The Problem

The original Discussions feature was not aligned with Quilly’s mission. It encouraged passive engagement, with conversations that lacked direction and no clear path toward in-person connection.

This raised an important question: How might we design the 'discussion' feature to naturally lead users toward in-person meetups?

Insight

While designing early iterations of the Discussions experience, I brought this question to the team. That sparked a workshop involving the founders, advisors, and developers. Together, we began rethinking what Discussions were meant to do.

We landed on two core insights:

• Trust and comfort are essential. Students will only meet up if they feel safe and at ease.

• The process needs to be simple. If it takes more than a few taps or feels intimidating, they won’t follow through.

This workshop reframed our approach. Discussions should not be the end of the journey. They should be a starting point.

Design

Goal: Make the transition from an online conversation to an in-person meetup easy, natural, and effortless.

What I designed

1. Multiple entry points from Discussions
I introduced a few lightweight ways for users to take action from within a conversation, including:

• A quick-post button embedded inside each thread

• A toggle that lets users instantly turn a discussion into a meetup

• Smart notifications that prompt users to create a meetup when a thread gains momentum

2. An AI-assisted flow for speed
To remove friction and hesitation, I designed a version of the Meetup flow powered by AI. With one tap, users could convert a discussion thread into a meetup, with key event details like time, location, and invite list pre-filled by the system. Users could edit these suggestions, but the goal was to reduce decision fatigue and make it feel effortless.

Results

What I delivered by the end of the project:

• A complete Meetup flow that connected Discussions with in-person engagement

• Three low-friction entry points from threads into the Meetup experience

• A unified product requirement document that aligned product and engineering teams

• Design specs that accelerated the development timeline

Reflection

• This project taught me how asking the right question can shift a product’s trajectory. I grew from executing UI tasks to contributing at the product strategy level, helping the team rethink how Quilly could deliver on its mission.

  
  

• I also learned how to balance startup constraints (reusing the old UI system) with user needs (clearer flows, offline connections). Most importantly, I saw how design can bridge execution, strategy, and collaboration to deliver meaningful impact.