Questions to nutritionists
Hi there!
Thank you for opening this article — I appreciate your time.
Most readers of this article were found at Linkedin/AngelList by keywords fitness, nutritionist, dietary management. So it can be a mistake and I can miss my target — not reaching a right person. Sorry for this.
I’m a software developer and trying to build project that has intersections at
- food tech(healthy recipes, meal planning, fresh food delivery)
- fitness(routines, exercises)
- dietary management(diets, weight loss plans, food log)
But my experience and knowledge are limited.
My main goal is to start understand how software can save your time, increase client number(maybe) and increase results of your patients(hope for this).
What I want to get from you:
- main interest at this topic
- interest to chat and share some details with me
- list of products and features that use at your work
- what do you want to get as result in order to improve your work.
I create the list of questions to ask. I split that questions into sub-lists.
After each section, it’ll be a link to a google form. So if you want to provide a feedback — feel free to fill the form.
You can reach me at LinkedIn, AngelList or post comment below.
Thank you for your time.
What software are you using right now and why?
- Which products (software programs) are you working with online? It helps you to manage your work routine.
Ex: I’m sure that you use Gmail for messages
Maybe you also use some kind of payment gateway like PayPal, Stripe.
Maybe you use Messenger/Facebook in order to communicate with new prospective leads. - What features do you use?
- Has that software worked well previously?
- What do you like to see improved in this software?
Can you outline any features that you would like to see implemented or improved, related to your current software or similar software? - What features would you like to have at dietary management, weight loss software?
- Would you be willing to try some new software soon?
- How much did you spend on software that you use daily (per month)?
- Do you have sales tracking software? Do you use invoice management software?
You can specify names only and I’ll google them.
[You can submit your answers to this section here(Google Form)]
Meal planning questions
- How does your diet plan relate to meal planning?
- What part of the diet includes recipes? Are they simple or complex? Are they easy to cook? Would I be able to cook them, without any cooking experience?
- Where did you get the recipes? Did you create them yourself?
- What influences your choice when you pick a new recipe for a diet plan?
- Do you create a database of new and healthy recipes relatable to different cases or do you write new recipes every time you need to create a recipes pack before you start building a specific diet? Or …. do you have 100 recipes and you use them according to specific needs?
- Have you created a shopping list for your clients? Is the shopping list stored online?
- Have you adjusted your diet plan for allergies, preferences, different cuisines?
- Is it easy to include your diet into family meals?
Example: Mother is cooking for 3–4 people every day.
Have you considered that she maybe not have time to prepare a different meal for herself? Is this situation covered?
[You can submit your answers to this section here(Google Form)]
Minimal working functionality or what must be included from start
Will you be able to describe step-by-step processes, like:
- Workflow with clients
- Tasks’ specifications that are related to selecting appropriate diet, recipes, users’ control, etc
- How do you examine user data?
- Can you specify the step-by-step flow of how the user will get the initial steps to a completed diet plan?
Example: User’s data, determining a suitable plan for the user followed by an email with the personalized plan.
Or … splitting your diet into weeks and sending the additional and adjusted weekly information related to week’s results and progress? - Which sections does your diet plan have? (document that you will share with your user)
- What would be the next important stage once you get the data from your user?
- Please specify tasks, that related to assigning appropriate diet, recipes, users’ control, etc.
Samples
Can you share a simple diet sample for me to review?
Do you have a sample that can be viewed online?
I assume that this sample can illustrate a basic, default flow… to make it easier for me to understand the logic that you are following.
First stage — only most important functions
What basic functionality must I create?
Is it important to have diets + meal planning + recipes from start?
What is the absolute minimal diet data collection we must have?
Do your user’s data and your recommended diet have strong and logical characteristics?
Functionality
Specify main(top 5) features that we must have from start.
- User fills out form, which will generate a profile with the user’s data
- Recipes with calendar features (in order to create a personal custom meal plan)? Or …. you could consider partially cloning it from previous meal plans.
- Anything else?
These functions will be at my TO DO LIST of things that must be created.
[You can submit your answers to this section here(Google Form)]
Communication
- How did you communicate? What communication channels did you use? Phone, email, FB…
- What kind of information must user provide to you in order to start a comprehensive diet plan?
- What will be the first stage of communication between the user and you?
- When would you predict that a user will ask you for help? Can we make the assumption that he/she just wants to change his/her lifestyle? Diet for a specific time-related occasion?
- What would crucial information from the user make the weight loss program user-driven?
- Is it important to track your patient’s progress?
- How did you track user’ progress?
- Who is responsible — the user or you tracking and adjusting diet according to weekly results?
- How do you store this information? I mean — can your user log into your app/solution to make changes, add updates, etc?
- Can he review the online diet plan that you’ve created? Or ….won’t you communicate with a user when you send him/her the user-applicable diet?
- Can you adjust the program accordingly based on the user’ results and/or comments?
- What will happen if the user decides to stop and/or interrupt the diet? Can we prevent it from having some actions from our side?
[You can submit your answers to this section here(Google Form)]
Other(payments, analysis, requests from users)
Can you check this new product and tell me what was done right and what was done wrong? And I’ll move your reply to Asken Diet app owner.
- Have you omitted any information, that I should know about?
I’m pretty sure I’ll find “blockers” during the development process.
I just want to be prepared for the start.
- Is it important to understand how much your user makes money?
Can this change something? - If your user is super busy — have you allowed for changes in the diet plan?
Is this is a future for your profession ? - Can you disclose a preliminary number of users that you have helped?
- How many users complete your diet plan and attain the desired results?
- What are the main sales channel from where you get new users?
Is it …. Word of mouth, FB advertising, FB group posts, some kind of Groupon-like product or a local place where you practice?
Payments
- If you want to receive payments, what methods would you prefer? Can you explain why?
- Do you want/must have recurring events?
Requests from users.
- What usually users want to have the result when they start to communicate with you?
Do they want to weight loss help?
Do they want to be more energized at morning?
Just stay fit?
Analytics
- Can you give a hint about how do you analyze the data that came from your user/patient? In order to create a personalized diet plan.
- What is included in your analysis?
- Can it be more automated or simplified(what can save your time with software help)?
- What are most important key factors that you use in order to create a diet?
Age, sex, weight, allergies, previous diseases, etc. - What nutrition do we need to track? Vitamins, minerals, etc.
- How much people(users, patients) you can manage at the same time? Is it some restrictions here?
- If you’ll increase by 3x number of your users — what it will be for you?
- Can you explain a ‘bottle-necks’ in your process?
Exercises & Recipes
What minimal connection diets software must have with fitness and meal planning(recipes) services?
Regarding fitness applications:
Calories counter, exercise time, sleep time, something else?
[You can submit your answers to this section here(Google Form)]
Thanks for reaching the end. Appreciate that.
