Shimmer offers 1:1 ADHD coaching at a fraction of the cost. Your expert ADHD coach will help you learn skills, build habits, and institute systems that are personalized for YOU.
Congrats on the launch!
Idea: It might be useful from a product marketing perspective to provide a quiz for people to self-diagnose if they have ADHD (or at least signs that they might have it). I know people with ADHD that found out much later in life and bet many others are unaware of their condition.
@rrhoover Thank you so much for your support! We actually do have a public quiz that we created based on the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS-v1.1) Symptom Checklist that was developed in conjunction with the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Workgroup on Adult ADHD.
We can definitely do more to publicize this though! Really appreciate your suggestion 😊
https://www.shimmer.care/adhdtest
@rrhoover@vikram_sreedhar - can you please compare your questions to the test you mentioned. I went through the onboarding process and I cannot see a match. between your questions and the test. I am comparing your onboarding to this https://psychology-tools.com/tes.... How many items are covered in your self diagnosing survey? I am talking about the onboarding questions not the test you linked to. I look forward to an answer.
@rrhoover@vikram_sreedhar@ebrahimkhalil Hi there, thank you for your question and engagement with Shimmer so far!
(1) Our self test that Vikram sent through was based on [Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS-v1.1) Symptom Checklist by WHO],
vs.
(2) the onboarding you did on our website was not an assessment—that one is more of a general "is this [Shimmer ADHD Coaching] something that may be for me" questionnaire that has some ADHD, some coaching, and some general questions
However, I wanted to note, neither of these are meant for self diagnosis. If you score high, it simply means you may want to consider getting an opinion from a licensed healthcare professional. Unfortunately, online quizzes will not be able to give a good picture of whether you have ADHD because of the multitude of other cognitive & behavioral elements involved that a psychiatric testing will take you through. Double unfortunately though, that process can be long and cumbersome.
@rrhoover@vikram_sreedhar@christal Thanks for the reply. I feel like the onboarding process is pretty much what other SAAS-type services use and it is appropriate for most services. The challenge with the onboarding process on this app is that it keeps users in the funnel without adequate guidance on the need to get a professional assessment. There is a clear tension between increasing the number of people signing up versus directing them to completing an assessment with a professional (outside the app). I feel you need to do more.
This looks really promising, looking forward to trying it out!
One tiny thing: it looks like there's a bug after checkout where it drops you back into the onboarding flow asking you to enter in the same info again (name, phone number, etc). Congrats on the launch!
@ajsharp Thank you for signing up and really looking forward to your feedback as you begin your journey on the platform!
There was a slight lag in the checkout registering it seems, but we just pushed out a fix that should resolve it! Thank you for your support as well ❤️
As a founder, I’m surrounded by peers who all seem to have ADHD - as @christal points out, it’s by no means an indicator of lack of intelligence, and in fact is highly correlated with people who don’t follow traditional career paths and have an appetite for risk taking.
While adderall and other pharmaceuticals have a place in ADHD treatment, they are typically ineffective with out coaching/therapy. I applaud Chris and team for helping break down the cost barrier and making it easier to find treatment.
@gillianim Thank you for your kind words—it means a lot, coming from you! Especially for high achieving, "gifted" women, ADHD is often gone undiagnosed, and treatment is full of point-solutions. Humbled to continue building in this space!
Congrats on the launch! Amazing mission and team here with an incredible new product. Really excited to see how this helps millions of people out there struggling with ADHD. I've personally found having a one on one coach to be so helpful in my life both personally and professionally. Amazing job!
I find that most apps branded as helping ADHD are really about helping people cope in a world designed to make us unfocussed. I feel shimmer is like this - marketing to what has become an increasingly mentioned condition. At what point are users assessed professionally for ADHD? I look forward to your answers.
@ebrahimkhalil there are always two main aspects to services for adult ADHD- knowing when you are to cope with the condition (acceptance) and when you are to actively address/change your behavior/environment. This is also true of the services provided through Shimmer-- a coach will assist you in both coping and change. Shimmer is not a replacement for professional services -- a client is welcome to engage in those services. Shimmer aims to offer the same types of services at a lighter touch/intensity and lower cost to those clients looking for such an approach.
@ebrahimkhalil@anil_chacko Thanks for chiming in, Anil (for context—he is Shimmer's Clinical Advisor).
If you're interested in learning more about assessments, etc. Dr. Anil & Dr. Jordan (Clinical Advisor of Parallel Learning) are running a free webinar next Tuesday on exactly that! There will be Q&A too for some live engagement. Link below.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/adh...
And to add on to Anil's comment. As Anil mentioned, Shimmer is NOT clinical. People are free to refer themselves to professionals qualified to diagnose in their jurisdiction, however it's out of scope for our practices. We are beginning (soft-) partnering with organizations that do diagnose though. For example, Parallel Learning, the co-host of the webinar I shared above does hold those services.
Thanks @mwseibel for hunting us!
Hey Product Hunt! 👋
I’m Chris, one of the co-founders of Shimmer. Today, I am thrilled and humbled to share our launch to a community that’s very dear to my heart.
Getting personal first: This year I was diagnosed with ADHD. It changed how I looked at so many aspects of my life. I now had this newfound “reason” for my behaviors and massive lifting of shame. I felt lighter, more proud to “be me”.
However, when I got into “action mode”, and started looking for solutions, that’s when the frustration began.
As I dove deeper into the equally beautiful & heartbreaking ADHD community, I collected each of my frustrations, along with others, in efforts to build backwards to create Shimmer. Some of the biggest issues we’re solving for are:
👉 Action-orientation: people with ADHD can be SUPER intelligent, it’s not about knowing—it’s about doing. There’s not many solutions that get people to DO.
👉 Affordability: those who need coaching most are priced out, at $300-600+/mo.
👉 ADHD friendly design/process: finding a coach or navigating tools/apps can be super complicated and there’s always so much to keep track of!
That’s why we created Shimmer. I wanted to share some things I’m not only proud as a founder, but excited as a member about:
✨ Our base plan is under $100 a month! This is 5-10X cheaper than alternatives
✨ Our expert ADHD coaches not only get ADHD, but are skilled & empathetic supporters of our members (and keep you accountable!). I know because I’ve been extensively by Xenia & Noelle, and every other one of them for 2+ session
✨ Our platform keeps you accountable to daily actions, so that it’s not just about weekly sessions, it’s about the moments in between
We’re excited for the Product Hunt Community to check us out and let us know if you have any questions! ❤️
With love, Chris Wang
Thank you @christal! I am very excited, for this launch. The app looks super clean, great UI.
Do you mind sharing a bit more on how was the experience during beta? What were the key learnings?
Congrats 🎈🎉!
@lucas_coelho1 Thank you! We're very proud of the UI but also have lots more planned to make it even better.
Yes—definitely excited to share about the beta. From when we "beta launched" in June, we've made a ton of discoveries, changes, pivots... and a few mistakes too. We're super grateful for our patient beta user base with sticking with us while we sorted things out. Their feedback has been so valuable, particularly when I get the honor of jumping on a call with them to shadow them using things, that's the best.
A few of the big ones:
- We tested "text-only" coaching at an even lower price point ($59/mo.) to try to create the MOST affordable solution, but unfortunately after many iterations, were not able to make that stick. From the coach's perspective, it took a lot of cognitive effort to remember to check in and try to engage the members, and from the members' perspective, it was hard to stick with 1 week accountability cycles and they were stuck with either feeling (1) they weren't engaging enough or (2) they were bugging their coach too much. Now our lowest tier still involves the critical human-element that builds the coaching relationship
- Most of the members who come in have never done ADHD coaching before. The primary reason was because of cost. The trickle-down effect, however, was that they were not versed on what 'coaching' entailed, and had all sorts of expectation. We noted the different deviances and created a member learning hub that walks the member through all this
- The ADHD community is THRIVING! There are so many cool companies, offerings, coaches, therapists, doctors, psychiatrists, PEOPLE who have ADHD and are looking to contribute. We've had so much fun working across all these domains in partnership or just conversation. Not really a learning that changed our course or anything, but something that inspires us everyday :)
@ashrahman Thank you! Our goal is to keep it as affordable as possible (potentially even more, who knows!), so that we can get it out to those who need it most. Appreciate the sentiment!
@christal, this is going to have such a massive impact on so many people… the lack of affordable and effective care for ADHD today is astonishing. Congratulations on a successful launch!
Just subscribed! I've been looking for something like this that doesn't require me to go drive somewhere and see someone, but also want to do more than just medicate and figure out self-coping mechanisms. Looking forward to this!
@britt_joiner Thank you so much for subscribing and we'd love to hear your feedback as you start on your journey with Shimmer! Really appreciate your support!
@cgchen Great question, and one we get from our members (and potential members) all the time!
ADHD coaching often works in tandem with clinical, counseling and psychotherapy practitioners. These treatment protocols may include medication, therapy, and more.
Tl;dr on difference:
- Coaching is closely linked to its sister-discipline of Positive Psychology: the focus is on your future potential and how to get there
- In clinical treatment and therapy, the focus is more skewed toward your past & present: diagnostics and deficits
- However, in practice there are often overlaps in terms of coping mechanisms, strategies, skills, and knowledge
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