NewRoots
NewRoots
NewRoots
Designing a Service Ecosystem to Support Accompanying Spouses Through Identity Transition
Designing a Service Ecosystem to Support Accompanying Spouses Through Identity Transition
Business impact at a glance
86% adoption intent during concept and storyboard testing
2× increase in perceived support, validating emotionally timed interventions
Strong resonance across nationalities, visa types, and relocation stages
Demonstrated how emotional adaptation can be translated into designable service systems, not ad-hoc support.
Potential to improve employee retention by 15-20% in target groups
Overview/Problem statement
Every year, over 300,000 accompanying spouses relocate to the U.S. to support their partner’s education or career. Many are highly educated, career-driven individuals who experience abrupt identity disruption due to visa restrictions, cultural barriers, loss of professional continuity, and weakened social networks.
Despite the scale of this experience, relocation support systems—across employers, universities, and institutions—primarily treat relocation as a logistical transaction, not a longitudinal human transition. Housing, paperwork, and orientation are addressed, while emotional adaptation, identity rebuilding, and agency restoration remain structurally unsupported.
This creates a systemic service gap where accompanying spouses are expected to self-navigate complex emotional, social, and professional challenges without coordinated support—leading to isolation, dependency, and long-term disengagement.
Business Impact at a glance
86% adoption intent from target users (spouses) after storyboard testing
2× increase in perceived support post-intervention
$2.5M projected revenue in Year 1 with 120% ROI
Strategic differentiator: First tool to connect spousal adaptation with enterprise HR systems
Overview
Spouses who relocate for their partner’s careers often lose far more than physical ground, they experience identity loss, social isolation, and stalled ambition. Despite this, they remain structurally unsupported in most HR frameworks, which treat the “relocation package” as a logistical checkbox. I reframed this gap as a systemic oversight, a failure to see spouses as stakeholders in enterprise success.
Extent of Spousal Support from Employers.
Extent of Spousal Support from Employers.
Emotional, social and professional challenges on dependent spouses, that they have to navigate alone with minimal support.
Deliverables
User Interviews, Surveys, Social Listening, Competitor Benchmarking, Secondary Research, Behavior Archetypes, Customer Journeys, Empathy Mapping, Customer Profile, Co-Design Workshops, Eco-system mapping, Value Proposition, Lo-fi/Hi-fi wireframes, Concept Testing
Role
Role
Lead Design Researcher & Product Strategist
Lead Design Researcher & Product Strategist
Duration
Duration
6 Months
6 Months
Tools
Tools
Figma, Miro, Qualtrics, Dovetail, Excel, Gen AI Tools
Figma, Miro, Qualtrics, Dovetail, Excel, Gen AI Tools
Deliverables
Research plan, execution and synthesis, emotional journey maps, behavioral archetypes, ecosystem & stakeholder mapping, co-design workshop facilitation, service ecosystem concept & validation artifacts.
Project Roadmap
Project Roadmap
Role Overview:
As the Lead Design Researcher & Product Strategist, I spearheaded the entire 3-month product innovation sprint, managing the timeline while executing hands-on research and analysis. I drove the strategic pivot to a B2B SaaS model and defined the core innovation, the Family Adaptation Index (FAI). This comprehensive role ensured deep insights directly translated into a viable, high-value enterprise solution.
Discovery and Research Methodology
Discovery and Research Methodology
I approached relocation as a service design problem unfolding over time, using a mixed-methods, triangulated research strategy to understand lived experiences and systemic gaps.
Methods used:
6 in-depth interviews with accompanying spouses across India, Korea, China, and Mexico
A 54-person survey capturing adaptation challenges, satisfaction levels, and unmet needs
Social listening across Reddit, Medium, and expat forums
Literature review on relocation, loneliness, and identity disruption
Market/Competitor analysis of existing solutions that are accompanying spouses use now
A 3-hour co-design workshop with accompanying spouses at different relocation stages
This approach allowed me to uncover not just what people struggled with—but when, why, and how support broke down across the relocation journey.
I approached relocation as a service design problem unfolding over time, using a mixed-methods, triangulated research strategy to understand lived experiences and systemic gaps.
Methods used:
6 in-depth interviews with accompanying spouses across India, Korea, China, and Mexico
A 54-person survey capturing adaptation challenges, satisfaction levels, and unmet needs
Social listening across Reddit, Medium, and expat forums
Literature review on relocation, loneliness, and identity disruption
Market/Competitor analysis of existing solutions that are accompanying spouses use now
A 3-hour co-design workshop with accompanying spouses at different relocation stages
This approach allowed me to uncover not just what people struggled with—but when, why, and how support broke down across the relocation journey.
Interview quotes and survey analysis that reinforces the problem of spousal relocation as an identity crisis and not a logistical one.
Interview quotes and survey analysis that reinforces the problem of spousal relocation as an identity crisis and not a logistical one.
Co-design Workshops
Co-design Workshops
Market landscape analysis
Market landscape analysis
These methods revealed the emotional cadence of relocation and clarified that support isn't just about resources, it's about restoring agency.
These methods revealed the emotional cadence of relocation and clarified that support isn't just about resources, it's about restoring agency.
Challenges & Constraints
Challenges & Constraints
Scheduling interviews across time zones → required asynchronous methods and surveys
Emotional readiness → some participants delayed sharing experiences
Differentiating expat vs. accompanying spouses → careful segmentation and narrative framing
Scheduling interviews across time zones → required asynchronous methods and surveys
Emotional readiness → some participants delayed sharing experiences
Differentiating expat vs. accompanying spouses → careful segmentation and narrative framing
Key Insights
Key Insights
Relocation Disrupts Identity, Not Just Logistics
Participants consistently described loss of professional identity, confidence, and self-worth—often more distressing than practical barriers. The whole process is a lot more emotional than expected.
Key Insight from interviews, survey results and social listening
Key Insight from interviews, survey results and social listening
Affinity mapping results
Affinity mapping results
Adaptation Is Emotional and Non-Linear
Emotional states fluctuate in waves—optimism, isolation, frustration, resilience—rather than progressing through predictable stages. Linear relocation timelines fail to account for this reality.
Map showing emotional fluctuation in the first year of them moving.
Map showing emotional fluctuation in the first year of them moving.
Fragmentation Creates Service Debt
Support is spread across online forums, informal communities, institutions, and personal relationships, forcing individuals to coordinate their own care during periods of vulnerability.
Stakeholder map showing how support services are fragmented outside the house and inside the house.
Stakeholder map showing how support services are fragmented outside the house and inside the house.
This shifted my lens from building a community product to architecting a transformational support system.
This shifted my lens from building a community product to architecting a transformational support system.
Strategic Pivots
Strategic Pivots
Rather than business pivots, this project involved strategic reframing decisions:
From relocation as an event → relocation as a long-term service journey
Current State: Emotional disruption is treated as incidental rather than expected.
Current state Emotional Journey Map of Accompanying Spouses
Future State: Emotional lows still occur, but structure interventions reduce the depth & effect of the volatiltiy.
Future state Emotional Journey Map of Accompanying Spouses
From personas → behavioral and emotional states that evolve over time
Behavioral Archetypes and their evolving nature
Behavioral Archetypes and their evolving nature
From information delivery → agency-restoring support systems
A modular, agency-restoring Product Ecosystem
A modular, agency-restoring Product Ecosystem
From isolated interventions → a coordinated service ecosystem
A modular, agency-restoring Product Ecosystem
A modular, agency-restoring Product Ecosystem
Storyboarding: Product flow around modeled after spouse's emotional rhythms
Storyboarding: Product flow around modeled after spouse's emotional rhythms
The Solution
The Solution
NewRoots: A Service Ecosystem for Relocation Adaptation
Instead of designing a single product, I proposed NewRoots as a modular service ecosystem supporting accompanying spouses across emotional, social, and professional dimensions.
Core characteristics:
Adaptive to emotional rhythms rather than fixed timelines
Delivered across multiple touchpoints (community, facilitation, guidance, tools)
Designed to restore agency, identity, and confidence
Integrates individual experiences into a coherent support framework
The ecosystem reframes relocation from a logistical task into a supported adaptation journey.
NewRoots: A Service Ecosystem for Relocation Adaptation
Instead of designing a single product, I proposed NewRoots as a modular service ecosystem supporting accompanying spouses across emotional, social, and professional dimensions.
Core characteristics:
Adaptive to emotional rhythms rather than fixed timelines
Delivered across multiple touchpoints (community, facilitation, guidance, tools)
Designed to restore agency, identity, and confidence
Integrates individual experiences into a coherent support framework
The ecosystem reframes relocation from a logistical task into a supported adaptation journey.
NewRoots as a B2C product
NewRoots as a B2C product
Outcomes & Impact
Outcomes & Impact
Metric & Outcome
Details
Quantified Potential
Projected revenue of $2.5M in Year 1 via a dual-channel monetization strategy (DEI + HR subscriptions and user tiers).
Perceived Support
2× increase in perceived support, validating emotionally-timed interventions and demonstrating that emotion-first, system-level framing resonates more deeply than resource-heavy but fragmented solutions.
Adoption Intent
86% of accompanying spouses were ready to adopt this system during concept and storyboard testing
Projected Retention Uplift
Based on the 2x increase in perceived support and correlation to turnover, the solution is projected to improve employee retention by 15-20% in target groups, offering a clear ROI.
Metric & Outcome
86% adoption intent
Details
Post-storyboard testing with spouses indicated high emotional resonance and usability.
Metric & Outcome
2x increase in support
Details
Co-design participants reported higher self-efficacy and clarity about their transition post-intervention.
Metric & Outcome
Strategic Differentiator
Details
NewRoots sits in a white space: no existing tool connects spousal adaptation with HR decision systems.
Metric & Outcome
Quantified Potential
Details
$2.5M in projected revenue Year 1; ROI of 120%; dual-channel monetization via DEI + HR subscriptions and user tiers.
Reflection
Reflection
This project reshaped how I think about design leadership and impact. It reinforced that:
Empathy reveals the problem, but systems make it solvable
Emotional experiences can—and should—be designed for
The most meaningful design work often makes invisible labor visible
NewRoots is not just about supporting accompanying spouses.
It is about designing services that respect identity, dignity, and emotional reality within complex human systems.
This project reshaped how I think about design leadership and impact. It reinforced that:
Empathy reveals the problem, but systems make it solvable
Emotional experiences can—and should—be designed for
The most meaningful design work often makes invisible labor visible
NewRoots is not just about supporting accompanying spouses.
It is about designing services that respect identity, dignity, and emotional reality within complex human systems.
Co-design session with Accompanying spouses
Co-design session with Accompanying spouses