Unblend

Role

Product Marketing Manager

Content Marketing Manager

UI/UX Researcher

Content type

Instructional content

In-app content

Industry

B2C

Mental Health

Duration

2023 - Ongoing

Project Overview

Unblend is a mental health SaaS inspired by Internal Family Systems. We built an MVP based on key problems we identified within Facebook and Reddit groups. We also have a subject matter expert onboard who regularly interacts with clients, and can represent their problems well.

Unblend is a personal project. I’m in a team of 3, including a full-stack developer and an IFS practitioner/therapist who serves as our subject matter expert.

Output and Deliverables

Drafted requirements

The app went through two requirements drafting phases:

First version:

We developed an initial version of the MVP based on our initially drafted scope.

Second version:

UX/UI screens

After realigning the MVP, I wanted to contribute to a more agile development time.

I focused on fleshing out the live mapping page because that was the main feature.

During my research I learned that users were using alternative apps like Miro and Xmind to create their parts maps.

I designed simple interfaces that mimicked the UI of those apps to increase their familiarity with the app and reduce onboarding friction.

The live version of the app is still under development and doesn’t reflect the end-goal UI.

Content strategy & initial content

We are currently working on publishing content for Unblend. I talk more about the content strategy, and why I chose that approach here.

The live version of the site is still under development and doesn’t reflect the end-goal content library.

Key Objectives

Our primary objectives for the project include:

Tasks Performed

Product development and project management

UI & UX

Why didn’t you do user interviews?

Our subject matter expert is a credible source for this because he directly interfaces with our end-users as a therapist/practitioner.

Also:

Content

Challenges

How can we differentiate ourselves from existing products?

Differentiation wasn’t a priority early on. The original requirements and project scope closely mirrored what was already on the market, with differences based on what the subject matter expert wanted.

Contributing factors to the decision

Why I advocated for differentiation

How I defined what made us different

I will talk more about it below.

How do we know which features will be most useful to users, without direct user feedback?

Ideally, we’d have acquired a group of beta testers first to ensure that the features we were developing actually represented real-world problems.

In place of other users, the subject matter expert and myself guided the product development for the following reasons:

He is a mental health practitioner who regularly saw clients within the IFS community. He regularly interfaced with our end-users and had an understanding of their difficulties when it comes to the IFS process, and how an app could supplement their ongoing therapy.

To ensure that other problems were well-represented, I joined very active Facebook and Reddit groups in the niche to:

Our combined experience as both practitioner and client + the latest feedback we were gathering from indirect discussions within the community was sufficient in developing an MVP that was rooted in actual problems.

How do we incentivize users to try our MVP when there are already existing paid options in the market, with active user bases?

Aside from clear product differentiation from competitors, I also worked on addressing friction points in the UX.

The user journey was one of my primary focuses because I wanted to provide clear, easy incentives for trying us out.

What is the UX for the existing options?

What problems could these present for the user?

How can we provide a better UX?

Approach

Our goal has always been to launch an MVP quickly and get validation.

After working through the first version of the app and experiencing the contributing factors mentioned above, we pared down the MVP to a simpler version.

Instead of going horizontal (many features, many uses), we decided to go vertical (one feature, in-depth features supporting that one feature).

I advocated for this approach because:

More importantly:

We were feeling deflated, sinking time into a project with zero users. Being connected directly to the user’s problem, with concrete proof that they existed, helped us move the needle forward.

Product Development Process

Setting the criteria for what problem to solve

I set some criteria to narrow down which problems our product could solve:

1) Which step of the IFS process do users frequently seek a tool for?

Signals interest within the community. If they are actively looking for a tool or a guide on how to solve their problem, it’s a signal that it could be profitable.

2) What feature might competitors have, but is not yet fully developed?

Offers opportunities for differentiation; because our competitors focused mostly on guided meditations and chatbots, we could specialize in something else entirely.

3) What problem offers promising opportunities for content/marketing efforts?

Reveals which topic has many opportunities for content. Do users ask a lot of questions about how to solve the problem? Do they actively look for resources in solving the problem? Is there an existing opportunity to provide resources that would directly speak to their needs?

4) What specific feature could we potentially focus on to establish a distinct advantage in the market?

Provides clear trailheads for positioning. Instead of saying “We do everything” - we can position ourselves as the dedication solution for X problem.

Identifying our defining feature and problem

In looking at online communities and corroborating that information with our subject matter expert’s feedback, I found the following themes:

Which step of the IFS process do users frequently seek a tool for?

What feature might competitors have, but is not yet fully developed?

What problem offers promising opportunities for content/marketing efforts?

End-users typically use very active Facebook and Reddit communities to crowdsource tactical advice and insight from practitioners and clients alike.

This gives them access to “high-level” insight, without having to pay for therapy.

Questions typically revolve around the process of “doing” the therapy:

What specific feature could we potentially focus on to establish a distinct advantage in the market?

The literature encourages the community to map their parts as part of their therapy work.

Throughout my research, I found that there was an active desire for parts mapping, but difficulty in starting the process, or finding a tool that best suits their needs.

I decided to make parts mapping our primary focus after seeing a consistent desire for a parts mapping tool in the community - even with the two existing apps already offering parts mapping.

Understanding the “problem-behind-the-problem” - finding our strategy and positioning

“I have a hard time doing parts mapping” is the surface-level problem.

Understanding the problem-behind-the-problem = positioning. When you speak directly to their beliefs and problems, end-users feel like the solution is 100% for them.

What’s stopping users from doing parts mapping?

Poor UX

Personal issues

Process issues

Content strategy & development process

Positioning & messaging for the landing page

Unblend embraces the complexity of maps - and has features that support that

I provide different visual examples of how flexible Unblend is. I speak to how parts change over time - which is “meta” in the IFS community.

Unblend’s content is developed by a level 3 IFS therapist

I always highlight that our content is developed by a subject matter expert in the community.

Since there has been an influx of GPT/AI-powered chatbots over the last year, the community has become wary of IFS apps wondering if they were developed by real therapists. This reduces suspicion towards us.

Unblend is easy to use and user-friendly for the quickly-overwhelmed

Addresses the apprehension around mapping because it’s difficult. I specifically use the words “generate” and “automatic” to communicate the simplicity of creating a map using our product.

See full low-fi layout here. This does not reflect the final state of the landing page - it is a quick blueprint for our LP messaging.

Content strategy

My strategy is to develop a content library that supports users in actually using the product, through:

Strictly instructional content

Supporting articles

Aside from content that guides them into using the product, I also want to publish content that would address emotional friction points in using the product:

My intention is to group these titles in terms of the user journey and add them as helpful hints in specific areas of the product, or as triggered by specific behavior.

For example, if a user interacts with the Role button for the first time, or hovers over it and doesn’t do anything for 3 minutes, there could be a pop-up on the upper right corner indicating a helpful tip.

Why not go for bigger pillar articles?

Although IFS is a relatively non-competitive niche for SEO, I’m not choosing it as our primary distribution channel because:

What next?

Now that the MVP is live with the barebones UI, my immediate goals are to: