Developing a first-to-market case management platform that re-imagines connection for human services.
Partnered directly with technical leads and frontline users through structured trade-off discussions, ensuring design integrity met operational realities and accelerated path-to-market.
Centered every workflow decision around coordinator and family needs, using direct interviews and heuristic analysis to prioritize clarity, speed, and dignity in high-stakes moments.
Mapped real-world intake patterns across housing, fostering, and volunteer matching to untangle complexity, revealing structural opportunities for intuitive information architecture.
Applied deep knowledge of social services ecosystems to blend proven case management patterns with CareTogether’s unique mission, delivering compliant, scalable solutions.
CareTogether is a platform built on a simple but powerful belief: that everyone deserves to be seen, supported, and connected. They provide nonprofits and government child welfare services with open-source case management tools that help bridge families with the caring communities around them. Driven by a mission to dignify individuals, empower communities, and foster meaningful relationships, CareTogether isn't just software, it's a commitment to making support systems accessible, human, and built to last.
CareTogether sits at the intersection of technology and human compassion: helping frontline coordinators connect children and families in crisis to safe housing, trusted community members, and vetted support networks. But an early stage start-up into a fully commercialized product handling increasingly complex, high-stakes scenarios, the gap between its potential and its usability became clear. The challenge was to transform a powerful but operationally dense system into one that was intuitive and dignified, empowering the coordinators on the front lines while giving vulnerable families a sense of control, respect, and hope when they needed it most.
Empowering the people on the front lines to bring stability, dignity, and hope to families in crisis.
50% of child welfare worker time spent on admin vs direct time with families
CareTogether had outgrown its original start-up infrastructure, and the increasing complexity of real-world intake scenarios, spanning short-term housing, overnight fostering, and community volunteer matching, was creating friction for the coordinators who needed to move quickly and decisively.
12 million children live in unstable housing realities
The families entering the system were already in high-risk, low-resource situations, meaning every inefficiency in the workflow had real human consequences: delayed placements, missed connections, and families left without a safe place to land.
9.6% CAGR – case management software market growth to 2035
To scale and commercialize the product, CareTogether needed a complete reimagining of its brand, usability, and workflow logic to reflect the dignity of the people it was built to serve.
We started by listening, sitting with frontline coordinators to understand not just where the system was failing, but what was at stake when it did. From there, we untangled fragmented workflows, rebuilt the information architecture, and transformed an overwhelmingly complex system into something intuitive, learnable, and built for the speed that crisis demands. Delivering end-to-end workflows enabled a faster product-to-market timeline, and in doing so, removed the barriers standing between families in their most critical moments and the support they needed. Every design decision carried weight because behind every workflow was a child, a family, a life in the balance.
Conducted in-depth interviews with frontline intake coordinators to uncover pain points, workflow gaps, and what was working well, grounding every design decision in real human insight rather than assumption.
Evaluated the existing product against core UX principles to identify usability issues and establish a clear baseline for improvement before a single new screen was designed.
Researched analogous industries and competitive platforms to identify design patterns and innovations that could be adapted to elevate the CareTogether experience.
Restructured the entire product framework and mapped every workflow across all user roles, untangling a fragmented ecosystem and developing flexible, ecosystemic terminology capable of supporting the full spectrum of complex intake scenarios.
Translated coordinator insights into high-fidelity interactive prototypes and scenario-based end-to-end user flows, enabling rapid iteration cycles and validated design decisions across the full spectrum of intake and coordination touchpoints.
A deep brand strategy session aligned core brand archetypes, while simultaneously redefining the entire look and feel of the product, delivering a before-and-after transformation that elevated CareTogether from startup to market-ready platform.
Collaborated directly with the technical lead and business owner in high-level trade-off conversations, balancing architectural integrity, regulatory compliance, and intuitive design to co-build the next generation of the product.
Delivered end-to-end workflows on a startup budget, helping CareTogether commercialize faster and get a vastly improved product into the hands of the coordinators and families who needed it most.
We simplify intricate processes so teams can focus on what matters. By turning complicated tasks into intuitive experiences, we make efficiency effortless, decisions faster, and work more satisfying. Clarity is not just a feature, it is the foundation.
In complex, high-stakes systems, real impact starts with understanding the human experience inside the workflow before a single solution is proposed.
Every friction point in a system serving vulnerable populations carries human consequence, making dignity and clarity not soft values, but strategic imperatives.
When a system is overwhelmingly dense, rebuilding the information architecture at a structural level is what creates lasting usability, everything else follows from there.
Meeting a technically sophisticated client at their level, engaging in real trade-off conversations, builds the trust and alignment needed to move faster and deliver better outcomes.
The redesigned CareTogether platform delivered intuitive workflows that reduced administrative friction, accelerated coordinator decision-making, and restored dignity to a mission-critical system serving vulnerable families. Frontline users reported immediate gains in speed and confidence, while the overhauled brand and architecture positioned CareTogether for scalable commercialization without sacrificing its human-centered core. This transformation turned operational complexity into strategic advantage, proving that clarity at scale creates lasting impact for both people served and organizations delivering care.
