PRODUCTLens
Generic advice helps nobody. A toddler and a teenager are two different problems. So I split the product three ways: early years, preteens, and teenagers. You land in your child's world, not in a library.
01 · PROPARENT · 2023–2026 · ROLE: HEAD OF PRODUCT · COO
A founder-led parenting mission, turned into a launched product.
- Situation
- Parents needed real advice about everyday problems with their kids. What existed felt too clinical, or came too late to help.
- Clarity
- I turned a child psychologist's vision into a product we could actually launch. A website, an app, and the tools the team runs it with.
- Shipped
- We launched the website and the app. Behind them, the tools the team uses to run content, experts, and activities.
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01 · The mess
ProParent started with a real problem: parents were overwhelmed, but they didn't need therapy, they needed good guidance before small problems became big ones at home.
We proved the demand with a 100-day WhatsApp experiment: around 250 parents, live expert sessions, fast answers. It worked, but WhatsApp and manual coordination could never be the product. The first web app didn't land either. That failure showed us the real shape of the thing: clear parent journeys, age-specific spaces, mobile-first, and back-office tools the team could actually run.
My job was to turn that vision into a real product, and get it launched. It launched.
- 01A WhatsApp group had to become a real product
- 02The first web app sold before it helped, and it failed
- 03Parents needed help before problems escalated
- 04A toddler and a teenager need completely different help
- 05What the experts knew had to work without them in the room
- 06After launch, the team needed tools to run it day to day
02 · The work
Research
We tested the format before rebuilding the product, and the format everyone assumed was necessary turned out not to be.
Assumed
One expert, one parent
The 1:1 consultation everyone treated as necessary.
Tested
One expert, a room
A 1:many workshop over Zoom, with parents from the WhatsApp group.
- It carried, parents left having felt the thing, not having been told about it
- Piloted on the new app with parents and teachers at a leading Mumbai school, partner name protected under NDA
Structure
The rebuild is three surfaces rather than one.
Parents
Mobile app
Where the guidance is used
Experts
Desktop login
Where sessions are run
Both
CMS
Was the paywall. Now the library.
Iterations
The first version led with the sale. That was the mistake, we asked people to trust a product they had not yet felt.
Version one
Sell first
- Content behind a paywall
- Buy before you understand
- It launched, and it did not land
Version two
Taste first
- Content hub, free to explore
- First live session free, paid after
- The taste became the revenue model
Collaboration
Every part of the core experience came out of the same loop, and what I owned inside it changed between the two versions.
In the room
- Founder
- Expert advisors
- Design
- Development
- Tech mentors
- The investors
And the loop it ran in
Brainstorm
Founder + experts
Strategy & UX
Mine
Wireframes → UI
v1 directed · v2 mine
Technical review
Tech mentor, quick pass
↻ Review fed the next round, the loop closed rather than handing off.
- On the first version, I directed the core UX with a design team
- On the rebuild, I directed and designed both the UX and the UI
- As COO, also ran the other verticals: marketing, social and the rest
FIG 01.1
FIG 01.2
03 · The big calls
SYSTEMSLens
After the first web app failed, I stopped thinking of this as one app. Parents needed a website and a phone app. The team needed tools to run it. I designed all of it as one piece of work.
EXECUTIONLens
I was Head of Product and COO, so I had two jobs at once. The founder knew the psychology. I had to work out what six people could actually build, and then keep running after launch. Most of my decisions came down to that.
04 · The build
FIG 01.3100-DAY PROOF · ~250 PARENTS
The whole product
Escalates downward ↓
A parent with a worry
Website
Entry
Mobile app
Entry
Evidence-based content
Free, browsable, no account needed to look
Tools, scoring, interpretation
Turns a worry into something readable
↑ free, the taste · paid below ↓
Live expert chat · 1:many
First session free, paid after
1:1 consultation
Where a case is too complex for a room
All of it runs on
Backend / CMS
Content, experts, activities
Expert tools
Scheduling, sessions, queue
Operations
A team of 5–6 at peak
FIG 01.4
How the product got here
Proved demand~250parents
Support Circle
100-day WhatsApp community, live expert sessions
Did not landv1launched
First web app
Mobile-responsive, content behind a paywall
Launchedv2shipped
The whole product
App, expert desktop, CMS as an open library
The turn
Sell first → taste first. The paywall came down, the first live session went free, and giving the taste away became the revenue model instead of a cost against it.
FIG 01.5
Get started
Your role
A name just for here
Child details
Top concerns
All set
FIG 01.6
- 1 ·Step 4 of 5 stays visible, a parent naming worries needs to see where it ends.
- 2 ·Reassurance above the list, not in a footnote: it defuses the labels first.
- 3 ·A warm outline, not a checkbox, naming this about your child should not feel clinical.
- 4 ·A cap of five. Without it a worried parent ticks everything and the guidance comes back generic.
FIG 01.7
Age-specific support
Early childhood
Routines, behaviour, big feelings
Preteens
School, friendships, screens
Teenagers
Identity, risk, independence
Every age escalates the same way
1:1 consultation
One family, one expert
Live expert chat
One expert, a room of parents
Tools, scoring, interpretation
A worry made readable
Evidence-based content
Free to everyone, always
Escalation is the product, most parents never need the top rung, and the ones who do are already known to it.
FIG 01.8
FIG 01.9
FIG 01.10
Problem → part
- WhatsApp expert supportAge-specific live expert chat and support rooms
- Failed first web appA phone-first product with clearer paths for parents
- Generic parenting adviceEvidence-based knowledge hub and expert-curated content
- Parent uncertaintyGuided tools, scoring, interpretation, and activities
- Complex cases1:1 expert escalation path
- Founder-led visionWebsite, mobile app, and the tools behind them
05 · The facts
★ Ryan Soni
Case 01 · PROPARENT · 2023–2026
250
Support Circle parents
3
Age-specific paths
Launched
Status
- Timeline
- Nov 2023 → Apr 2026
- Role
- Head of Product and COO
- What I did
- Product strategy, UX and UI direction, and getting the whole thing built, launched, and running
- Team
- The founder, who is a child psychologist, an expert and advisor network, and a product team of five or six at peak
- Iteration
- The first web app failed. We rebuilt it as a website, an app, and the tools behind them
- Validation
- A 100-day WhatsApp circle with about 250 parents. Over 200 joined live sessions and asked experts questions
- How support works
- Free reading first, then live expert chat, and a 1:1 consultation when it goes deeper
- Media
- Figma exports for this page. Admin screens rebuilt from memory. No parent screenshots
· Outcome ·
Product launched.
06 · The takeaway
This is what I do when the job is bigger than a screen. We got one attempt wrong, then built something parents, experts, and the team could all actually use.