Directory: A core feature to keep senior citizens active and social

Role

Product Designer owning the end-to-end design process for a core platform feature.

Why this mattered

The Directory was central to Grouper’s mission to reduce loneliness in older adults by helping them discover interest-based groups that keep them socially and physically active. It also evolved into a key driver of member growth, retention, and B2B2C partnerships.

The Opportunity

Loneliness and social isolation among seniors is a growing public health concern. Grouper, in partnership with UnitedHealthcare and Optum, aimed to address this by connecting older adults to local and virtual groups aligned to their interests.
The Directory became the heart of this mission. It served members, group leaders, associations, and healthcare partners and needed to scale into a foundational ecosystem within a 20-week timeline.

The Challenge

Grouper was rebuilding its platform from scratch while rebranding from Element3 Health, leaving limited design assets, shifting business priorities, and frequent scope changes.
There was no research budget, engineering capacity was tight, and any design pivot had a high impact on development timelines.
The Directory had to support older adults with varying levels of technical comfort and still ship quickly, adapt to evolving requirements, and remain scalable for future needs.

Strategy

  • Ground decisions in real user insight: With no research budget, volunteered with Walk With a Doc to speak directly with seniors about how they discover activities, their tech habits, and what support helps them feel confident joining groups.

  • Define the problem space clearly: Reviewed legacy flows, studied the PRD, and reframed requirements into problem statements and How Might We questions to guide prioritization and brainstorming.

  • Plan for scalability while working fast: Established a style guide and component library with Engineering before design began to limit redundancy, streamline delivery, and set foundations for a future Design System.

  • Stay aligned with evolving constraints: Conducted feasibility checks, daily standups, and strategic meetings with the PM to prioritize features based on changing timelines, dependencies, and business shifts.

  • Adapt to extreme timeline pressure: After a contract required an eight-week turnaround, then six weeks after additional scope cuts, partnered with PM to descale while preserving the core member value of browsing, viewing, and saving groups.

Key Contributions

  • Owned the end-to-end Directory design process across strategy, research, flows, wireframes, high-fidelity designs, prototyping, stakeholder presentations, and QA.

  • Conducted first-party and second-party research, including months of on-the-ground conversations with seniors through Walk With a Doc to replace the absent research budget.

  • Reframed business and PRD requirements into clear problem statements to shape direction and guide decision-making.

  • Designed user flows that prevented dead ends after onboarding, a critical factor for MVP adoption, and clarified which steps belonged inside the product versus email.

  • Partnered with Engineering to build an early style guide, shared library, Storybook components, and discussions around future design tokens to support platform-wide scalability.

  • Led feasibility reviews and alignment meetings to ensure flows and layouts were practical despite shifting upstream dependencies and evolving business requirements.

  • Designed the full set of Directory pages, including landing, group detail, and profile, each built to scale with platform growth, activity expansion, and administrative needs.

  • Iteratively descoped the MVP twice in response to shifting engineering availability and contractual deadlines, preserving the core experience and ensuring an on-time launch.

  • Delivered detailed handoff documentation, established communication patterns with engineering, and supported Design QA to ensure a polished release.

Outcome

  • Membership grew from 3,000 to 40,000 in seven months, supported by the Directory and enrollment improvements.

  • The Directory increased member retention by giving seniors an easy way to stay socially and physically active, a key requirement of Grouper’s partnerships with Optum and UnitedHealthcare.

  • The feature became a sales and partnership tool, supplying data to help engage associations and grow the ecosystem.

  • Provided the foundation for a future Design System and streamlined engineering collaboration through Storybook, shared components, and consistent handoff standards.

What Was Learned

  • Persistent communication is critical: Constantly shifting business priorities required frequent alignment to prevent rework and keep the Directory on track.

  • Scrappy research still delivers impact: Volunteering with seniors provided insights that challenged assumptions, informed usability, and shaped confident design decisions.

  • Design choices ripple through startups: When a product is being rebuilt from scratch, every design decision has a high development cost, making feasibility checks essential.

  • Scope cuts can still lead to success: Strategic pruning preserved the core value of the Directory and allowed the team to deliver a high-impact MVP on an aggressive timeline.

  • Product features can unlock business growth: The Directory not only supported members but also created a data pipeline that strengthened partnerships and sales efforts.

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