Product Design & Research Culture at One Medical
Design is a core part of the human-centered mission at One Medical. We are able to be deliberate in using an Evidence-Based Design approach influenced by the creative process and apply a rigorous clarity to how we design. One of the unique aspects of working at One Medical is the opportunity to own the entire experience stack, from our healthcare services to digital products. We are able to be deliberate and intentional about our design decisions, whether it enables labs to be done in our offices or creating a calming office that can put people at ease as they receive care.
Over the past three years, I’ve had the privilege of seeing design at One Medical grow exponentially. We’ve combined a diverse team with the best minds in healthcare to create the best product experience possible. I’d like to share a bit about the identity of our team, our approach, and why we feel what we do is special. From a small team of two, the team has grown to 10 team members who have joined us from companies such as Apple, Capital One, Dropbox, Hipmunk, IDEO, Trunk Club, and their own startups.
Here are five themes of product design we’re proud of at One Medical.
1. Design for Real Impact
Real impact is continuous delivery of high value products and features to our users: our members who receive care and our care team that provides care. Prioritizing both user groups enables us to release features that people can use immediately and put the human relationship at the forefront.
Our engineering manager Tom once said, “We use technology to facilitate human interaction, not replace it.” Our blend of technology-enabled healthcare allows us to put the most important thing in the forefront…human relationships between members and the people who provide quality care. Less computer time, more face time with humans.
2. Use an Evidence-based Approach
Evidence-based practice and medicine have revolutionized the healthcare industry by supporting decisions with well-designed and well-conducted research. We bring that into our design process.
When design becomes people sitting in meetings arguing about font choices and button radii, the focus on user needs becomes lost. Our product designers start with a hypothesis, which we test by gathering evidence (or counter-evidence) in the field.
One Medical uses lean management approach: deliver value from your customer’s perspective, eliminate waste (things that don’t bring value to the end product), and continuous improvement. Projects start at the gemba (a japanese term meaning “the real place”), a term for visiting the place where work is done. New teammates start off with this and spend hours at the clinic shadowing the team and members. This isn’t just designers and researchers but the entire team, including product managers, QA, engineers, and leadership. We believe that the best way to motivate someone on the features they’re working on is to have a connection to the impact they’re contributing to.
The working relationship with our users is unlike any place I’ve been. Our members are active participants in research interviews and gladly give us meaningful feedback because they care about the service and product. At any moment, I can ping an office and walk over to get real feedback from our clinics. We rely on the amazing providers and admin team who welcome shadowing and questions. They always have the best ideas for how to improve the product
Our research team leads a program called Product Rounds — a cross-functional trip consisting fo anyone on the Technology team who travel to one of our nine markets to visit our local teams to build relationships with our team members in the field.
3. Designing, for Now, Next, and the Future
Focusing too narrow and you can accrue design debt and come up with something that doesn’t scale. We work in a dynamic way that focuses on three core states to consider:
Now: This is Integrated UX and working directly with our product teams. Designing for now focuses in on our sprint cadence. We ask what the current state of the product experience is and find opportunities to improve it.
Next: This is the Discovery track in dual track scrum. The focus here is opportunities on the horizon. I often refer to this as high tactical when it pertains to the product strategy. This work doesn’t fit in sprints but informs it. In this state, the team does a lot of user research and prototyping to help de-risk and align the Now work.
Future: The state we aspire to be. This work is strategic and guides both Next and Now. In the Future work, the team focuses on creating a tangible vision that serves as a North Star.
Working in various time streams is a daunting ask, but the team is up for the challenge.
4. Nimble Learning & Innovation
Lean Processes
The health industry is known for compliance and administrative work but the key to being truly innovative is to take a learning approach to learn things.
Continuous Delivery and Improvement
The healthcare industry often suffers from slow technological development and innovations. In order to transform the industry, we must continuously deliver in a thoughtful way. In an industry where you are responsible for the lives and health of others, you don’t want any unintended consequences. We leverage pilot and beta programs with our users to get real feedback to ensure we have the utmost confidence that our features are ready to ship.
Rapid Prototyping and Usability Testing
Whether it’s prototype on paper, Figma, Framer, Xcode, or HTML/CSS, we aspire to learn early and often with the people who use our products. The team’s philosophy is to reduce the iteration cycle by creating prototypes to get meaningful feedback. The more we create and test, the more opportunities we have to learn. Our clinical providers and office admins love participating as it empowers them to be a stakeholder in the product.
5. Create space for design at the table
One of the top frustrations designers have is lack of control of the product’s destiny. The top question I get from candidate interviews is whether design is valued and if product design and research have a seat at the table. I would say that at One Medical not only do we have a seat of the table, but we are valued throughout the entire company. From our CEO, VPs, and other team members of the organization, there is no question the value and role design plays at the company. Leadership walks the walk by dedicating time in the local offices to observe and participate in research and shadowing.
Because we have the trust and confidence of the team, we can focus down on doing our jobs as designers instead of fighting to get a seat. No one questions the need to do deep dives of design or research because our mission is provider human-centered care. Our teams are eager to join us in sketching sessions, design crits, and research trips.
Design and research are critical to the success of any product team. I hope by reading this you’ve learned a few of ingredients of what makes a great design process.
Join Us
If this is a design culture that resognates with you, join us! We are hiring multiple product design roles and almost every technology role. Consider joining us on the journey to transform healthcare.
Notes: Thank you to Dylan Wilbanks, Kyle Munkittrick, Wes Donohoe, and Xin Xin for editing.
