already doing around three moments in therapy:
- Preparing for the session
- Supporting the session with context
- Capturing reflections afterward
This turned everyday self-care into a continuous, simple loop that directly supports therapy.
Prepare for your session
Version 1 (MVP)
To quickly test the idea, we built a first version of the therapy preparation flow. In this version, users had to first add their therapist's name and email before they could start preparing for a session. Once connected, they could record their thoughts using voice, and the system would generate a short summary of key discussion points.
This version used Apple's on-device language model to convert voice reflections into concise therapy notes.
Add therapist info & date
Upcoming session hub
Voice & text prep notes
On-device AI summary
Rate session experience
Key takeaways & learnings
Saved summary view
Schedule next session
What we observed
After launching the first version, we analyzed one week data on how users moved through the flow.
About 28% of users tapped the Therapy card on the track screen. However, only 10% completed the therapist connection step, and just 9% reached the preparation screen. Once there session gets completed then only they can reflect.
Most users dropped off at the point where we asked them to add their therapist's email.
This showed that requiring therapist connection upfront created friction early in the experience.
Version 2 (Reducing Early Friction)
Our goal for the next iteration was simple: allow users to experience the feature first, and connect their therapist later if they choose to.
Optional therapist connection & selective data sharing
Users maintain full autonomy over what data is shared with their therapist. Mood charts, mental health assessments (PHQ-9, GAD-7, ADHD scales), preparation notes, and reflections can be individually toggled.
Value proposition & benefits
Choose what therapist sees
Optional invite screen with skip
Open preparation flow with AI-guided prompts
Users can jump straight into recording or writing discussion topics with smart suggestions based on their weekly mood fluctuations, without any mandatory upfront barriers.
Start prep without barrier
Input thoughts & voice
Smart prompts & suggestions
Saved prep overview
Structured therapist view & homework assignment
Therapists receive a concise pre-session digest 24 hours before the session directly in their web dashboard and email. This completely removes the first 10–15 minutes of recall hesitation during consultations.
Therapist client view: upcoming session date, past takeaways, discussion agenda, mood chart, and clinical test results (GAD-7, PHQ-9).
Assigning self-care homework directly from Evolve's library
Therapists can assign validated CBT exercises, journaling prompts, or breathwork routines with custom frequency and push notifications sent via the Evolve client app.
Recommended homework & CBT exercises
Configure custom journal prompts & timing
Set frequency & push notification times
Client roster management & case invitation modal
Reflect on the session
Post-session reflection closes the loop. Users capture what shifted during conversation, log action items, record assigned homework, and schedule their next check-in.
Select session to reflect
Choose date or past session
Rate how session went
Log key takeaways
Record assigned homework
Reflection saved confirmation
Past session notes card
Long-term session history
Usability testing
Before expanding the feature further, we tested the experience with a small group of users who were already in therapy.
Our goal was to understand whether people found the feature useful and whether the preparation flow felt natural in their weekly routine.
Participants
12 x currently in therapy
4 x licensed therapists
What we wanted to learn
- •Would users feel comfortable preparing for therapy inside an app?
- •Do the preparation summaries help therapists understand the week faster?
- •Do the preparation summaries help therapists understand the week faster?
- •How can we improve the existing MVP?
- ✓Users found the preparation feature helpful before sessions
- ✓The summarized notes made it easier to recall important moments from the week
- ✓Therapists appreciated seeing structured context before the session
Success
366 sessions logs
210 sessions logs
February showed the highest
prepare rate at 62%,
immediately after V2 launched.
Reflect sits at 26% across both
the versions
81 users with 10+ sessions each,
one with 32.
The drop off
- •22% of users did neither prepare nor reflect – they logged a session but didn't engage with either feature
- •Reflect (26%) lags behind Prepare (45%) – people are more motivated to prepare than to reflect afterward
What's next
We are currently working on onboarding new therapists to our dashboard there are currently 25+ private therapist that have been onboarded, the usability testing is still going on.
Work on how we can improve the reflect experience of our users