“How do we provide online coaches with a stimulating professional community?”
Lantern is a company that provides app-based coaching for anxiety, body image, and emotional wellbeing. Coaching is provided to members via 6-8 week mobile programs and 1:1 coaching.
My role
Conduct research on existing professional communities
Perform user interviews and usability tests
Present insights and recommendations to internal stakeholders
Design user experience and information architecture for site
The problem
Lantern coaches provided therapy remotely from across the country with no medium for peer support and networking.
Traditionally, therapists find professional communities to be an invaluable resource for continuing education, networking, and peer consultation.
Discovery
We attempted to uncover the function and value provided by both professional associations as well as online communities. To do this, I surveyed existing communities and interviewed 4 Lantern coaches. Our research was guided by curiosity around the following questions:
How do we create an online space that reflects the professionalism and sensitivity of the coaches’ professions and client-related conversations?
What causes doubt and what increases confidence for online coaches?
What are the most meaningful ways for therapists to connect in person or online?
Key Findings
Peer Consultation - It was very important for coaches to consult one another as a means for professional development, creating best practices, and feeling supported remotely.
Investment in Lantern - Coaches were very interested in directly contributing to the improvement of the mobile application and content, as it impacted the level of service they were providing to their members.
Privacy Concerns - Considering the context, privacy of the coaches’ and members’ information was a high priority.
Ideation
Brainstorming for platform information architecture.
Based on the user research, I began to compile all possible components of a community platform. We then used the insights from our research to prioritize these components, staying careful to keep our platform simple and minimal but valuable. As an initial round of testing, I led informal card sorting with Lantern employees to refine the information architecture for the platform.
Iteration
To test the initial design of the platform, we observed nearly 15 coaches complete a series of exercises in our platform including messaging another coach, participating in a discussion forum, and accessing training resources.
Based on the findings from usability tests, we modified the following elements of the community platform:
Ease of Navigation - In addition to the community platform, coaches also managed their members through a Coach Portal. To streamline the navigation between the two platforms, we collaborated with the engineering team to build a single sign-on into both platforms.
Personal Connection - It was important for the coaches to connect not only professionally, but personally. We added coach profiles with educational and professional backgrounds, personal interests, location, and fun facts.
Language - Coaches were more likely to respond to language and terms used in in-person professional groups than in online communities and forums.
Solution
The aim of the platform became two-fold: for Lantern coaches to be able to excel as a coach and for Lantern to improve the experience for coaches.
Due to business resource constraints, we decided to use an existing platform software, Igloo, to launch the Coach Community. Along with the digital platform, I developed an engagement manual to assist in the maintenance, management, and growth of the Coach Community.