Family Planning · Strategic Foundation
I built design strategy for a complex, multi-user system from 0 to 1.
It enabled launch and positioned the startup for funding.
I led Strategy and Design with 1 Founder, 5 Engineers, and managed 1 Designer in 4 months.
Context
Gaimplan wants to ease family scheduling via proactive assistance.
And their entire product communication is centered around AI.
‘Gaimplan’ Website
Problem
The company was running out of funding with no product or clear direction yet.
As the engineering-heavy team was stuck with tasks, nobody considered the bigger picture.
Runway
Opportunity
So, I investigated how AI can meaningfully help families, to create product value as a basis for fundraising.
Starting by talking to parents to understand the nuances of family dynamics and who takes what load.
Types of Parents
Other family members
Insight #1
Planning heavily relies on other family members.
Who are scattered and preoccupied with their schedules.
Everyone has different plans during the day depending on how involved they are within the family and their surrounding community.
time
co-parent
co-parent
young child
adult child
Day in the Life of a Family
Insight #2
Though, there are some loose rhythms to family planning.
Families tend to plan the week on Sundays, the weekend on Thursdays and use weekday nights or mornings to review the day ahead.
Planning a Week
Approach
By focusing on these moments, we can bring data and subsequently people together to make timely decisions.
Introducing a dedicated time and space to plan the day, week, and weekend.
Plan
January
Today
S
12
M
13
T
14
W
15
T
16
F
17
S
18
S
19
M
20
T
21
W
22
T
23
F
24
S
25
Yoga
8:30
-
9am
Lexa: Daycare drop-off
7:30
-
8am
Sarah needs help with an event
PTA assembly prep
10:30
-
11:30am
Decline
Accept
Lexa: Daycare pick-up
11:30
-
12pm
Drop-off: James Baseball
3:30
-
4pm
James Baseball
4
-
4:45pm
Pick-up: James Baseball
4:45
-
5:15pm
Groceries
5:30
-
6pm
Dinner at Nana's
6:30
-
7:30pm
Gym
8:30
-
9:30pm
Meal prep
10
-
11pm
Plan
Flow
Connect
Profile
4 conflicts
Get ready for the upcoming week!
You have 2 conflicts and 1 request for the upcoming week
Monday
Sarah needs help with an event
PTA assembly prep
10:30
-
11:30am
Decline
Accept
Tuesday
Friday
Ready
9:41
Sunday Evening Planning
Challenge
However, bringing personal calendars together also means deciding how much information to share with whom.
Core family members should have more access than carpool members, extended relatives or temporary help.
And everyone needs control over what sub-calendars they share.
Core Family
Full Visibility
Limited Visibility
Other Support System
Opportunity
Building on this controlled multi-user system, we can now reduce cognitive load even more by anticipating future conflicts.
After understanding what information people need when to resolve conflict, we can now use these insights to give proactive suggestions to prevent future stressors.
Resolve
Conflict management
Outsource
Errand anticipation
Optimize
Route adjustments
Remember
Event preparation
Reframe
And shift from surviving to thriving.
Beyond just getting through the day, we can use proactive suggestions to make time for hobbies, wellbeing, and quality time.
Select
Socialize
Recharge
Implementation
Since time was ticking, we also had to make sure a basic version that still proved product value gets launched.
This included prioritizing features, scoping follow-up launches, and building a design system to help engineering focus on what mattered.
Design System
Trade Offs
We knew from the beginning that not everything could be built.
The idea was to create a robust foundation and a vision that excites. To buy time until we could implement that vision.
AI Functionality that’s Currently Live
Impact
The launch was successful with a positive response from families.
The AI strategy became the core of their pitch deck, instrumental in extending the runway and expanding thoughtful AI.
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