AI-powered clinical note-writing for Therapists
Role
Team
Head of Product, Head of Design, Head of AI, CTO, Chief Clinical Officer, Senior PM, Front and backend Developers
The need for Therapist buy-in
HelloSelf is a teletherapy startup connecting mental health patients with therapists. While designing our first AI-summary feature for patients, we uncovered a critical business constraint: therapists had to approve any AI output before it could reach patients. This revealed a deeper insight—AI adoption wouldn’t succeed unless therapists saw real value for themselves. To unlock long-term growth, we needed to treat therapists not just as gatekeepers, but as primary users.
This made one thing clear: to introduce AI responsibly, and lay the foundation for future AI tools, we first had to earn the trust of therapists.
Business Objective
Grow HelloSelf’s therapist network by building tools that support their workflow—so they adopt, advocate, and scale the platform.
User Problem
Therapists struggle to write detailed high-quality clinical notes, especially when managing heavy caseloads—leading to burnout.
Research process
To gain therapist buy-in, it wasn’t enough for AI-summaries to just benefit patients—it had to benefit therapists as well. In other words, therapists needed support on their own clinical responsibilities.
When we looked at where AI could add real value for Therapists, note-taking stood out from interviews as one of the biggest pain points to solve, especially for those managing high caseloads. However, this solution raised ethical concerns: Therapists were open to support, but wary of AI taking over; they didn’t want to lose control or forsake clinical standards.
To gain trust, we had to give therapists practical value—on their terms. That meant two things:
Job To Be Done
"When I am struggling to write detailed clinical notes because of high caseloads, I want to use AI-generated Clinical-grade Summaries as stimulus, so that I can write my notes more productively and maintain momentum between sessions."
Final Designs
Desired Outcome
Provide therapists a more efficient way to write clinical notes using AI—while keeping them in the driver’s seat—so their workflow improves and they’re more likely to advocate our platform.
BEFORE: Previous Workstation
The previous design felt cluttered and did not incorporate AI-tooling to help Therapists write clinical notes.
- Clinical Psychologist
Summaries save time, reduce pressure, and hit the right tone. I was surprised by how accurate they were. Now I’m more confident letting patients access them—it’s boosted engagement between sessions.
- CBT Therapist
I learned that therapist buy-in can’t be assumed—it has to be earned. For AI to reach patients safely, therapists needed to trust it and see direct value in their own work. That meant addressing real pain points, like note-taking, without removing their control. We had to integrate AI into existing workflows in a way that felt helpful, not intrusive.
This grounded my approach in ethical design: trust is built by giving clinicians tools they can rely on, not tools that try to replace them—connecting directly back to our business goal of adoption and our user goal of making AI feel safe and genuinely useful.
I also learned how to work cross-functionally in a high-stakes, fast-moving environment—partnering closely with clinical leads, data scientists, engineers, and leadership to balance speed with safety. Most importantly, I deepened my understanding of how to translate complex AI capabilities into accessible, human-first experiences.