TL;DR
Sproutable turns the job search into a garden. Each application is a plant that grows from seedling to full-grown offer as it moves through the interview pipeline. We designed and built a working prototype in three days for the Build Club Lovable Ditto Hackathon, and it was one of the three winning projects.
Problem
Problem
Unemployment hasn’t been this high since 2021, and the job search often feels chaotic and demoralizing.
Constraints
The hackathon required Lovable as the main build tool, a product that reimagines an existing one through AI (the “Ditto”), and a working prototype in a 3-day timebox.
Key challenges
Scattered tools
Tracking applications, following up and preparing for interviews all happen in different places.
Constant context switching
Moving between spreadsheets, inboxes and prep sites is slow and repetitive.
Hard to stay motivated
It is difficult for job seekers to stay motivated and organized.
Solution
Visual progress
Each application is a plant in the farm. It grows as it moves through stages, from applied to assessment, interview and offer.
Automatic tracking
Through our Toolhouse integration, users connect their email, calendar and LinkedIn so updates appear in one place.
Next-step tools
AI-generated follow-up templates, links to relevant people on LinkedIn, and interview prep on platforms like Leetcode.
Offer evaluation
Users upload an offer letter and get a summary, a market comparison, negotiation tips and sample counteroffers.
Why AI?
The job search is mentally taxing, and much of it is repetitive, like entering each role into a tracker or drafting emails. Automating those tasks and adding guidance gives people time back for interviews and their personal lives. Sproutable combines several support tools in one experience, and AI is what made it possible to build in three days.
How I solved it
How I solved it
Finding a shared idea
In the first two hours, each of us arrived with a different idea: a goal accountability tool, a LinkedIn-based game and an AI romantic companion. The common thread was taking care of something over time, inspired by Tamagotchis and companion apps like Tolan. We also bonded over our own job search frustrations.
Framing the opportunity
Our guiding question: what if a digital companion could help people stay motivated and supported throughout their job search? From there we mapped the end-to-end journey and three core opportunities: setting and tracking goals, reducing repetitive admin work, and supporting users through interviews and offer evaluation.
Mapping the user flow
Inspired by Farmville, we used planting, nurturing and growing as the metaphor for moving through the interview pipeline. The flow covers onboarding, submitting applications, notifications, progress review and evaluating offers. We prioritized features by user impact and what was feasible in the timebox.
Designing the farm
I led the visual system and the AI interaction design, including prompt design, feature logic and a cohesive design system. I tried image-generation prompts in ChatGPT and Google’s Nano Banana, and refined the farm environment in Nano Banana for higher-quality results.
Building a tool to animate plants
Animating the plant growth states was a technical challenge. I built a separate Lovable project for the animation logic first, then brought it into the main product.
Designing the offer letter feature
I designed and prompted the offer evaluation. The LLM summarizes key offer details, compares compensation against market benchmarks and generates negotiation tips and sample counteroffers. These are framed as recommendations, not advice, and when inputs are unclear it only uses the data available, which reduces the risk of hallucinations. The engineer integrated the logic and I refined the UI to match the design system.
Shaping onboarding
Onboarding has three parts: a goal-setting quiz, tool integration and a product tutorial. Users pick how many applications they want to plant.
Outcomes
Results
Sproutable was one of the three projects that won the Build Club Lovable Ditto Hackathon. Winning my first hackathon inspired me to keep building my own projects, join more hacks and make new friends and collaborators.
Key takeaways
AI shortens the gap
Once we settled on the idea and features, we could start building in Lovable immediately.
Think like a PM
With so many possible features, a clear product vision helped us prioritize and focus.
Design and people still matter
Our shared experiences, ideas and attention to thoughtful design brought this project to life.
Next step
I would validate effectiveness by tracking user growth and feature adoption, and gather qualitative feedback from surveys and interviews to guide further development.
