The challenge

One-third of California teens experienced serious psychological distress after COVID, and two-thirds of kids with depression weren’t receiving treatment. California DHCS vetted 450+ digital health vendors to build a statewide platform. Kooth — a UK mental health provider entering the US — partnered with IDEO to prove they could do it.

My role

I led the relationship from the first conversation: assembled the team, shaped the clinical product strategy, and navigated a three-organization partnership across IDEO, Kooth, and development studio Blackbird. A 9-week proof of concept became the deciding factor in DHCS’s selection — and led directly to the 40-week full build.

The work

We engaged 150 young Californians as genuine co-designers across 14 research rounds over 7 months. Three product calls defined the platform: a content-first sequencing strategy that prioritized scalable self-serve content over coaching infrastructure; a zero-barrier anonymous registration model (birth date, zip code, email — nothing else); and a Theory of Change grounded in ACT therapy that tied every product decision to clinical evidence and later became a peer-reviewed publication.

The impact

Soluna launched statewide in January 2024. Half of its users are engaging with a mental health service for the first time; 57% come from under-resourced communities. The research methodology contributed to studies published in Frontiers in Psychiatry and JMIR, and the work was the subject of an IDEO.com case study.