Lean In Circle Redesigned Experience
Lean In Test Assignment
Completed as part of a final-stage interview assignment for Lean In, this project challenged me to envision a future digital experience for LeanIn.org within a limited two-hour timeframe. I designed a concept for Circle onboarding that rethinks how women discover community, build momentum, and take the first step toward career growth.
Client
Lean In
Date
2026
Role
Experience Designer
Scope
Product Design • UX Strategy • Onboarding Design • Interaction Design • Information Architecture • Brand Exploration • Prototyping • Design Systems
Project Brief
Lean In supports women’s career advancement through community, education, and research, but translating that mission into a digital experience presented an opportunity to better engage and retain new members. For this concept, I designed a reimagined Circle onboarding experience focused on helping women quickly understand the value of joining, feel supported in taking action, and enter community spaces with greater confidence. Within a two-hour design sprint, I developed a lightweight prototype that explored how editorial storytelling, expressive typography, and progressive onboarding could create a more motivating first interaction while modernizing Lean In’s digital identity for 2026.
Problem & Why It Matters
Joining professional communities can feel high commitment and difficult to navigate, especially when value, expectations, and next steps are not immediately clear. Existing onboarding opportunities risk creating friction before users experience the support and momentum that make Circles valuable. For Lean In, improving the first-touch experience became an opportunity to strengthen engagement, increase participation, and create more accessible entry points into leadership development and professional connection.
Research & Design Decisions
I grounded the concept in Lean In’s mission, onboarding best practices, and considerations for future validation through user interviews, usability testing, and accessibility review. The design prioritized three principles: reduce decision fatigue, establish emotional momentum early, and communicate impact through strong content hierarchy. The proposed experience combines layered editorial layouts, progressive disclosure, and bold typographic contrast to create a guided onboarding flow that feels both aspirational and approachable. The system was intentionally designed to scale into future onboarding states, responsive experiences, and adjacent growth surfaces such as networking and career opportunities.
Outcome & Key Learnings
The final prototype demonstrates how onboarding can become more than account creation, it can act as an activation moment that turns curiosity into participation. The project reinforced the value of balancing visual ambition with usability, using research and systems thinking to create experiences that feel inspiring while remaining purposeful, accessible, and scalable.
