pulse

Creating a new app for healthcare professionals

Overview

pulse is a web application designed to assist healthcare professionals with patient communication, progress, and in-turn, satisfaction. Developed for seed-stage start-up Wecudos, I led the research, design, and build of a beta product in five months, as well as creation of the brand, pulse.

The Brief

I was brought in to work with the Founder, an orthopaedic surgeon, and CTO, an experienced iOS Developer, to assess the existing iteration of the Wecudos product. The company had around a dozen existing clients — health practises in London that ranged from physiotherapists to osteopaths to specialised therapies (such as Shock Wave Therapy). They had also attempted to market directly to patients. The existing product — an iOS app — aimed to improve communications with patients via messaging, but was not seeing ongoing usage. I started from scratch in terms of assessing the needs of the clients, the capabilities of the technology, and the uniqueness of the proposition.

The Process

Research

First I interrogated internally, working with the Founder and CTO to understand the business model and the product, the expectations of investors, the relationships with current clients, and the major decisions that had been made to get to where they were. I studied internal documents and meeting notes from previous client interactions.

Next I turned to the current clients, interviewing business owners, healthcare professionals, and admin staff, from the sceptical to the progressive. This ranged from one-on-one meetings to going into practises, such as Beyond Health, to stimulate discussion between teams of staff.

Business Strategy

My research unearthed three key value propositions:

• Ensure patients recognise their progress over time
• Pre-empt patient churn and late-cancellations
• Compare the performance of healthcare professionals within a practise

The unifying theme here was to track patient progress in a way that was efficient, scalable, and as automated as possible. We needed to move practises from ad-hoc approaches determined by individual healthcare professionals, to something unified but light-touch. Research reinforced pervasive challenges: healthcare professionals were time-poor, used to their way of operating, and sceptical of new systems, while patient privacy was paramount.

My strategy was to focus on the needs of practises, and drop the B2C route — patient satisfaction would come through improved service from the healthcare professionals. I proposed we focussed on patient tracking and analytics to provide the value practises yearned for, creating a platform that would increase the quantitative measures logged for a patient’s condition, even in-between appointments. The platform would help healthcare professionals to visualise progress to patients, enable comparison between healthcare professionals within a practise, and, as it became smarter, pre-empt possible issues with patients, such as churn or no-shows. Easy messaging with patients would continue as a function that fed into analytics.

The SaaS business model could remain the same, and a laser focus on B2B made this simpler to articulate.

Product Strategy

I convinced the Founder and CTO that a revision of the existing iOS app would never fulfil the needs my research unearthed, and convinced the team to take the radical step of starting from scratch. Wecudos had good backing from industry-respected investors and a base of current clients who would largely be patient enough to wait for a product revamp, as long as that wait led to a major step-change. Healthcare is a complex area with a vast array of needs across different disciplines, so I suggested our strategy changed to focus on two disciplines where the need was most keenly felt, the clients were most eager, and scale in the longer term was available. I selected one of our clients as the model for a perfect customer that we could work with to build an application that would satisfy their needs, and as a result, so many others.

Product Design

Moving from an iOS to a web app to work across mobile, tablet, and desktop, I set out about identifying all of the functions it needed to perform. I then worked through, in detail, the user experiences on each side — healthcare professionals and patients — including the devices used and real-life circumstances, e.g. a physio in the therapy room during treatment, or a patient at home, weeks after an appointment. I turned these scenarios into data requirements, user flows, and information architecture. I then sketched out the full UX for the entire product, and wireframes for the UI. I moved between pen and paper, whiteboard, and software to document everything. It was at this point I appointed a Designer and UX/UI specialist, to digitise the work I’d done, and continue on the next steps of this journey together.

Brand Development

Existing clients associated the Wecudos brand with the experience of the existing iOS app, yet conversely, it had little meaning with potential customers. I suggested we created an entirely new brand for our product. Going back to the research I had conducted, as well as a study of the competition, and brands we admired — both inside the sector and out — we set about creating a new brand and visual identity. We wanted something that hinted that we were now not only about healthcare, but specifically, healthcare analytics and patient progress. Our tone was to be friendly and approachable, as well as trustworthy and professional — to be reflected in all aspects of our visual identity, copy, and interface.

Product Build

It was apparent from midway through my research that the emphasis of any application for a healthcare professional would need to be user experience. The luxury of patience was not afforded in this sector, and despite false dawns, practises were primarily still using old-fashioned CRM systems to manage all aspects of patient data-capture, and email for communication. I knew our application would be sharply judged with a sceptical eye, so we needed something that felt and flowed like a well-loved consumer app.

My primary role in the build became not only to ensure that we didn’t veer away from value propositions and essential functionality, but that we respected the importance of every aspect of the UX/UI.

The Outcome

In all, the entire process of starting from scratch to launching a private beta took five months. Starting with just the Founder, CTO, and myself, ended with the addition of two designers, a copywriter, an additional developer, and a sales person. I played a major role in shaping a new business strategy, brand, and product fit for the long term, and a beta version which received rave reviews from our ideal client. Not looking to join permanently, I left the company in a strong position, with an exciting product roadmap ahead.

My Role

• Business Strategy
• Product Strategy
• Product Design, inc. UX/UI
• Brand Development
• Leading Product Development

My View

pulse is exactly the kind of use of technology I like, fulfilling a significant purpose within a vital sector that lacks well-considered applications. Something that is light on the surface, but working hard underneath. Certain features we developed — such as appropriately flagging dips or jumps in patient progress to healthcare professionals — as well as certain platform uses — such as not being afraid to use SMS where it performed the job better than anything else — were right up my street. It is a project I’m proud of.