Overview

KidsFirst is an early-stage startup aiming to support separated or divorced parents in managing co-parenting responsibilities and ensuring consistent care for their children.

I worked as a Product Designer in a cross-functional team to define and deliver an MVP addressing key co-parenting challenges.

MY ROLE

  • Led design of the Document Repository feature (core MVP function)

  • Conducted research synthesis and feature definition

  • Designed end-to-end user flows, wireframes, and prototypes

  • Co-led usability testing and translated findings into iterations

The problem

Co-parenting requires constant coordination — but existing solutions fail to support reliable communication and access to critical information.

Research and user interviews showed:

  • 87% of co-parents struggle with communication

  • Important documents (e.g. medical records, school files) are often hard to access when urgently needed

This leads to:

  • Delays in decision-making

  • Missed responsibilities

  • Increased conflict between parents

Design Approach

Step 1: Define the MVP

Due to time and resource constraints, we prioritised 3 core features:

  • Communication facilitator

  • Shared calendar

  • Document repository (my focus)

And mapped out the User Story

Step 2: Reframing the Problem

Through user interviews and research, one insight stood out:

Co-parents don’t just need storage — they need fast, stress-free access to critical information in time-sensitive situations.

Especially in Medical emergencies, school applications and travel situations.

Existing tools (e.g. chat history, cloud drives) failed because

  • Information is scattered

  • Retrieval is slow

  • No shared structure between parents

So instead of:

“How do co-parents store and share kids-related documents?”

I reframed it to:

“How might we help co-parents instantly locate critical information when they need it most?

Step 3: Key Design Decisions

1. Structured categorisation over search

Due to technical constraints, there will be no search function in the MVP. 

So I decided to introduce predefined document categories (Identity / Legal / Medical / School / Travel) to: 

  • Reduce cognitive load

  • Enable faster retrieval under stress

  • Create shared mental model between parents

2. Tag-based filtering system

Co-parents can filter documents by the name of their kids / document type to quickly narrow down relevant files and organise without complexity.

3. Inspiration from familiar tools

Instead of copying competitors, I analysed tools like cloud storage apps to leverage existing user mental models and reduce learning curve.

Validation & Results

We conducted usability testing with 5 co-parents.

Key outcomes:

✅ 5/5 users successfully uploaded and shared documents

✅ 5/5 users accessed newly shared files easily

✅ 4/5 users located and edited documents without issues

User feedback:

“That’s pretty intuitive — nothing else to click.”
“It’s great that you can upload multiple pages under one document.”

Final product

Document Repository Feature

Easy upload & sharing

Co-parents can upload relavant photos, files from the phone directly or scan multi-page documents on hand. They can also add prebuilt tags to each document.

Fast access to critical files

Documents are sorted by recent activity. Co-parents can locate specific documents by filtering kids or/and tags.

Real-time updates

When the other guardian shares a document, co-parent will receive an in-app notification and will be directed to the document directly.

Success Metrics (Planned)

  1. User registration rate

  2. Daily active users

  3. Feature adoption (document uploads & access frequency)

Reflections

  1. Constraints helped prioritise high-impact features

  2. ligning terminology across team members improved collaboration

  3. Designing for clarity and speed is critical in high-stress scenarios