Oath Care | Product Designer | 12 Weeks
Beyond Tracking:
A Stress Check-In That Cares
Parenting is hard.
Talking about it should feel normal.
the context.
Oath Care’s app supported parents through expert answers, peer communities, and ParentGPT—an empathetically trained AI.
Stress and burnout were common themes in the feed, with parents naming what was hard but lacked guidance for what to do next.
The check-in feature was designed and launched in 12 weeks by a small team: one designer (me), two engineers, and one PM.
the problem.
The Mental Load of Parenting is Heavy
Parenting in the U.S. is often treated as a solo act. Sleep loss, financial strain, unreliable child care, and relational stress all contribute to an invisible mental load—one that weighs especially heavily on mothers.
On Oath, parents were already naming this burnout across every stage of parenting. But while the app offered expert answers, peer support, and a deeply engaged community, there was no structured way to pause, reflect, and ask for help in the moment.
We saw an opportunity to bridge that gap—connecting emotional awareness to low-friction actions that deepened engagement and made support easier to access when it was needed most.
Most stress tools surface data. We wanted to surface awareness—and turn it into action.
Stress builds gradually, and by the time parents name it, they’re already carrying too much. The check-in needed to meet that moment: intuitive, low-effort, and emotionally attuned.
Our product goal was simple: increase meaningful engagement by guiding users from internal awareness to community connection—gently and without friction.
Designing for Emotional Weight
the approach.
the process.
Mapping the Path to Support
We grounded the work in emotional insight and product opportunity—analyzing community posts and interviewing parents across stages to understand how stress showed up, and where support was missing.
One pattern kept surfacing: parents named stress often, but didn’t always know what to do with it.
We mapped two core flows—low and high stress—and prototyped targeted interventions for each. Copy, tone, and timing were tested and refined to reduce friction and make support feel optional but accessible.
Early iterations helped us stay focused on one goal: turning awareness into action, with as little cognitive load as possible.
Visualizing Support Loops: Early whiteboarding to map stress paths, prototype interventions, and define how AI (ParentGPT) could move users from reflection to action—without adding friction.
the solution.
A Seamless Bridge Between
Reflection & Support
The check-in began with a simple question: What’s your stress level right now?
Based on their stress level, the check-in surfaced either a moment of calm reflection or responsive support.
In high-stress moments, ParentGPT generated an anonymous post based on the parent’s input, ready to share with one tap in the Stress & Mental Health community.
By lowering the lift of asking for help, the check-in turned self-awareness into connection—and gave parents a clear next step when they needed it most.
the impact.
A Quiet Shift Toward Proactive Support
The check-in redefined how support showed up in the app—subtle, adaptive, and shaped by each user’s context.
As the first full integration of ParentGPT, it bridged reflection with responsive action—inviting users to share, connect, and feel seen without added effort.
This shift laid the groundwork for future interventions, like proactive messaging and symptom-aware support, while contributing to a broader increase in meaningful community engagement.