The Neighborhood App
Social tech. Reimagined for us.
Overview
Somewhere Good set out to reimagine social tech through softness, voice, and community care. As Consumer Strategy Lead, I helped build the product’s emotional architecture — from UX strategy and research to storytelling and brand. What started as a generative AI voice app became something more ambitious and more intimate: a digital neighborhood made for listening, gathering, and belonging.
My Role
Consumer Strategy Lead
Led user research, brand storytelling, and content strategy across app, web, and editorial platforms. Oversaw two strategy associates, co-led weekly planning with product and design, and helped translate community insight into both product and narrative direction.
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The Opportunity
Somewhere Good launched into a culture of speed, noise, and overexposure. Its goal was different: to build a space where Black and brown users could be present, not perform — and connect without being extracted. But the question was clear: how do you scale softness within systems that don’t reward it?
We saw the potential to treat the platform like a place — one built around proximity, care, and slowness. By rooting the product in emotional insight and community rhythm, we aimed to create a new kind of user experience: more like a neighborhood than a network.
How It Came to Life
In a tech world obsessed with scale, we prioritized texture. Our strategy treated the app like a space: you could drop in, speak, listen, wander, or leave. The focus wasn’t retention — it was resonance.
This approach shaped every part of the ecosystem. I led early beta research and UX testing, co-developed onboarding and in-app content flows, and helped build a tone that felt close, clear, and culturally aware. We launched the SHIFT Research Fellowship — a paid co-creation program for local creatives — and published community essays that deepened the brand’s emotional terrain. From help docs to homepage copy, our team built out the connective tissue that made the product feel lived-in.
The Outcome
15K+ downloads during beta
9K+ waitlist signups in the first month
10K+ voice-based conversations recorded
150K+ community event actions
$3.8M raised in early-stage VC funding
Featured in The Cut, TechCrunch, OkayAfrica, Fast Company, and more
The product ultimately sunset, but its ambition still echoes. Somewhere Good didn’t just ask what a platform could do — it asked what one could feel like.
