A B2C habit-changing app

Less screentime, more pauses

problem

The digital wellness space is growing rapidly, but most screen-time solutions rely solely on software nudges — notifications, usage dashboards, app timers. The client believed the real problem was physical: people need a tangible object that interrupts the reflex of reaching for their phone. The product combined a proprietary hardware device with a companion iOS app, targeting end users seeking more mindful relationships with their devices. When the project began, the client had a branding guide and a product idea — no design system, no documented requirements, no pricing structure, and no handoff process. Discovery had to establish all of this in a compressed timeline before delivery could build anything.

solution

The product problems were clear from early discovery: users struggle to break phone habits using willpower alone, and existing digital tools reinforce the same screen-based behavior they're trying to interrupt. The app needed to feel like a companion to the physical object, not a standalone feature set. Internally, we identified a second layer of problems that threatened delivery quality: PRDs were incomplete, engineering handoffs were causing friction, and there was no structured onboarding for new team members joining the project mid-flight.

During the discovery phase, I led the validation of the product's core premises alongside the team. This included a market analysis of the digital wellness and screen-time management space, competitive benchmarking of existing apps and hardware solutions, and a review of potential monetization models for a phygital B2C product.

I also benchmarked help desk solutions to understand support requirements at scale for a consumer product that involved both a physical device and a software subscription — a combination that raises support complexity significantly.

Alongside this, I conducted stakeholder interviews and mapped the user's emotional journey around phone dependency: the triggers, the guilt loops, the failed attempts at self-regulation, and the motivations that would drive adoption of a physical intervention.

year

2026

timeframe

35 days

tools

Jira, Miro, Figma, Slack, Google Workspace