Bridge the Professional Gap through Mentorship.

Early-career women often struggle with workplace anxiety due to a lack of guidance and a safe environment for professional growth.

WeTalk provides a tailored mentorship program, connecting users with experienced mentors to transform social anxiety into career-defining connections.

Prototype Demo

I designed a psychologically-driven platform that empowers early-career women to overcome workplace social anxiety.

“I want to speak up in meetings, but the fear of judgment holds me back.”

Timeline

12 week Group Project

Lead UX Designer

Specializing in Experience Strategy, Visual Design, Branding, and Interaction Design.

My Role

Persona Development, UX Research & Synthesis, Journey Mapping, User Flow Design, Low to High-Fidelity Wireframing, Interactive Prototyping, and Usability Testing.

Deliverables

Background

During my senior year at the University of Waterloo, I collaborated with Sun Life Financial for our Capstone project. The mission was to innovate a digital wellness solution for the next generation of Canadian professionals.

As a cohort of soon-to-be new grads ourselves, my team and I felt a deep, personal resonance with the invisible hurdles of entering the workforce. We identified that Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) acts as a significant "growth ceiling" for early-career women. We decided to bridge Sun Life’s focus on mental health with a targeted intervention for workplace social confidence.

"Social Anxiety Disorder is not merely shyness; it acts as a 'growth ceiling' in professional environments. Research indicates that individuals with SAD are significantly less likely to attain leadership positions and often experience a 10% to 15% decrease in lifetime earnings due to avoided opportunities."

Stein, M. B., & Kean, Y. M. (2000). Disability and quality of life in social phobia: Epidemiologic findings. American Journal of Psychiatry.

01 | Mixed-Methods Research

I used a mixed-methods approach to bridge the gap between what users do and why they do it.

Quantitative

I surveyed over 100 professional women to determine if the "lack of safe space" was a real pain point or just a niche opinion. The data was undeniable: 72% of respondents found mainstream platforms too judgmental for discussing sensitive career setbacks. This quantitative foundation proved we were solving a high-demand problem, not just a personal hypothesis.

Qualitative

Numbers show the "what," but interviews reveal the "why." By conducting deep-dive sessions with 8 participants, I uncovered the 40% Comfort Gap—a specific emotional threshold where women feel significantly more secure sharing vulnerabilities in dedicated environments. These stories gave the data a soul and directly shaped our core safety features in the design stage.

02 | Research Synthesis: Key Data Insights

I categorized the 20 data points from my primary research into four strategic dimensions to inform the design of WeTalk.

Before the research, We assumed users needed more "networking opportunities" to practice social skills. But that’s not the case real world facing.

Our research revealed that over-exposure to open networking actually increased anxiety. Users weren't afraid of "talking"; they were afraid of "social unpredictability" and the "cost of ending a conversation awkwardly."

03| Persona

To bridge the gap between user anxiety and professional growth, we translated our core research insights into a living archetype. This persona serves as our North Star, ensuring every subsequent feature specifically addresses the 'invisible barriers' women face in the workplace.

Why Women?

Secondary research from Harvard Business Review suggests that in mixed-gender professional settings, women are more likely to adopt "defensive communication" to avoid stereotypes. Our goal was to eliminate this invisible cognitive load.

Data indicates that women’s engagement depth in gender-specific spaces is 30%-50% higher than on open platforms like LinkedIn, where "self-censorship" is prevalent due to unsolicited interactions.

In our synthesis of 100+ target users, we observed a 40% higher willingness to share sensitive career setbacks within gender-specific "safe zones."

From Emotional Reflection to Functional Solution

Through Emily's journey, we identified that the core barrier isn't a lack of "social skills," but a lack of professional safety. To bridge this, we defined our design direction: Creating a controlled, high-trust environment where vulnerability is an asset, not a liability.

The Trade-offs

To achieve our mission of creating a high-trust 'psychological sandbox' for Emily, we ideated three distinct solution paths. However, innovation requires focus. To determine which direction would yield the most profound impact, we conducted a second round of deep-dive interviews with our target users to stress-test these concepts through the lens of their real-world trade-offs

Discussion Board

A social forum or group-based platform (similar to a niche Reddit or Slack) where users can post questions, share experiences, and engage in open discussions with peers.

To leverage "crowdsourced" wisdom and provide a sense of belonging through scale.

Learning Portal

A curated library of self-paced courses, "how-to" guides, and social-skill toolkits (similar to LinkedIn Learning) focusing on workplace etiquette and communication.

To empower users through "hard skills" and proven frameworks.

Mentorship Program

A structured 1-on-1 connection system that matches early-career women with "Near-Peer Mentors" (those 2-3 years ahead) for targeted, high-trust guidance.

To create a "Psychological Sandbox" where vulnerability is met with lived experience.

01

During interviews, users expressed that anonymity breeds unpredictability. In an open forum, Emily risks receiving "unsolicited noise" or generic advice, which fails to provide the precision and safety required to resolve her specific, high-stakes workplace anxieties.

"I don't want to explain my situation to 1,000 strangers and wait for likes."

Our research confirmed that Emily is already technically brilliant. Her barrier isn't "not knowing how" to talk; it's the paralyzing fear of execution. Pure knowledge intake acts as a "band-aid" that fails to provide the experiential validation and human encouragement needed to break the cycle of self-doubt.

"I've read the books, but I still freeze when my boss looks at me."

Interviews showed that for Emily, empathy is the only antidote to anxiety. A 1-on-1 mentor provides the "I've been there" validation that a forum or a textbook cannot. It offers specific, actionable guidance that Emily can immediately apply to her next meeting, turning a daunting social challenge into a manageable micro-step.

"I just need one person who has survived this to tell me I'm doing okay."

Through interviews, we ultimately selected the mentorship program as our core function. Surpriseingly, our second round of deep-dive interviews revealed that users’ true needs differed significantly from our initial assumptions. These counter-intuitive insights guided us for the next step and ultimately became our product’s unique competitive edge.

Initial Assumption

Users seek out “top-tier companies” and tend to look for female executives at the peak of their careers to serve as mentors

What We Found

Young professionals are more keen to connect with “near-peer mentors”—those with only 2–3 years more experience than they have.

For Emily, the path to success taken by top-tier professionals felt too distant, which only added to her mental burden. In contrast, her mentor—who had recently emerged from the early stages of their career—still vividly remembered the anxiety of starting out and was able to offer practical advice that resonated deeply and delivered immediate results.

Based on my strategic requirements, I developed this integrated User Flow to illustrate how WeTalk fosters social confidence through a tiered exposure approach. Notice how the Mentorship Program (Core) acts as a consistent 'safety net,' providing human empathy and professional guidance before Emily ever attempts a real-world interaction

High-Fi Prototype

Prototype Link

Emily’s Journey With WeTalk

The journey begins at Emily’s desk after another painful meeting. Her inner critic is screaming: "Stutter," "Mistake," "Mistake." While technicians might see a quiet analyst, this is the reality of the Post-Interaction Rumination Loop (Problem #3). She’s paralyzed by the constant replay of a five-minute conversation, feeling completely overwhelmed by her social anxiety and isolated in her professional environment.
Searching for help, Emily is reluctant to go to HR, fearing it might mark her as "weak." Her primary desire is for help Without Exposure (Problem #4). As she reviews employee benefits, she searches for solutions that can offer her a sense of Identity Safety. She needs a place to learn and grow, but her fear of professional judgment creates a massive barrier to engagement.
This is the moment she discovers WeTalk. The platform's commitment to anonymity—exemplified by an initial non-traditional icon—immediately lowers her "Psychological Friction." For the first time, she feels the platform isn't about formal networking but about personalized growth. She searches for, finds, and downloads the app, her first step into a safe digital sandbox.
Inside the platform, Emily utilizes a Low-Stakes Scripted Icebreaker. Instead of facing the overwhelming dread of starting a conversation with a senior figure, she uses a customizable template to say: "Hello! Are you free tomorrow at 10 AM?" The mentor’s immediate, relatable response—"Hi! Yes I am. See you then."—begins to build trust and lowers the energy drain of casual interaction (Problem #1).
During their first session, Emily opens up about her core struggles with Symmetric lived experience (Problem #4). The mentor, who has previously navigated similar anxiety, provides a direct transfer of soft skills and "Social Navigation" knowledge (Problem #2). By focusing on shared experience rather than professional judgment, this Relatable Mentorship Solution gives Emily her first concrete roadmap to build visibility.
The culmination of her journey is the real-world application of her practice. Having received coached, scripted feedback from her mentor, Emily leads her Q2 RE presentation. While she may not be the loudest person in the room, her presence is visible and her professional potential is recognized. This is the Controlled Exposure she needed to reclaim her professional narrative, moving from silence to a new sense of confidence.