YMCA Camp Experience

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YMCA Camp Experience

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YMCA Camp Experience

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—— Overview

The YMCA needed clarity on why camp enrollment was fluctuating and what parents, kids, and staff actually needed from the experience. We ran a deep multi-stakeholder research sprint across parents, children, and frontline staff, synthesized it into a clear experience strategy, and built an AI-powered research companion that Rob and his team still use daily. The work won a second 8-week engagement scheduled for Spring 2026.

Client

YMCA

Date

September 15, 2025

Role

Co-Lead Researcher & Experience Strategist

Service

UX Research, Experience Strategy, AI Product Design, Service Design

Contribution

Responsible for research design, discussion guides, stakeholder interviews across parents, children and staff, Qualtrics survey design and synthesis, hypothesis formation, experience strategy, the Camp Navigator concept, and the AI-powered research companion.

—— Brief

The YMCA hadn't conducted deep research on their camp experience in years. Enrollment was unpredictable, parents felt overwhelmed choosing camps, and leadership lacked visibility into what was actually driving satisfaction. They needed clarity fast, before the next camp season.

A research and strategy sprint spanning parents, children, and staff across multiple camp locations, culminating in a prioritized experience roadmap, an AI-powered research companion, and a vision for a Camp Navigator platform that became the foundation for a second engagement.

450

Survey Participants

35

Interviews across parents, kids and staff

8

Weeks to strategy and vision

Note: The original Camp Research Archive from this engagement is confidential and cannot be shared publicly. The screens shown here are reconstructed mocks created to illustrate the product direction and design decisions, not reproductions of the final client work.

—— CHALLENGE

The YMCA's camps were a critical revenue driver and cornerstone of their mission, but no one had a clear picture of what was working and what wasn't. Parents couldn't easily evaluate or compare camp options. Kids had variable experiences depending on location. Staff operated without consistent standards. And leadership was making decisions based on intuition and institutional memory rather than real data. The window to gather insights before the next camp season was tight, and the organization needed both strategic clarity and actionable next steps.

—— solution

We approached this as both a research and strategy sprint, immersing ourselves in the full camp experience across parents, children, and staff to understand not just what was happening, but why. Every insight was synthesized into a framework leadership could act on immediately, and a tool they could keep using long after the engagement ended.

01

AI-powered research companion

Built an AI agent that allowed the YMCA team to talk directly to all of the research gathered during the project. Staff can ask questions like "What do parents care about most when choosing a camp?" or "Where do kids feel most anxious?" and get instant, accurate answers drawn from the full body of research. Rob, the primary stakeholder, still uses it with his team daily.

02

Camp Navigator vision

Synthesized findings into a strategic roadmap and pitched a concept for a new digital experience: a Camp Navigator that would help families discover the right camp based on their child's interests, needs, and availability. Leadership embraced the vision, and it became the foundation for a second 8-week engagement scheduled to begin Spring 2026.

03

Multi-stakeholder research

Ran interviews, field observations, and experience mapping sessions across multiple camp sites, gathering perspectives from parents who loved the program, parents who were frustrated, returning campers, new campers, leadership, and frontline staff. One of the most memorable sessions: interviewing groups of kids directly about their camp experiences, bringing back memories from teaching kindergarten in Thailand and serving as a reminder of why this work matters.

—— 4 key design decisions

1/ A future-state narrative before a solution
Early on we had to decide how to structure community within the app. The Facebook Group model was the obvious reference point, but it carries baggage. It feels public, performative, and algorithm-driven in ways that actively work against vulnerability. We landed on Circles. The distinction is intentional: a Circle is intimate, self-selected, and topic-anchored. Each has its own guidelines and keyword filters so members could navigate conversations around specific symptoms or treatment approaches without wading through noise. The name itself matters. A circle implies equal standing, no hierarchy, no algorithm deciding who gets heard.
2/ The Camp Navigator came from listening, not brainstorming
The idea for a digital camp discovery tool didn't come from a whiteboard session. It came directly from what parents kept saying in interviews: they felt overwhelmed choosing the right camp for their child and had no good way to evaluate options. The Camp Navigator was the direct translation of that pain point into a product vision. Letting the research generate the idea rather than imposing one from the outside is what made it land so well with leadership.
3/ Researching children required a completely different approach
Standard interview techniques don't work with kids. Instead of formal question-and-answer sessions, we designed playful, conversational group activities that let children express their camp experiences naturally and on their own terms. This required real-time adaptation, emotional attunement, and the kind of cross-cultural communication skills I'd developed teaching kindergarten in Thailand. The insights we gathered from those sessions were some of the richest in the entire project.
4/ The research needed to outlive the engagement
500+ survey responses and 30+ interviews generate an enormous amount of data. Most of it would have been forgotten the moment the final presentation ended. The decision to build an AI-powered research companion wasn't just a technical choice — it was a design philosophy. Research should be a living asset, not a static deliverable. Making every insight permanently searchable and conversational meant the YMCA could keep making decisions from the data long after we left.

—— PROCESS

WEEKS 1–2
Discovery and research design
Wrote discussion guides, designed survey questions, and set up Qualtrics for data collection. Mapped the full stakeholder landscape across parents, children, and staff. Identified the highest-priority research questions for each group.
WEEKS 2–4
Fieldwork and interviews
Conducted interviews across all three stakeholder groups at multiple camp locations. Gathered qualitative and quantitative data on decision drivers, pain points, service consistency, and emotional highs and lows across the camp experience.
WEEKS 4–5
Synthesis and strategy
Synthesized findings into decision driver frameworks, experience maps, and a prioritized set of strategic recommendations. Formed and validated hypotheses. CJ joined the team in week 5 to assist with synthesis as the volume of data grew.
WEEKS 5–8
Presentation, AI companion and vision
Presented findings and strategy to leadership. Built the AI research companion to make insights permanently accessible to the team. Framed the Camp Navigator concept and won a second engagement to bring it to life.

The Override

The most important insight from this project wasn't in the data. It was in the room. Sitting across from groups of kids and listening to them talk about their camp experiences, you feel things that no survey can capture: the nervousness of a first-timer, the pride of a returning camper, the specific moment a kid felt seen by a counselor. That emotional intelligence shaped every strategic recommendation we made. And it was the idea born from those conversations, a tool to match every child to the right camp, that became the Camp Navigator and won us the next project. And the Experience Narrative we built from those conversations gave leadership something they'd never had before: a shared picture of what great could look like.