Case Study — Selah
Solo product, 0 → 90+ active users. React Native · Supabase · Community-driven growth
My girlfriend was going through a difficult time. CBT research shows emotions are shaped not by events directly, but by the thoughts that interpret them. I wanted to build something that could help her identify cognitive distortions and reframe her thinking — and eventually help others do the same. I built the first version for one user. Then I watched what happened when I handed it to more.
Entirely solo — product strategy, UX design, React Native development, user research, and community engagement. No team, no budget, no runway.
Built an initial CBT tool to guide users through identifying cognitive distortions and reframing negative thoughts. Used it daily with my girlfriend as the first real user.
A Christian friend tried it and said he'd actively use it. That observation led to a hypothesis: targeting users at the intersection of mental health and faith would create a stronger, more specific product than a generic mental health tool.
Repositioned the product. Added personalized Bible verse recommendations and redesigned the experience around both emotional and spiritual support.
Embedded myself in church communities — observing how people share prayer requests and support each other weekly. Translated this into an anonymous prayer room where users could share and support each other online.
Analyzed retention across all features. Prayer room drove near-100% 7-day retention — community lock-in by design. Observed continued DB activity: users returned daily to update and respond to prayer requests. Cut every other feature and surfaced prayer room directly to the main navigation.
Grew to 90+ active users through community engagement and ran a church pilot to validate the product in a real-world setting. One removed feature is now being reinstated — users kept asking for it back.
“핸드폰을 보다가 멈추고 기도하게 된 경험은 처음인 것 같다. 너무 좋았다.”
— User feedback during church pilot (“This was the first time I ever found myself praying while on my phone. It felt really good.”)
90+
Active users, community-grown
~100%
7-day retention on prayer room — users return daily to update and respond to requests
Now
Preparing for launch with monetization
The hardest part was designing for vulnerable moments. You can't fake empathy in UX — every word, every screen transition, every notification matters when someone is in a difficult place. Trust is built or broken at the detail level. The best product decisions came from going narrow. Targeting a specific community instead of building for everyone made the product stronger. The prayer room wasn't a feature I designed from scratch — it was something I saw already happening in real life, and built a digital version of it.