A smooth clinical onboarding for distressed parents
Case study Context:
Designing a thoughtful onboarding experience for an early-stage parenting mental health app that collects clinical assessment data and supports rapid clinician responses.
Challenge:
Incorporate multiple validated assessments into onboarding without overwhelming parents already distressed about their children’s behavior
UX principles prioritize speed and simplicity, while the experience requires a high volume of questions
Clinicians receive large amounts of incoming data difficult to quickly interpret and act on
MY ROLE:
Worked across product and clinician teams to shape onboarding and support tools, listening closely and translating their needs into something that works for both parents and care providers
Rapidly developed prototypes that were easy to adopt, allowing immediate feedback to reduce workflow friction
What I did:
For parents (end users)
Redesigned onboarding to feel structured, supportive, and easy to move through
Introduced validated assessments in a way that felt approachable rather than overwhelming
Paid close attention to pacing and tone so users felt understood, not stressed
Built in anticipatory guidance to help users know what to expect at each step
For clinicians
Built a simple MVP tool to help interpret and navigate robust onboarding data
Organized information in a way that aligned with how clinicians assess and respond
Reduced the effort required to quickly understand and act on user needs
Across teams
Informed first iteration of product design for clinician dashboard
Translated between product and clinician perspectives in day-to-day decisions
Reflected back concerns and intent to ensure each group felt understood
Helped surface tradeoffs and clarify priorities so work could move forward
Outcomes:
80% onboarding completion rate (70-85 questions depending on assessment branching)
Clinicians were better able to understand and respond to needs of growing users
Greater alignment across teams on how onboarding should balance clarity, speed, and emotional support
Reduced friction between teams, enabling faster iteration
Reflections:
This work reinforced how important it is to prioritize and stay grounded in end goals for fast decisions.
Ultimately, we needed to enable Clay’s clinicians to provide accurate recommendations in under 10 minutes for parents desiring pediatric guidance. To do this, users needed to complete assessments to the end — which meant keeping distressed and frustrated parents engaged and in a state of trust using thoughtfully designed flows and trauma-informed language.
This work made clear that good onboarding, especially for mental health platforms, is more than just content or flow. It’s about the experience across users, clinicians, and teams. Taking the time to understand each perspective made it possible to design something that actually worked for everyone.