Case study

Project Halo (Early-Stage, Waitlist)

An early-stage consumer product focused on making celebrations and social moments easier to plan and participate in - reducing coordination overhead and making the experience feel effortless.

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Project Halo (Early-Stage, Waitlist) screenshot

TL;DR

  • What it is: An early-stage consumer product focused on making celebrations and social moments easier to plan and participate in - reducing coordination overhead and making the experience feel effortless.
  • State: Waitlist
  • Primary moments: Birthdays, Housewarming, Reception
  • My role: Product Lead - owned vision, product strategy, experience design, and the system blueprint from 0→1.

Context

Celebrations matter emotionally, but planning often turns into invisible project management: coordination spreads across multiple chats and tools, responsibilities and decisions get lost, participation becomes inconsistent, and the host ends up doing all the follow-through.

Project Halo exists to remove that hidden friction so people can focus on the moment, not the logistics.

What the product does

Product intent
  • Effortless for the host - fewer steps, less chasing, more clarity
  • Easy participation for others - reduce ambiguity and back-and-forth
  • A connected system - the experience works as one flow, not fragmented tasks

Key decisions

Build a system, not a single utility

Tradeoff: solve one narrow pain vs own the end-to-end moment. Chose to design as a connected experience that reduces coordination across the full journey.

Outcome: Higher confidence for hosts and a smoother experience for participants.
Design for repeat behavior, not one-time usage

Tradeoff: novelty vs habit. Prioritized recurring moments like birthdays and repeatable social occasions as the foundation.

Outcome: Clearer retention story and compounding usage over time.
Two-sided experience by default

Tradeoff: host-only workflow vs shared participation. Treated participants as first-class users in the experience design.

Outcome: Less host workload and better follow-through.

Impact

State
Waitlist
Primary moments
Birthdays, Housewarming, Reception

Technical depth

  • Defined the core domain model for a repeatable "moment" lifecycle (actors, timelines, responsibilities, participation)
  • Designed modular architecture so the product can evolve without rewrites
  • Structured growth loops around natural sharing behaviors (without relying on paid acquisition)

What I learned

  • If planning feels heavy, users drop off - even when the moment matters.
  • Participation improves when clarity is built into the experience.
  • The best consumer products feel like "nothing to manage."

Collaboration

  • Engineering
  • Design + Brand
  • Growth
  • Advisors
  • Early users
See resume →