Product Design InternshipAI · Career Tech · 2025California · Remote
Lighthouse AI Clarity over noise.
Designing an AI-powered coaching product that turns overwhelming information into a personalized path forward.
Role
Product Design Intern
Duration
Feb – Jul 2025
Scope
End-to-end design
Team
Design, PM, Eng
40%
Extension download increase
5
Prototypes shipped
70+
Research participants
100s
Reddit threads analyzed
Background
I joined to help shape an idea that didn't fully exist yet.
It was my final semester when I joined Lighthouse AI as a Product Design Intern. The mission: help people navigate their growth without drowning in information.
I designed from the inside out — as a student myself, I spoke with peers and mapped the problems I faced every day.
“The problem isn't a lack of knowledge — it's a lack of direction.” — Core insight that shaped everything
01
Information without direction
Courses, blogs, videos everywhere — yet progress still felt unclear
02
Effort without visible progress
Users worked hard but couldn't measure momentum
03
No personalized guidance
Generic advice failed to account for individual context
01 — Research
The insight that changed everything came from Reddit.
Surveys and interviews told us what users said they wanted. Reddit told us what they actually felt. That distinction made all the difference.
50
Survey responses
20
User interviews
100s
Reddit threads
👾
Why Reddit was the most important data source
Structured interviews produce polished answers. Reddit is the opposite — raw, unfiltered, and emotionally honest.
We dug through hundreds of threads across r/cscareerquestions, r/ProductManagement, r/careerguidance, and r/ExperiencedDevs. What we found wasn't a lack of resources — it was a crisis of direction.
r/cscareerquestions
“I've watched 40 hours of content this month and I still don't know what to do next.”
r/careerguidance
“Every roadmap I find is for someone else's situation, not mine.”
r/ExperiencedDevs
“I'm doing everything right on paper but nothing is moving.”
The insight that changed the product direction
Users weren't overwhelmed by a lack of information. They were overwhelmed by an excess of it — with no way to filter what was relevant to their specific situation. That shifted everything: from building an information product to building a personalization engine.
02 — Explore Use Cases
Users didn't know what to ask for. So we showed them first.
One pattern kept surfacing in Reddit threads — users would open Lighthouse, see an empty chat, and freeze. Not because the product was unclear, but because they didn't yet have language for their own goal.
Explore Use Cases lived on the dashboard as a direct response. Before committing to a conversation, users could browse real scenarios and see how Lighthouse approaches each one — what context it needs, what output to expect. Not a feature tour. A trust-building mechanism.
Design intent
Show users what Lighthouse can do for someone exactly like them — before typing a single word.
Outcome
Users who browsed first provided richer onboarding context — generating more accurate playbooks. Feature was later removed from the product.
03 — Increasing Extension Downloads
The extension existed. Nobody knew to install it.
The Chrome extension was already built and working. The problem was discoverability — users got value from the web app but never connected the dots that the extension made it significantly more powerful.
I audited the entire onboarding and product flow, identified highest-intent moments, and placed strategically timed nudges there — not on a buried settings page, but exactly when users could feel the friction the extension solves.
“A nudge at the right moment is a feature. A nudge at the wrong moment is noise.”
Result
40% increase in extension downloads. The extension didn't change — the timing and placement of the ask did.
After completing a playbook
High intent
“In-app banner: 'Your extension can track your progress automatically'”
Highest moment of intent — user just saw the value of structure.
Onboarding — final step
Activation
“Prompt: 'Add the extension to make this automatic'”
User is already in setup mode. One more step feels natural.
Manual activity logging
Pain point
“Tooltip: 'The extension does this for you automatically'”
Intercept the friction in real time — show the solution at the exact moment they feel it.
04 — Maintaining Engagement
Installed doesn't mean active. The extension was the answer.
After downloads went up, a new problem surfaced. Users installed the extension, used Lighthouse for a bit, then quietly drifted away. The extension sat idle in their browser toolbar — present but ignored.
I realized the extension icon was the most underused asset in the entire product. Every user who installed it had a permanent Lighthouse presence living in their browser — on every tab, every session, every day. A re-entry point nobody was using.
The insight
The extension isn't just a tracking tool. It's the only surface Lighthouse has outside its own product — making it the most powerful re-engagement channel available.
Trigger: Day 3 of no platform activity
Extension icon badge + browser notification fires
Passive presence becomes active signal. The icon that was ignored becomes the thing that pulls you back.
Trigger: Playbook milestone approaching
Extension popup: 'You're 60% through week 2'
Surfaces momentum — users see how far they've come, not how far they have to go.
Trigger: User visits job boards or courses
Extension detects context and surfaces a playbook nudge
Connects real-world behavior to the plan — makes Lighthouse feel ambient, not something you have to remember to open.
05 — Feature Breakdown
Three features. One coherent system.
Feature 01 — Chat-Based Onboarding
Context first. Direction second.
Instead of forms and dropdowns, Navi opens a conversation. It asks about your background, current role, goals, and timeline — building a rich context profile before generating anything.
“The redesigned onboarding flow drove a 40% increase in downloads. Getting context through conversation felt natural — not like filling out a form.”
Feature 02 — Playbook Generation
A personalized roadmap, not generic advice.
Based on the context gathered in onboarding, Lighthouse AI generates a structured, week-by-week playbook tailored to your specific goals — what to do, in what order, and why it matters for your situation.
“The same goal — break into product design — produces completely different playbooks for a CS grad vs a career switcher. Context is everything.”
Feature 03 — Chrome Extension
Passive accountability. Active alignment.
The Chrome extension logs relevant activity in the background — courses watched, articles read, tools used — and cross-references it against your playbook to surface whether you're on track or drifting.
“Most productivity tools require manual input. The extension removes that friction entirely — it just watches and reports back.”
06 — Impact
What shipped. What changed.
40%
Increase in AI extension downloads after redesigning onboarding
5
High-fidelity prototypes shipped across Playbook, onboarding, and coaching flows
70+
Research participants across surveys, interviews, and usability tests
07 — Reflection
What this internship taught me about design.
01
Research changes what you design
Reddit taught me that unfiltered conversations reveal more than structured interviews alone. The insight that timing and tone matter as much as content completely changed how we designed Navi.
02
Systems before screens
Designing the Input → Interpretation → Direction → Feedback loop before touching Figma meant every screen had a clear reason to exist.
03
Advocacy is part of the job
Presenting research findings to PMs and engineering leadership — not just handing off screens — was where design actually shaped the roadmap.
Next Case Study
GoWork
0→1 product · AI-powered job hunting · Built and designed solo
