Lifetramp: Designing a Marketplace for Career Exploration
Role
Principal Designer
Responsibilities
- Product & Design Leadership
- Product Strategy & Vision
- User Research & Testing
- Growth Experiments
Collaborated with
TL;DR
Co-founded Lifetramp, a mentorship platform that let people "test-drive" careers for a day (think Airbnb for jobs). Led product strategy, UX, and brand design while navigating hypergrowth, monetization challenges, and even a TV show partnership. Despite explosive traction, we couldn't secure sustainable funding—a hard but invaluable lesson in balancing vision, business, and user needs.
Challenge & Approach
80% of professionals feel stuck in careers but fear change risk. Challenge: Reduce commitment anxiety while enabling career exploration.
Solution: "Airbnb for jobs"—low-commitment, high-trust marketplace for job shadowing and career test-drives.
- Co-founder role: Product vision, end-to-end design, growth experiments, team scaling
- Impact: 10K+ users, global press (Forbes, Fast Company), 2-season TV documentary with Planete+
- Process: Concierge MVP → marketplace → monetization experiments → internationalization
Evolution & Key Milestones
MVP Validation
Simple landing page generated thousands of signups and unexpected press coverage. Key insight: Users wanted local mentors and hands-on experiences ("Barista for a day" over theoretical shadowing).
Concierge to Platform
Manually matched 100+ pairs to stress-test trust and logistics before building tech. Added reviews, no-show penalties, and humanized profiles (Airbnb playbook).
Monetization & Partnerships
Tested corporate partnerships (Sephora, WizzAir), NGO donations, and paid experiences. Mixed results—corporate partnerships worked, but paid experiences hurt mentor retention.
Cultural Impact
Partnered with Planete+ for 2-season TV documentary showcasing user journeys, proving the concept's narrative power and cultural relevance.
What Didn't Work & Key Learnings
Business model reality
Failed to align revenue with user behavior. Mission-driven communities are powerful but not automatically sustainable.
Operational sustainability
Manual community management became unsustainable. Traction outpaced capital despite investment.
Core insight: Even brilliant UX can't compensate for a broken revenue model. Still proud of proving that radical career exploration is a universal need—and that design can make it tangible.