Like Family
Like Family is a social care marketplace connecting people with vetted support workers. We wanted to improve the first few weeks for new members, from describing the support they needed through to finding someone and making a booking.
NDIS data and our own booking patterns pointed to parents seeking support for a child with a disability as a group for whom the service was particularly important. I led the research and design to understand what these parents needed and where the existing experience was falling short.
Understanding what families needed
NDIS data and our own booking patterns pointed to parents seeking support for a child with a disability as a group for whom Like Family was particularly important. I interviewed nine parents to understand what had prompted them to look for support, what they were actually looking for, and what made finding the right person difficult.
One of the clearest findings was that “support” could mean quite different things. Some parents needed respite. Others wanted someone who could help their child become more independent: catching public transport, getting out into the community or building confidence with everyday tasks. Several described the person they were looking for less like a traditional support worker and more like a mentor or older sibling.
That gave us a more useful way to think about the early experience. Rather than treating every parent as having the same care need, we could help them describe what they were looking for and find people whose experience and interests matched.
Making it easier to ask for the right help
One of the first barriers was knowing what to post. Rather than asking new members to start with a blank activity, we used the needs from research to provide more useful starting points: finding a mentor for their child, getting help with independence skills, or finding respite support.
I also reworked onboarding to make posting an activity a clearer next step and help new members get to relevant carers sooner.
Matching on fit, not just availability
For parents looking for a mentor or older sibling figure, they wanted to know whether their child might connect with the person, whether they had relevant experience, and whether other families had had a good experience with them.
I redesigned carer profiles to make experience, interests and recommendations easier to judge. I also designed experience based badges using signals such as recommendations, hours worked with particular member groups and previous bookings. Together, these gave parents more information to decide who they felt comfortable contacting.
Making the first message easier
Finding a good fit only helped if people then started a conversation. New members often weren’t, so I simplified messaging and added prompts for the first message. eg. “Hi, I saw your profile and think you’d be a great mentor for my child.”
Impact
After launch, we saw improvements at each stage of the early member journey:
- 43% increase in new members posting an activity within their first week
- 84% increase in new members sending a message within their first week
- 23.3% increase in new members making a booking within their first three weeks