I Built a Learning Platform for Neurodivergent Learners. Then I Realized Women in Tech Need Something Else.

I started building Unrule. as a learning platform for neurodivergent people.

The idea came from my own experience. I have ADHD, and I've spent my entire career building systems that work with my brain instead of against it. Traditional learning platforms assume everyone learns the same way: linear courses, fixed timelines, one-size-fits-all paths.

That's not how neurodivergent brains work.

So I set out to build something different: a place where people could create their own learning paths. Choose what to learn, when to learn it, and how to structure it in a way that actually works for how their brain processes information.

I spent months on the concept. I had notebooks full of ideas about adaptive learning, modular content, and flexible frameworks.

And then I kept noticing the same pattern in every conversation I had with women in UX and tech.

They didn't need better learning paths. They needed tools for situations that no course could prepare them for.

The Conversations That Changed Everything.

A colleague mentioned, casually, that she'd presented comprehensive research findings and watched them get dismissed without discussion. Not because the research was bad. It was actually excellent. But because the room had already decided.

Another friend described spending three weeks on a proposal that no one read. It sat in someone's inbox, unopened, until the decision was made without her input.

A designer I know had her idea repeated by someone else in a meeting. Verbatim. And watched him get credit for it.

These weren't isolated incidents. They were patterns.

And the advice these women were getting? "Be more confident." "Speak up more." "Prove yourself."

As if the problem was them.

The Uncomfortable Realization.

I've been in UX and design for over 20 years. I'm a queer woman with ADHD who's navigated tech my entire career.

I know what it's like when systems aren't designed for you.

I built the neurodivergent learning project because I understood that problem deeply. Executive function challenges, non-linear thinking, difficulty with traditional structure. I live this.

But the more I talked to women in tech, the more I realized they were facing a different kind of "system not designed for them" problem.

Not learning systems. Work systems.

Systems where:

• Your research gets dismissed without being read
• Your proposals are ignored
• Your ideas get credited to whoever repeated them louder
• Pushing back gets you labeled "difficult"
• Being strategic gets called "emotional"

And the traditional career advice? It doesn't work for this.

"Lean in" doesn't help when your work gets shelved. "Be more assertive" backfires when you're already navigating gender bias. "Just prove yourself" assumes the playing field is level. It's not.

The Pivot.

I realized something:

Both neurodivergent people and women in tech are being told to adapt to systems that weren't designed for them.

But they need different tools.

Neurodivergent learners need: flexible structures, adaptive systems, learning paths that work with their brains.

Women in tech need: language that forces engagement, systems for protecting their work, strategies for navigating bias disguised as feedback.

I couldn't build both. Not well. Not at the same time.

So I chose the one I understood from 20+ years of lived experience in UX and tech.

I stopped building a learning place for neurodivergent people.

And I started building resources for women in UX and tech who are done shrinking.

What Women in Tech Actually Need.

Not another course on UX methodology.

Not another inspirational talk about confidence.

Not another networking event where we're told to "support each other" while the structural problems stay the same.

What we need are practical tools for navigating the parts of work that are designed to keep us quiet.

Tools like:

• Language that forces engagement instead of inviting dismissal
• Systems for documenting work so credit can't be stolen
• Frameworks for pushing back without triggering the "not a team player" label
• Strategies for reclaiming credit in real-time
• Ways to spot the difference between legitimate feedback and bias

Not theory. Not inspiration. Practical tools you can use tomorrow.

The Promise.

If you're a woman in UX, product, tech, or any creative field and you're tired of being dismissed, ignored, or talked over, this is for you.

I'm not promising this will fix everything. Systemic problems need systemic solutions.

But I can give you tools that work. Language that gets through. Systems that protect your work.

Because you shouldn't have to shrink to fit someone else's playbook.

The old rules don't work. Write your own.