Nurtured x U of M Ross Tech + Innovation Jam / 2025
Algorithmic Pod Matching to Maintain Habits
Overview
During an intensive 5-week design jam, our cross-functional team designed, prototyped, and pitched Nurtured Pods: an all-in-one mobile community platform that matches early-career professionals into intimate micro-communities ("pods") to foster authentic habit accountability and psychological safety.
The Problem
While digital tools connect people more than ever, modern connections remain largely transactional. Social media fosters visibility rather than intimacy, while professional networking prioritizes career gain over genuine belonging.
For the 63% of young adults who relocate away from their hometown support networks, navigating early-career life often triggers long periods of isolation.
The Process
Timeline
Over a five-week sprint, we moved from problem identification to a high-fidelity MVP:
Week 1: Problem Statement + Personas
Week 2: Solution Ideation + Customer Discovery
Week 3: Mid-Fi Wireframes, Competitor Analysis, and Pricing Strategy
Week 4: Hi-Fi Wireframes and Brand Integration
Week 5: Final Deliverables
Understanding our users
This problem especially affects early- to mid-career adults, graduate students, and young professionals who have relocated for school or work and are seeking meaningful, balanced lives in new environments. So, we decided to come up with different personas to embody our problem space.
Jade (24) - A young professional craving connection and structure while trying to build healthy habits.
Sam (28) - A graduate student adjusting to a new city who’s surrounded by people but lacks depth in his relationships.
Bri (32) - A wellness leader who builds community for others but struggles to sustain her own network and support.
Malik (30) - A remote worker and former athlete seeking accountability, camaraderie, and personal growth.
Let's take a closer look at Jade, our primary persona
Jade recently moved to New York City for work. Between long days at her nonprofit and trying to rebuild her social circle, she’s craving consistency in her wellness routine and in her friendships. She loves trying new things (Pilates, walking meet-ups, journaling nights), but most community events feel either too formal or too shallow. She wants to find “her people”. People who genuinely want to grow together, not just network or go out.
Jade Winters
Community-Driven
Age: 24
Young Professional
Desires
-> Wellness challenges that feel fun and supportive, not competitive.
-> Intimate, welcoming small groups built around shared interests.
-> To reduce the number of apps she has to download
Pain points
-> Feels disconnected and overwhelmed by big-city loneliness.
-> Tired of social events centered around drinking or work talk.
-> Struggles to stay consistent with self-care habits.
Researching the landscape
This problem especially affects early- to mid-career adults, graduate students, and young professionals who have relocated for school or work and are seeking meaningful, balanced lives in new environments. So, we decided to come up with different personas to embody our problem space.
Jade (24) - A young professional craving connection and structure while trying to build healthy habits.
Sam (28) - A graduate student adjusting to a new city who’s surrounded by people but lacks depth in his relationships.
Bri (32) - A wellness leader who builds community for others but struggles to sustain her own network and support.
Malik (30) - A remote worker and former athlete seeking accountability, camaraderie, and personal growth.
Competitive Analysis
Comparing our app to popular fitness and wellness competitors, we were able to confirm our app's uniqueness in its framing of goals and habits through a growth and wellbeing mindset.
Survey Design
We deployed a short survey to further investigate the behaviors and needs of our target users.
What we uncovered
Challenges After Significant Life Transitions
There is a "loneliness epidemic" exacerbated by the fact that 63% of young adults move away from their hometowns, leaving behind established support networks. This suggests our design should prioritize social intimacy and belonging rather than just transactional goal-tracking.
Multiple Apps for Single Functionalities
Adults recognize gaps in their current routines and show willingness to adopt new tools or methods, if these are easily accessible. Many interviewees note that they have tried adding additional steps in their current routines, though they struggle to keep this consistent.
Lack of Authenticity in Habit Tracking
It is vital that users feel a sense of "psychological safety" within their digital communities to share progress and setbacks. Gamification and leaderboards can be helpful in habit formation, but may deter those who are vulnerable about personal goals relating to wellness.
Design
Working with a startup branding guide, I focused on a warm, inviting, and uplifting aesthetic. I introduced orange into the palette to represent energy and warmth; psychological studies link the color to increased motivation and goal-oriented behaviors. From mid-fidelity wireframes to high-fidelity prototypes, we focused on creating a purposeful and growth-focusing digital wellbeing space for our users.
The Solution
Match users with a warm, community-centered platform to find values-aligned "pods" that nurture real-world wellness and accountability
Algorithmic Pod Matching
Jade recently moved to New York City for work. Between long days at her nonprofit and trying to rebuild her social circle, she’s craving consistency in her wellness routine and in her friendships. She loves trying new things (Pilates, walking meet-ups, journaling nights), but most community events feel either too formal or too shallow. She wants to find “her people”. People who genuinely want to grow together, not just network or go out.
Guided Accountability Styles
To ensure the experience is accessible to everyone, users can choose their preferred support style: High-Support, Guided, or Self-Paced. This personalized approach reduces the "burden" of traditional social apps by allowing users to engage at their own comfort level.
Nurtured Pods & Shared Dashboard
Users can visualize progress as a group through a shared dashboard. By seeing and interacting with the activity of "pod-mates," the app transforms individual habits into a collective journey. Users can chat, edit group goals, and celebrate wins in a familiar, intuitive framework.
An All-in-One System
From chatting with pod-mates, settings goals, planning events, and tracking analytics, Nurtured Pods is intended to be an all-encompassing app to reduce the burden of switching between single-functionality platforms. Users are able to progress, learn, and grow with their pods all within the app, featuring event calendars, personal statistics, and check-ins.
Learnings
Identifying the scope of the problem early is crucial. With such a short timeframe to research, ideate, and design our solution, we dove into feature scoping early in the process. We initially looked at wellness broadly, incorporating aspects of nutrition, health data, and reflections, but found that our ideas were too much for a minimal viable product. After iterating through wireframes and speaking with subject matter experts and business professionals, we narrowed our scope by solving the specific pain point of social isolation in early-career professionals.