Like many in tech this year, I got laid off.
So I took a sabbatical — a much-needed pause to recoup from unrealized burnout and reconnect with my creative maker side. After a couple of months filled with arts, crafts, and AI courses, a friend mentioned a massive hackathon happening. So I decided to test out my prompt skills, joined a vibe-coding challenge cohort, and started learning by doing. That’s when my Bolt journey began.
As a product designer and UX leader, I’ve spent the past 6 years designing highly technical B2B SaaS tools that use AI/ML to support network engineers in their day-to-day. But on this creative sabbatical, I started wondering — how could AI support me? I had so many ideas I never had the time, budget, or engineering chops to fully bring to life. Learning to vibe-code has changed that.
Vibe-coding cracked open the imaginative, inventive side of me that had been quietly waiting for a chance to build.
💡 The Spark: Turning a Low Point into a Prototype
Even though I thought I was prepared for my layoff, there were still so many blurry questions — not just around logistics like severance, unemployment, and insurance, but also around identity and next steps. ("Oh... I'm unemployed... and it's been 6 years since I last applied for a job. Where do I even start?")
So I asked myself:
What if a tool could walk people through this experience like a calm and encouraging coach — no corporate jargon, no legalese, just helpful, clear info and emotional support?
That idea became Layoff Relief — a personalized dashboard + checklist app that helps users navigate post-layoff chaos with structure, clarity, and reflection.
🧠 Structuring the Build (with a UX Brain)
Before I jumped into Bolt, I did what any good solo builder with access to ChatGPT would do — I word-vomited my idea into a chat. Then I asked ChatGPT to act like a UX-aware PM and help me write a PRD. Once that was solid, I asked it to break the project into sprints optimized for token usage in Bolt and structured to minimize bugs.
Oh — and I told it to do all that knowing I only had about a week (and let’s be real, maybe 18 hours total) to build it. Because, being me, I had already overcommitted to a stained glass intensive, sewing lessons, starting a business, and just generally living my best crafty sabbatical life. So I needed a smart, lightweight roadmap I could vibe-code my way through between craft breaks and AI bootcamp sprints.
I treated this like a real product. But I made a deliberate decision not to mock anything up — even though that’s my strength — because I wanted to see how far I could get by designing directly in Bolt with words and structure alone.
Here's a short summary of what I outlined and broke into sprints:
- Audience: Laid-off tech workers who feel stuck or overwhelmed
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Core Features:
- Simple onboarding to collect key info
- Custom dashboard with deadlines (severance, WARN/garden leave, unemployment, COBRA)
- Emotional check-ins and “what I did well” reflections
- Pre-filled to-dos and countdowns
- Custom state-based resource links for unemployment and insurance
- A place to track key contacts and must-save links or docs
⚡ Enter Bolt: From Idea to MVP
Bolt made building fun. I’m not an engineer — I dabbled in HTML/CSS back in the day and am relatively new to AI prompt writing — but with Bolt, I felt like I’d unlocked new superpowers.
Highlights of my build:
✅ Supabase authentication & user database
✅ Custom Domain through IONIS
✅ Netlify Integration
✅ Personalized dashboard based on user inputs
✅ Visual countdowns for each key date, with callouts for critical to-dos
✅ Optional reflections to help reframe the layoff story and track wins
I built and iterated fast — sometimes in 3-hour sprints between creative classes and cohort calls. Despite the speed, it never felt rushed. Bolt made the process intuitive, easy to navigate, and actually joyful.
In total, I spent around 18 hours building this concept app — and it felt surprisingly smooth.
🛠️ Troubleshooting & Learning in Public
Not everything went perfectly — and that’s part of the charm.
- I hit CSS library issues and had to start over the Friday before the deadline 😅
- I made UX tradeoffs to prioritize clarity and simplicity
- I burned through my Bolt credits faster than expected — but buying more was worth it to finish strong
- I'm so glad I did the Maven Bootcamp — I don’t think I would’ve gotten as far as I did without the support of that community and the encouragement to just keep going
I leaned into the spirit of vibe-coding: build what feels meaningful, and ship something small but helpful.
🧹 Iterating Like a Designer
As a designer, I couldn’t not finesse the experience once the MVP was up and running. I walked through the flow over and over — asking myself the usual questions:
Does this feel necessary? Intuitive? Distracting? Confusing?
But this time, instead of writing up a long doc, creating tickets, or chasing alignment...
I just told Bolt to fix it.
It was like doing a classic fit & finish review — minus the meetings and follow-ups.
Just me, applying UX principles and intuition, and a prompt window.
I simplified what felt noisy, cleaned up copy, and removed anything that didn’t add value. I hid steps that didn’t need to show up yet. I tweaked button logic, empty states, and visual clarity.
This is where the design really came alive — through intentional edits and fast iterations. It felt less like managing a build, and more like shaping a tool with my hands.
🌱 What’s Next
Layoff Relief is just getting started. I’m continuing to refine it and share it with others who’ve been laid off. Here’s where I want to take it next:
- AI-powered document reader to summarize contracts or severance letters (if legally feasible)
- Resume suggestions based on your “what I did well” journaling
- Support for international users
- An AI-generated “coach” or counselor you can talk things through with
- Secure document storage for important layoff paperwork
- B2B offerings for companies to provide Layoff Relief to departing employees
🎯 Final Thoughts
Bolt wasn’t just a tool — it was truly my engineering co-pilot. It helped me turn a chaotic, emotional transition into a thoughtful, empowering experience.
As someone who’s always built for others, this hackathon reminded me that I can build for myself, too.
If you’ve been laid off — or know someone who has — you can check out the concept app here:
👉 https://layoffrelief.me
And like any good UXer, I added in a feedback form to gather any user's ideas, frustrations, or bugs they find so I can help improve it based on real user input.
Cheers
Laurel, your fellow Creative Curionaut
Designing better systems for real-life transitions ✨
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