Prior to starting Halaska Studio.

Neighbourly was Google's answer to a question most Western product teams never have to ask: what does a hyperlocal Q&A app look like when your users prefer voice over text, share phones across a household, and need to trust a stranger to answer "where's the nearest clinic?"

I led design from inception, starting as the only designer on the project and working through multiple in-person research trips to India with translators and rapid prototypes.

Over a year, the team grew to three full-time designers and twenty-five-plus engineers, pivoting the product more than once before launching in Mumbai.

The final app let people ask and answer local questions through a swipeable card interface, in their preferred language, by voice or text, without ever exposing a phone number or full name.

It was Google's bet that a billion-person market needed a product designed for how people actually live, not a translated version of something built for California.