ReadyGuide: Building a Crisis Planning Tool with Compassion and Privacy
How we turned personal loss into a product serving 1,200+ families—with a privacy-first approach that keeps sensitive data where it belongs: on users' devices.
The Problem: Crisis in the First 72 Hours
When someone passes unexpectedly—especially someone young—their loved ones face an impossible situation. They're grieving, they're in shock, and they need to make dozens of critical decisions immediately:
- Where are the insurance policies?
- Which funeral home should we call?
- What were their wishes for burial or cremation?
- Who needs to be notified?
- Where are the bank accounts and passwords?
After working with several communities and hearing these stories repeatedly, a pattern emerged: the hardest part of a crisis isn't handling the tasks—it's finding the information to handle them.
"After my dad passed, we spent days trying to find his insurance information. We knew he had a policy, but we had no idea where the documents were or even which company. That week was chaos."
— Inspiration for ReadyGuide
The Vision: A Hand-Off, Not a Database
We didn't want to build another cloud-based estate planning platform. We wanted to create something fundamentally different:
Core Principles
Privacy-First Architecture
Your data never leaves your device—PDFs generate locally in your browser
One-Time Purchase
$49 flat fee with lifetime access—no subscriptions, no recurring charges
Customized to Your Life
2-minute quiz tailors the guide to your family structure, faith tradition, and business needs
Compassionate UX
Estimated 25-minute completion time with ability to save and return anytime
The Technical Challenge: Privacy Without Compromise
Building a privacy-first application meant rethinking standard SaaS architecture. Most platforms store user data on servers for "convenience." We refused.
How ReadyGuide Works
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1. Client-Side Processing
All form data stays in your browser. No server-side storage, no database, no cloud sync. -
2. Local PDF Generation
When you click "Generate Guide," the PDF is created entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Nothing is uploaded. -
3. Lifetime Edit Access
Your data is saved locally (browser storage) so you can return and update it anytime—still no server storage. -
4. You Control Distribution
The PDF is yours to print, save, or share with trusted family members—on your terms.
Technical Note
This architecture means we can't "recover" your guide if you lose access to your browser. That's intentional. If we can't access it, neither can anyone else. True privacy means accepting some inconvenience.
What Makes ReadyGuide Different
The crisis planning market is crowded with estate planning software, legal document services, and password managers. ReadyGuide is none of those things.
❌ Not Legal Advice
ReadyGuide is a documentation tool, not a substitute for wills, trusts, or estate planning attorneys.
✅ Crisis Hand-Off
It's a guide for your loved ones to navigate the first 72 hours when clarity is impossible.
❌ Not a Password Manager
We don't store credentials. We help you document WHERE to find them and WHO to contact.
✅ Information Organizer
All the essential details in one place: contacts, accounts, preferences, and instructions.
Early Results: 1,200+ Families and Growing
Since launching, ReadyGuide has served over 1,200 families with a 4.9/5 rating across 127 reviews. Here's what resonates:
"As a Muslim family, the 24-hour burial requirement means we have NO time to search for information. ReadyGuide gave us the structure we needed to prepare."
— Muslim Family, ReadyGuide User
"I'm a business owner—if something happens to me, my family would have no idea how to access accounts or who to call. Now they do."
— Entrepreneur, ReadyGuide User
"The privacy piece was huge for us. I don't want our financial information sitting on some company's server."
— Parent, ReadyGuide User
What We Learned
Key Insights
- Privacy sells. In a world of data breaches, "your data never leaves your device" is a powerful value proposition.
- One-time pricing works. People are subscription-fatigued. A $49 lifetime purchase converts better than $4.99/month.
- Customization matters. The 2-minute quiz that tailors the guide to faith traditions and family structures significantly improved completion rates.
- Empathy in UX is critical. This isn't a fun topic. Every piece of copy was written with compassion and respect for what users are preparing for.
The Bottom Line
ReadyGuide isn't about building the most feature-rich product. It's about building the right product—one that respects privacy, serves a real need, and does so with compassion.
When you're building technology for life's hardest moments, every decision matters. We chose privacy over convenience, clarity over complexity, and empathy over efficiency.
And 1,200+ families have trusted us with their crisis planning. That's not just a metric—that's a responsibility we take seriously.
Experience ReadyGuide
See how we built a privacy-first crisis planning tool that families actually use.