A gamified mobile experience to master executive functions for professional success.
Executive Skills Coach is an innovative application designed to help professionals, particularly those in demanding fields like science and technology, develop and strengthen crucial executive function skills. By combining guided learning, AI-powered task management, and real-time simulation, the app provides a structured yet engaging path to mastering skills like planning, task initiation, and self-monitoring.
Executive functions are the cognitive processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully. While critical for career growth, these skills are often not explicitly taught. Many talented professionals struggle with:
- Task Paralysis: Feeling overwhelmed by large, complex projects and not knowing where to start.
- Poor Time Management: Difficulty prioritizing tasks and managing time effectively.
- Inconsistent Focus: Losing track during long discussions or meetings.
- Lack of Self-Monitoring: Being unaware of one's own engagement levels and social cues during interactions.
These challenges can lead to missed deadlines, reduced productivity, and increased stress, hindering career advancement.
Executive Skills Coach provides a personal AI-powered coach that turns the abstract process of skill development into a concrete, daily practice. Our solution is built on three pillars:
- Structured Learning: We break down complex executive skills into bite-sized lessons and interactive quizzes.
- Daily Application: The AI assistant helps users apply what they've learned by breaking down their real-world work into manageable, trackable tasks.
- Safe Practice: The meeting simulation offers a space to practice conversational and focus skills with an AI, complete with real-time feedback, without real-world pressure.
Meet Sophia: A 22-year-old Biosciences college student with a passion for research. While Sophia excels in her coursework, she finds the transition from structured academic assignments to open-ended research projects challenging. She struggles with breaking down large research goals into manageable steps, initiating long-term projects, and feels anxious about presenting her findings in lab meetings. Sophia is eager to build the executive function skills she needs to thrive in a research career and manage her projects with confidence.
The Navigator is the home screen, providing a clear and motivating overview of the day's goals.
- Daily Tasks: AI-generated tasks are presented as chests, each containing a set of sub-tasks and XP rewards.
- Weekly Calendar: A simple calendar view helps users orient themselves within their week.
- Collapsible Cards: Tasks can be expanded to view sub-tasks and collapsed once completed to maintain a clean interface.
This feature provides a guided curriculum to learn and master specific executive skills.
- Interactive Lessons: Bite-sized content and quizzes on topics like "Managing Impulses in Meetings."
- Sequential Progress: Users unlock new lessons and simulations as they complete prerequisites, creating a clear path forward.
- Simulated Practice: The path culminates in real-time simulations where users can apply their new skills.
Accessible from anywhere in the app, the AI assistant is a powerful conversational tool.
- Task Breakdown: Users can describe a complex goal (e.g., "I need to prepare LB agar plates for an experiment"), and the AI breaks it down into a logical, multi-phase plan.
- One-Click Integration: The generated task plan can be accepted with a single click, automatically populating the Navigator page with new, structured tasks.
To make skill development engaging, the entire app is gamified.
- Experience Points (XP): Users earn XP for completing tasks, which contributes to their overall level.
- Streaks: Daily engagement is rewarded with streaks to encourage consistent practice.
- Badges: Completing all tasks related to a specific project (like "LB Plate Prep") awards the user a special badge, which tracks how many times they've completed that type of work.
A cutting-edge feature where users can practice their meeting and discussion skills in a real-time video call with an AI persona.
- Real-time Conversation: Engage in a live, unscripted conversation with an AI to practice professional interaction skills.
- Safe Environment: This provides a zero-stakes environment to practice professional interaction skills and build confidence before important meetings.
Executive Skills Coach empowers professionals to take control of their own development. By making the process of learning executive functions tangible, engaging, and directly applicable to their daily work, the app can help users:
- Increase Productivity and Reduce Stress: By turning overwhelming projects into clear, actionable steps.
- Boost Confidence: By providing a safe space to practice and receive feedback on professional communication skills.
- Accelerate Career Growth: By mastering the organizational and self-management skills that are hallmarks of effective leaders.
- Framework: Next.js (App Router)
- Language: TypeScript
- Styling: Tailwind CSS, ShadCN UI
- AI & Generative AI: Genkit
- Real-time AI Persona: Anam.ai
- State Management: React Context