Mental health POC. Alex Galagan

Design new product from scratch in the mental health space.

Company: Cold Start
Domain: Healthcare
Discipline: UI, UX, Research

Context

00 Pre-history

The initiator of the creation of the product was the venture company Cold Start. Cold Start founded the unicorn company in the child behavioral health domain and has 5 incubated companies in the portfolio.

02 Solution and value proposition

A modern subscription-based mental health service

03 Users

Patients - are people who are qualified to receive mental health care.

Goal

Test the demand for mental health service offerings by creating proof of concept of the service.

Phase 1. Discovery

01 Assumptions mapping

I conducted and facilitated a workshop with stakeholders to map all assumptions that we had at that point.

It consists of 2 parts:

Target audience assumptions: Who are our clients? Who are not?
Patient journey assumptions: How we can help patients at each stage of their journey?

Part 2. Patient journey assumptions and mapping

02 Research plan

User research objectives

Understand the patient's JTBD
Identify patient personas & their needs
Identify potential opportunity areas for the Psychiatry offering

In a healthcare UX design, we use ‘patient’ instead of ‘user’ to be more empathetical

03 Experts Interview

We conducted a series of experts interviews to have a better understanding about:

the process of providing care
common mental conditions and their treatment
medication treatment (how it works)
what are don’t s in interviewing patients.

Experts:

Clinical director
Licensed therapist
Senior product manager with vast experience in the mental health space.

04 Competitors research

One of the important parts was to take a look at the value offering in a saturated competitors’ landscape. Also to have a useful source of references in terms of visual design.

05 Preparation for patient interviews

Summary

We spoke with 6 externally recruited users to identify potential opportunity areas for the Psychiatry offering and to understand users’ needs and motivations for using the service. In addition, we conducted 5 unmoderated user interviews to gather qualitative insights on the current landing page.

Unmoderated internal patients

01. Research Objectives

The below objectives are based on the key assumptions that were mapped by the wider team.

Understand patient's JTBD, what they were hoping to achieve/find when they visited the landing page
What are the main reasons why they decided to join or not to join
Identify potential opportunity areas for the Psychiatry offering
Identify different personas & needs

02. Methodology

30 mins interviews
Open-ended questions

03. Patient, we plan to interview

Criteria to select which leads to reaching out to

Leads that are considered dead leads and that have not converted
Leads that don’t qualify for treatment

External recruited patients

Recruited via userinterviews.com

01. Research Objectives

The below objectives are based on the key assumptions that were mapped by the wider team.

Understand patient's JTBD, what they were hoping to achieve/find
Identify potential opportunity areas for the Psychiatry offering
Identify different personas & needs

02. Methodology

60 mins interviews
Open-ended questions
Semi-structured

03. Patient, we plan to interview

Have a mental health condition
Qualified

Discussion guides

For internal and external patients there were prepared two discussion guides. The guide was enhanced and updated after each interview.

Excerpt from the discussion guide for unqualified leads.

For the user research there been used following guidelines:

Remote user research
Writing a discussion guide
How to write a screener survey
Informed consent for user research
Facilitation tips
Observer guide

06 Interviews

For internal interviews I used userbrain.com.

For external interviews, I used Zoom video calls. Each interview was recorded.

07 Processing results

I used Dovetail.

08 Personas

Summary

We identified 3 personas shared across the different roles:

The Critic — She wants to find a treatment that “really” works. She is open to switching providers if it gets her closer to his goal.

Holistic Persona — She wants to find a treatment/service that addresses her whole self as a person and not just her condition

The Naive — He wants to understand his condition and treatment options. He wants to find a trustworthy mental health expert that can guide him through the process

Final summary

09 Patient journey

Based on patient personas we created the patient journey from the crisis to the recovery stage.

Discovery phase summary

01 Key Journey Takeaways

Patients’ journey is a long story of understanding their condition and finding the right treatment.
Patients often switch many specialists and psychiatrists before finding the “right” one.
Patients want to switch to non-medication as soon as possible once they feel “it´s under control”.

02 Insights

Seeking help from a mental health expert to shed light on their problem

Patients at the beginning of the journey are not actively seeking a diagnosis or treatment what they want is reassurance and understanding of the root of the problem. They look for an open-minded psychiatrist who carefully listens and is eager to help.

”I could just confidentially like tell them like how I was feeling and they could try to give me some tips on like how to handle some of those thoughts or, you know, what else I could do, you know, just somebody that could like, listen to me without judgment was I think the biggest reason.”

Finding the “right”, open-minded psychiatrist takes them almost forever

Patients have a long history of switching psychiatrists and searching for a second opinion. Patients are not only looking into the Psychiatrists experience and credentials. They are also highly interested in finding the "right" Psychiatrist that will truly listen without judging with whom they can feel comfortable opening up and sharing their biggest fears. This is something difficult to assess without having met them, which often leads to trying different Psychiatrists until they find the one that feels "right".

”I would like to know if I get along with him if he inspires me the trust that I need because this is a touchy, feely subject, this is not going to the doctor because you have a broken leg.”

And 8 more insights