Bringing Clarity to Calm’s Overwhelming Content Library

CALM

Helping users take the first step with confidence and simplicity

How do people become calm?

CONTEXT

When you're just beginning to explore healing, nervous system regulation, or somatic awareness, it can be overwhelming—especially when the tools aren’t presented in a simple, structured way. Meditation apps like Calm offer a wide variety of content, but many users report feeling lost in the experience, unsure where to start or what will actually help them feel better in the moment.

In this case study, I aimed to answer how Calm can better support beginners by creating a clear, structured starting point—a guided map that simplifies the path forward and introduces easy-to-understand self-regulation tools.

If Calm offers a guided onboarding experience that helps users identify their nervous system and emotional states—and provides simple tools to regulate accordingly—then users will engage more consistently and complete more sessions, because the content will feel personalized, relevant, and immediately helpful.

HYPOTHESIS

Where is the meditation + wellness app market headed?

THE MARKET

The Meditation Management App market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 16.3%, outpacing even the broader Wellness App market’s 14.9% CAGR—highlighting the demand for simple, effective mental and emotional regulation tools.

What Meditation & Wellness Apps Support Nervous System Regulation?

Who are the users driving this growth?

THE AUDIENCE

The growth in mental wellness app usage is driven by two key user segments: those new to emotional regulation and those seeking more advanced, personalized support. As mainstream comfort with mental health tools increases, users now expect experiences that are easy to navigate, emotionally relevant, and body-aware—yet few apps deliver on all three.

Calm Users

Ages: 25-45

Attitudes: Seeking accessible tools to manage stress and improve sleep.

Personas:
- Young professionals experiencing work related stress
- Parents balancing family and personal well-being
- Individuals exploring meditation for the first time

Headspace Users

Ages: 30-50

Attitudes: Looking for advanced content to deepen their practice and maintain consistency.

Personas:
- Regulator meditators seeking variety in sessions
- Health conscious individuals integrating mindfulness into daily routines
- Users interested in specialized programs (sleep, focus, anxiety)

What are the pain points that these users need addressed?

USER INSIGHTS

Users feel overwhelmed by too many choices

Users report that Calm’s library—while extensive—can feel paralyzing without clear guidance. First-time users often don’t know where to start and bounce after a few sessions.


Research shows that up to 70% of users churn within the first 100 days of downloading wellness apps due to unclear onboarding or content overload.¹ This may ultimately be because the app does not provide a lasting effect and instead soothes in the moment.


A simple, emotionally-guided map, and nervous system map could help reduce drop-off.

Users don’t understand what they’re feeling

Most people aren’t taught how to identify nervous system states like fight, flight, or freeze.
They may feel “anxious” or “shut down” but don’t know how to regulate. Many users to not know the difference between a trapped emotion and a nervous system state. Both require different tools to bring the user back to a state of calmness. By providing vocabulary to name their inner state as either an emotion or nervous system state, they can be provided the appropriate tools and come back to being calm.


Studies show that emotional granularity (naming your internal state) is linked to lower stress and better self-regulation.²


Calm has an opportunity to integrate emotional and nervous system awareness into the user journey.

Users want tools that work in the moment

Users don’t just want inspiration—they want to feel better now.
According to a 2019 research article, the most commonly reported mental health diagnosis was anxiety, and the most common physical health diagnosis was high blood pressure.³

For example, anxiety is a general term. Anxiety could stem from a dorsal vagal (freeze/shut down) response, a sympathetic (fight/flight) response, or a suppressed/unprocessed emotion (grief, guilt, shame, or anger).

In this case, intellectualizing- watching videos on the Calm app- will only distract. Meditating can actually make anxiety from a dorsal vagal response worse and reinforce disassociation. If anxiety is from a suppressed emotion, meditating will not integrate the emotion and may only temporally distract a person. Meditation may help anxiety from a sympathetic response but only if it slows the breath; but most people need to shake or walk to discharge the excess energy- not sit there with racing thoughts.


They don’t have time to scroll. A fast, relevant tool matched to their emotional state or dysregulated nervous system state could increase engagement and retention.

How do the groups begin their journey?

USER JOURNEY

In general, both Calm and Headspace users follow a similar process to access emotional wellness tools.


The key difference lies in how personalized and emotionally relevant the experience feels, especially during onboarding.

Since Calm is a marketplace, we should consider how Headspace could affect other user groups.

THE MARKETPLACE

Headspace

Advantages

  • Strong brand reputation and global partnerships

  • Guided meditation paths make it beginner-friendly

  • Clean design and linear learning experience

Risks / disadvantages

  • Generic emotional engagement—feels one-size-fits-all

  • Lacks trauma-aware or nervous system-specific language

  • Limited flexibility for users wanting more somatic tools

Insight Timer

Advantages

  • Extensive free library with global contributors

  • Diverse modalities including music, yoga, and mindfulness

  • Appeals to experienced or exploratory users

Risks / disadvantages

  • Lack of structure overwhelms new users

  • No onboarding flow based on emotional/nervous state

  • Varying content quality due to open platform model

Othership

Advantages

  • Purpose-built around nervous system regulation

  • Journey-based breathwork tied to emotional states

  • Innovative, somatic-forward brand identity

Risks / disadvantages

  • May alienate users unfamiliar with breathwork

  • No sleep stories or traditional guided meditations

  • Limited daily use features beyond breathwork sessions

BIG TAKEAWAYS

BIG TAKEAWAYS

Calm users are very similar to users of other wellness and meditation apps—but with specific gaps that Calm is uniquely positioned to address.

  1. They’re similar in age and intent: users want emotional clarity, relief from stress, and better sleep—but without confusion, overwhelm, or guesswork.

  2. They’re used to accessing wellness tools through mobile-first, flexible experiences—but lack guidance based on how they actually feel in their bodies.

  3. The meditation and mental wellness market is growing rapidly, but most platforms are not offering nervous system–aware, state-responsive support. Calm can differentiate here.

Also, Calm already has brand recognition, trust, and content. By enhancing its emotional intelligence and somatic relevance, it can deepen user connection, reduce churn, and stand apart from generic wellness apps

TLDR: Calm users want emotional relief, not just meditation. Personalizing content by emotional and nervous system state is Calm’s opportunity to lead.

Increase user engagement and session completion by introducing emotionally-personalized, nervous system–based onboarding into the Calm experience.

THE GOAL

What should be included in the MVP?

FEATURE PRIORITIZATION & MVP DEFINITION

For a successful pilot of state-based personalization in Calm, the following user stories are required to build:

  • Because most users come to Calm feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or shut down, they need a simple, emotionally resonant check-in that helps them understand their current state and serves as a compass for what content will actually help.

  • Users shouldn't have to scroll endlessly to find something that fits. If they’re in a “fight” state or “freeze” state, the app should suggest appropriate breathwork, movement, or meditation options tailored to that state.

  • Whether it’s breathwork, meditation, or movement, users want to know what actually helped. Offering a quick feedback reflection and usage history can reinforce habit formation and personalization.

  • Calm needs a backend content tagging system that connects user states (like anxiety or shutdown) with appropriate sessions (like down-regulating breathwork or guided somatic shaking). This mapping allows emotional personalization at scale.

  • To ensure the new state-responsive system is working, Calm needs metrics on session starts, completions, and returns by emotional state path. This helps identify which emotional “journeys” are sticky, and which need refinement.

  • Couriers may need special bags / ice packs to deliver these types of frozen packages meals. There should be systems in place to coordinate deliveries with the Couriers.

What options do we have to introduce state-based personalization into Calm?

SOLUTIONS EXPLORED

1. Scheduled State Mapping

Users complete a mood or nervous system check-in that recommends content for the next 7 days.

Path Types: Daily Tracker Flow or Weekly Emotional Journey

Fulfillment Options:

  • Calm AI Engine: Once a user selects their emotional or nervous system state (e.g., anxious, shut down, agitated), the app automatically generates a 7-day playlist of meditations, breathwork, and movement designed to support emotional progression (e.g., freeze → ventral).

  • Human-Curated Journeys: Calm’s internal content team builds fixed emotional “playlists” that can be reused and refined based on common nervous system patterns (e.g., Burnout Recovery Track, Grounded Morning Routine).

  • Delivery Method: Users receive daily notifications or home screen prompts with the day's content, reducing choice fatigue.

2. On-Demand Relief

Users select how they feel right now and receive a tool immediately.

Path Types: Single Session or State-Responsive Suggestion

Fulfillment Options:

  • Instant Recommender: After a quick one-question check-in (e.g., “How are you feeling in your body?”), the Calm algorithm serves one recommended practice (e.g., 5-min down-regulating shaking for a fight response).

  • Quick Access Tiles: Home screen highlights “In the moment” tools like "For Anxiety," "For Shutdown," or "For Racing Thoughts" that bypass traditional menus.

  • Feedback Loop: After the session, users can rate the tool to help Calm learn what works best for each state.

Which delivery method and emotional guidance model work best across a variety of vectors?

A Daily Dynamic Journey personalized by Human and AI has the highest business impact, strongest user experience, and long-term habit formation potential—while balancing scalability and low content maintenance effort.

EVALUATING SOLUTIONS

State-Based Emotional Journeys by Calm

FINAL SOLUTION

Personalized by Emotion

Users begin with a simple emotional or nervous system check-in to receive curated tools tailored to how they feel—no more guessing or scrolling.

Guided, Not Overwhelmed

Calm delivers a daily or weekly path of somatics, meditations, specific types breathwork, yoga position, or movement so users can focus on healing, not hunting through menus.

Accessible Anytime

Whether you need immediate regulation or long-term balance, Calm meets you where you are—offering both on-demand tools and scheduled support.

Users reflect on what helped and build a habit of self-awareness, creating lasting change in how they process emotions and regulate their nervous system.

Designed for Progress

What would the User Experience look like?

To reduce overwhelm and clarify intention, state-based emotional guidance will be introduced as a distinct flow—separate from Calm’s main content tabs like Sleep, Meditate, or Music.

Separate from the Standard Library

Transparent, simple, and educational

At each step of the emotional check-in and journey flow, users will receive guidance on how their current state connects to suggested practices—using plain language and visual cues to foster trust and understanding.

From onboarding to content suggestions, the experience will reinforce the value of this feature—highlighting how nervous system awareness helps users regulate emotions, sleep better, and feel more grounded.

Message the benefits

The experience will leverage Calm’s existing design system and UI patterns (tiles, carousels, “daily calm” styles) to keep the journey feeling familiar while enabling new functionality.

Use common components

Phased rollout of Journeys on Calm

LAUNCH & GTM STRATEGY

We will start the phased rollout with a pilot feature. Throughout the pilot, we’ll be in “learn and iterate” mode. After we validate the experience and optimize emotional-state guidance, we’ll begin expanding its visibility across the Calm app.

Who is involved?
Launching this pilot will require deep collaboration across Calm’s Product, Content Strategy, Engineering, Research, Design, Marketing, and Data Science teams.

Education
We’ll train support and onboarding teams to communicate emotional-state concepts in a clear, empowering way. In-app tips, emails, and blog content will be used to normalize and celebrate using emotional tools—not just meditation.

MEASURING SUCCESS

Pilot Metrics

NORTH STAR METRIC

Journey Sessions Per User Per Week

If successful, we should see an increase in Journey Sessions Per User Per Week—indicating users are consistently returning to Calm not just to meditate, but to regulate based on how they feel emotionally and physiologically.

Check-In Completion Rate
Journey Funnel Conversion Rate
New Journey Sessions Started Per Week

LEADING INDICATORS

LAGGING INDICATORS

Calm Session Completion Rate
Monthly Active Days
3 Month User Retention

Total Time Spent Browsing Library
Drop-Off During Check-In
Meditation Sessions Outside Journey Flow

One potential unintended side effect of the new feature is that users may feel “boxed in” or confused if the check-in results don’t match their expectations—leading them to abandon the new flow or spend more time passively browsing. This could dilute Calm’s intended impact or even increase user frustration. These metrics will help us spot that early.

COUNTER METRICS

Journey Start Error Rate
“No Tool Suggested” Error
Mismatch Between State + Tool Selected

These metrics ensure core functionality is stable—especially around AI-tagged recommendations, tool surfacing logic, and data flow. For example, if someone feels "overwhelmed" and receives no breathwork or meditation suggestion, the system has failed its core purpose.

MONITORING METRICS

Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts

SUMMARY
In this case study, the core objective was to explore whether integrating state-based (emotional or nervous system) journeys into the Calm app could improve user engagement, session completion, and long-term emotional regulation habits.

My initial hypothesis suggested that if Calm offered users a way to begin their session based on emotional or nervous system states—paired with simple tools to regulate that state—then users would feel more seen, supported, and motivated to return regularly. Currently, most meditation apps rely on user-initiated exploration, which often leads to overwhelm and drop-off. With Calm’s growing content library, users are increasingly unsure where to begin. Apps like Headspace and Insight Timer offer volume and personalization, but still fall short of emotional nuance and trauma-aware design. By embedding emotional-state awareness and AI-guided daily journeys, Calm can become the first app that speaks directly to how users feel in their body—without needing a diagnosis or deep meditation knowledge. It bridges the gap between immediate relief and long-term transformation, while remaining scalable and simple.

As a Product Manager at Calm, I would recommend running a limited-scale pilot targeting emotionally dysregulated or overwhelmed users. The north star metric would be Journey Sessions Per User Per Week, supported by check-in completion, session feedback, and user retention data. If successful, this would validate the need for nervous system-based design in mental wellness platforms.

WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT MYSELF
As someone who has personally gone through years of research to heal my own nervous system—and who understands how disorienting the beginning of that journey can feel—I’m passionate about building products that offer both clarity and empowerment. Working on this case study reminded me how important emotional intelligence, intuitive UX, and real human guidance are in designing tools that actually help people change. I also realized that product innovation doesn’t always mean inventing something new—it often means seeing clearly what users truly need, and simplifying the path to get there. 🙏

If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading.