Member Manual

Silk + Sonder is a holistic wellness subscription that integrates different cognitive behavioral therapy techniques to promote self-care within its members. Its flagship product is a monthly journal filled with pages for weekly and daily planning, mood tracking, habit tracking, reflection, and other evidence-based exercises.

Along with its monthly journals, Silk + Sonder also offers various programming and resources to keep you accountable and to enrich your self-care practice.

Overview

II had the incredible opportunity to tackle a critical challenge: improving the onboarding experience for our new members. Our team comprised of our creative director, marketer, copywriter, customer rep, and ops team.

Over the course of 3 months, our team created a Member Manual which housed the most comprehensive narrative of the S+S experience. The booklet welcomes and guides users through the self-care journey through strategically developed content like:How might we inform new users of best practices for e-commerce and for the web?

• the benefits of a journaling practice
• the tools within the S+S ecosystem
• mindset shifts to set up for success
• decision tree to navigate the most common barriers
• journal page breakdowns and templates
• 3-month checklist
• QR code hub for digital platforms

Customer feedback

Initial observations of our churn rate revealed an opportunity to improve customer retention. Our customer team jumped in to collect valuable feedback to inform our understanding of the problem.

• A large percentage of members who discontinued their membership did so within the first few months
• Survey responses indicated that the most common reasons for unsubscribing were:
  • not having enough time to journal
  • lack of clarity on how to use the journal effectively
  • lack of support
• New subscribers were not aware of or could ot clearly understand all the benefits that came with their membership
  

Finding opportunities

We synthesized these key findings into opportunities that we could incorporate in our design intervention.

• How can we prepare new members for the challenging task of forming a new habit? How can we incentivize them to take on this challenge?
• How can we help our members easily and seamlessly navigate the journal?
• How can our community meet members where they are in their wellness journey?
• How can we enable our members to take advantage of our programming?

Our solution

To tackle these challenges, we crafted a New Member Manual to include with the first journal, serving as a reference throughout the members’ journey with Silk + Sonder.

• User-centered content: We tailored the content to address user pain points and questions.
• Information architecture: We strategically restructured the content create a clear and intuitive narrative.
• Progressive Disclosure: We referenced our user journey to sequence offerings at the appropriate time to reduce overwhelm and increase relevance and engagement.

• Visual Hierarchy: Clear headings, subheadings, bullet points, and visuals guided user attention.
• Consistent Branding: We maintained branding elements for a cohesive experience.
• Interactive Elements: QR codes seamlessly bridged print and digital experiences, providing access to online resources.
• Iterative Design: Several iterations were created and tested to ensure usability and clarity.

The Member Manual launched and was included in all first-time members’ boxes starting September 2021, effectively replacing 4+ individual components in the previous unboxing experience.

During this project I learned that user-centric design and a holistic approach can have a profound impact on product success. While my journey with Silk + Sonder concluded shortly after the manual's launch, the valuable lessons learned in this project continue to underscore the importance of empathy, clarity, and personalization in product design.