BookClub is a social reading platform that turns books into a shared experience. I joined as the founding product designer, responsible for the entire design function, from product concept through to launch.
Blank canvas, tight timeline
There was no design system, no research history, no existing product. Just a thesis: that reading is more interesting when it's social, and that the right product could make millions of people read more. My job was to make that thesis real in a product people would actually use.
Designing the 0→1 experience
We started with a series of rapid generative research sessions: understanding how people already shared their reading lives informally (Instagram, Goodreads, book clubs) and what friction points those tools created. The patterns were clear: people wanted to share in context, not as a separate activity.
From research, we moved to a tight definition phase: three core primitives, the book feed, the reading room, and the annotation layer. Every feature decision came back to whether it strengthened one of these three things.
I built and iterated the full design end-to-end: brand, design system, mobile flows, web experience, and marketing site. The product launched to a waiting list of 50,000 readers in the first week.
On founding-stage design
Zero-to-one design teaches you to be ruthless about what matters. With no legacy to protect and no committee to satisfy, every decision is yours, which is exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure. The skill is moving fast without making decisions you'll regret scaling.