Case Study
Caveday
Caveday is a virtual coworking community promoting deep work; helping people with focus and time management.
Project Overview
As a co-founder of Caveday, I helped create and drive the company. As the ONLY founder with a background in design and product, I’ve captained all our design efforts–from early versions of the website, the branding, and our full membership experience.
During the first year of the pandemic, we were getting a surge in customer complaints about how they book sessions. We were piecing together four different software systems. So in 2022, I led efforts to redesign a customized booking interface and member dashboard.
Caveday facilitates 120+ hours of focused work sessions each week for users in over 50 countries. Part of the challenge was solving time zone issues and global accessibility. Other challenges included the technical issues of integrating separate booking software, membership software, and calendar integrations.
Client
Caveday
Date
2022-2023
My Role
Head of Design
Team
Jeremy Redleaf, Product Owner
Molly Sonsteng, Project Manager
Manish Mittal, Developer
Project Website
Press
BBC
Bloomberg
CNN
FastCo
Forbes
NYTimes
Rolling Stone
Yahoo! Finance
My first step was to interview customers and research their pain points, use cases, and thoughts about the existing system.
We learned that there were 3 basic user types:
The Daily Cavedweller who has integrated Caves and our system into everyday work.
The Project Builder who uses Caves only for certain kinds of tasks or projects.
The Side Hustler who uses Caves to structure off-work time (weekends, etc).
I designed early static prototypes
and tested them with each of our user types.
Some of our hypotheses were proven wrong
including seeing a full month at a time.
We discovered most people book Caves
either once a week as they plan their week,
or the same hour they join.
Using that insight, I began improving the mobile experience,
which didn’t even exist before this.
Then, I tested and re-tested options for the customer dashboard…
…until we landed on a design that worked.
We pride ourselves on being fun and playful.
So I made sure to pepper that in too…
While this shipped officially in Fall 2023,
but as a co-founder, this project is never really done.
The impact this product continues to have
on people’s worklives is the reason we keep pushing.
“I wanted to express my deepest gratitude for building Caveday. You do not know how many times a week and a day you make for me the impossible seem, and then become, possible. My first cave years ago is identical to today, a place of safety, community, and sheer happiness.”
“Thank you for this amazing contribution to society… It's better than adderall.”
“It's simple, maybe even silly, yet it's changing everything for me.”
“Caveday is the best thing that's ever happened to me. This is what I needed. This is what I have been looking for. This is the amount I would normally get done in an ENTIRE WEEK. And it would be painful. I got it all done in 6 hours. This is a miracle. This is what I needed.”