Intimacy
Coaching
Background
Keen has long been known as a platform for psychics to connect with customers, but the investment board wasn’t thrilled about psychics being the backbone of the business. The goal? Expand Keen into new, adjacent verticals—industries that, like psychics, operate in an unregulated space but offer meaningful, personal services. After an extensive research initiative exploring various options, one theme stood out: people wanted coaching—specifically, guidance around relationships and self-connection. Intimacy coaching emerged as the strongest opportunity, bridging the gap between personal growth and relationship support in a way that felt natural to Keen’s audience.
The Research
I took a multi-pronged approach to ensure we weren’t making assumptions about this space.
The research included:
Competitor Analysis: Mapping out the intimacy coaching landscape, understanding what existing platforms offered, and identifying gaps in the market.
Interviews:
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25 people (ages 25-50, all genders, ethnicities, and sexual orientations) who were familiar with intimacy or life coaching but not existing Keen users—giving us fresh perspectives.
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25 Keen customers to gauge their thoughts on this new direction and how it might fit into their experience on the platform.
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5 intimacy coaches with varying qualifications to understand their workflow, pain points, and needs from a platform like Keen.
Key Goal: Develop a model that worked for both coaches and customers, ensuring the platform could serve both effectively.
Early Prototypes
& Testing
I started with mid-fidelity wireframes and immediately put them in front of potential users via interviews and usability testing. We focused on the feel of the site—did it inspire trust? Did it make booking a session easy? What was missing? These early insights helped us refine the look, navigation, and feature set.
Feature Development & Approach
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Several key features emerged from testing:
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Coach Profiles: High-quality photos, bios with coaching certifications, and intro videos to showcase personality and expertise.
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Appointment-Based Booking: Unlike on-demand psychic readings, customers expected to book scheduled sessions.
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Transparent Pricing: Sessions, not minutes—clear costs upfront.
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Video Chat Integration: A core requirement from both customers and coaches.
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Customer Reviews & Testimonials: Trust-building elements that encouraged bookings.
This shift in pricing model and scheduling was a major departure from Keen’s psychic offering, giving us an opportunity to experiment with new revenue structures.
Stakeholder Collaboration
Convincing leadership that Keen needed video chat and session-based pricing wasn’t easy. To keep stakeholders engaged, I organized bi-weekly updates, hands-on workshops, and an internal panel to prioritize features. The biggest challenge? Getting buy-in on the necessity of video chat. The research made the case for us—customer expectations and industry standards made it clear that without video, we wouldn’t be competitive.
High Fidelity
& Brand Alignment
As Keen underwent a rebrand, we ensured our intimacy coaching platform fit seamlessly within the new visual identity. Higher-fidelity designs incorporated updated brand aesthetics while prioritizing usability and conversion.
Reflections
& The Future
Reflections & The Future
Every project teaches me something, but this one drove home a key lesson: great research isn’t just informative—it’s persuasive. Data was the key to getting leadership on board with necessary changes. By backing up every design decision with insights, we were able to push Keen toward a more modern, scalable offering.
Ultimately, this wasn’t just about launching intimacy coaching—it was about evolving Keen itself. The introduction of video chat and appointment-based pricing had ripple effects across the entire platform, proving that expanding into a new vertical can drive innovation beyond its immediate scope.
Design is as much about strategy and sales as it is about aesthetics and experience. And in this case? Research was the ultimate closer.
