Preparing a Medtech Startup for Launch | 2022
Nesos developed earbuds that stimulate the vagus nerve by sending electronic pulses through the ear. The hypothesis was this stimulation would alleviate symptoms in patients suffering from inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, migraines and postpartum depression.
​
The product was in clinical trials when I joined the company. I knew it was a risky move, but the proof of concept data showed significant promise, they were funded by reputable investors, and my prior manager recruited me. Ultimately the clinical trial results were unfavorable, and the company closed a few months later.
.png)
My Role
-
Build the product team from the ground up (PM, UX research, product design)
-
Collaborate with executive leadership to ready the product for commercial launch in 2023
-
​
-
Create and deliver the product portfolio for patients and providers including a mobile app, responsive websites and the wearable device
Defining The Problem
The product that went into clinical trials was very basic and required significant work before commercialization. The ecosystem included:
-
A locked Android phone with a one screen app to control the earbuds
-
The earbuds and travel case
-
A custom ear mold was created for each participant resulting in long lead times
-
The earbuds did not have audio capability or sensors to measure progress and success​
-
-
Spreadsheets we created for the clinical researchers to document their study findings
I collaborated with the founder and leadership team to identify the top problems we needed to solve before launch, and prioritized the remaining items into a multi-year product roadmap.
.jpg)
Approach to Compliance and Engagement
While our hardware Engineering team focused on creating universal earbuds, I directed our team's efforts towards solving for patient compliance. We developed a framework based on the book "Hooked" (how to create habit-forming apps) and socialized our strategy with the executive team.
.jpg)
Understanding Patient and Provider Needs
In parallel, we conducted foundational research with postpartum depression patients, ObGyns and therapists to understand their needs and generate additional ideas for new features.
.png)
We were able to expand our research to clinical trial participants (people who actually used the product) as they completed our study and their data became unblinded to us. We conducted 1:1 exit interviews with each user to learn about their experience.
_edited.jpg)
This research led us to revisit our roadmap and priorities. We began to understand the significant challenges participants faced during the trial that would negatively impact compliance and efficacy:
-
Patients often had painful sensations in their ears while running the therapy
-
Therapy would stop without warning if the patient moved too far away from their phone
-
The earbuds could not consistently make proper contact in the ear to deliver therapy
-
The earbuds needed to be replaced every few weeks because they would stop working
Our Engineering team pivoted to address these foundational device issues while we continued to explore potential digital content and features for patients — now with a deeper understanding of the technical challenges and user needs.
Working closely with the founder and leadership team, we rallied around a vision for the app:
Rapidly Concepting Ideas
We believed we could make a significant impact on patient compliance by helping users form a daily therapy habit through the mobile app. The key question we sought to answer was which feature(s) would drive patient engagement and result in high compliance.
Within a week, we mocked-up concepts of different feature ideas, identified what we wanted to test with users, and determined what was critical to learn. Our findings would not only establish the roadmap for the mobile app, but also help prioritize features for the device and provider experiences.
A key insight from our foundational research was that most patients would use the app while breastfeeding. Based on that data, we chose to prototype in a dark mode palette — not the direction we would typically take for a mental health app. We were very eager to test the concept with users and gauge their response.
Breaking Down the Prototype Features
Home Tab
Our primary goal for the home tab was to provide a clear CTA to start therapy while also enticing users with other features to drive compliance and engagement. The three screens below illustrate a user scrolling down the home tab.
Personalized and supportive messages
Strong CTA to start therapy
Integration with data from wearables the patient may own
Allowing patients to connect with others
Patients are rarely referred to therapists, so we wanted to test interest in this feature
We believed users expected audio and used the research to help prioritize this feature
Showing progress to motivate continued use
Learning if users had interest in tracking goals
Testing interest in personalized content
Therapy Session
These screens were used in research to understand what users wanted to do during their therapy session, what data they wanted to see, and if they would be interested in tracking how they felt.
Content Features
These screens were used to gauge interest interest in various features, content types and progress tracking.
Turning Research Insights Into a Multi-Year Roadmap
We tested our concepts with 20 new moms suffering from postpartum depression through 1:1 interviews and remote, unmoderated sessions over the course of one week.
The results were shared with the founder and executive leadership during a working session where we prioritized features based on value add and effort.
​
.jpg)
User stories were created in JIRA to support the new features planned for 2022 and product design was starting to create the experience when the company closed.
Creating a Clinical Study Portal
While working on the patient experience, we reimagined the manual, spreadsheet-based system Clinical Trial Researchers used to manage our studies and created a portal. The build was almost complete when the company closed.
Study Dashboard
Participant Details
Design Library
We worked closely with researchers across 30 clinical trial sites to gather requirements and flesh-out an MVP over three months. We knew many of the features we created would be necessary for the provider portal on our long-term roadmap, so we kept those users in mind during the design process.
