Headspace Health
Taking an iconic consumer brand into clinical care. A 0-to-1 digital therapeutic for people with chronic conditions.
Headspace had a brand people loved and a clinical product that didn't exist yet. The job: design the app, onboarding, and content system from scratch, ship a clinical-trial-ready MVP in under 5 months, and make it feel like Headspace without losing clinical credibility.
Partnered with the Chief Science Officer, behavioral scientists, and clinical, legal, brand, and copy teams.
One coherent experience
A mountain of ethnographic, market, and clinical research, plus C-suite and board input, had to become one coherent experience. Many live workshops, journey mapping, and service blueprinting to map clinical and coach touchpoints against the user's 12 weeks.
Where we landed: a 12-week coaching program built on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, augmented by Headspace's mindfulness library, with a human Guide at the center.
A multi-week service dress rehearsal with real participants before launch.
A real human in the first minute
Three jobs, fast: explain what this is, introduce the Guide as a person, book the first session. Plain language, one idea per screen.
Personal without being bespoke
Each person's 12 weeks had to feel personal without bespoke content for every person.
Mindful tracking: symptom tracking helps some people and harms others, so we told the story of new habits rather than fixating on symptoms.
A successful clinical trial
Launched an MVP that completed a successful clinical trial. Users reported fewer and less severe symptoms, with high satisfaction.
Also designed the full coaching dashboard and a provider referral strategy with Cedars-Sinai.
A systematic content approach creates creativity rather than limiting it. And brand is a trust signal, not decoration.
