Creating an MVP mobile app to improve patient recruitment

CONTEXT:

A high-end clinical trials research company contacted us after experiencing a decline in the recruitment of healthy participants for some of their trials. This decline resulted in missed SLAs and unfulfilled study quotas, directly impacting their sales and bottom line.

CHALLENGE: 

The company’s overall goal was to rapidly scope, design and release an intuitive end-user mobile application to improve the recruitment experience for new and existing participants, maintaining their existing brand reputation as a desirable, innovative, and preferred company.

PROCESS: 

What would typically be a month-long MVP ideation cycle was modified into a design sprint. Employing a customer-centric research and design process, we analyzed existing customer survey data to inform five in-person interviews with frequent clinical trials participants on the first day, which allowed us to map the customers’ journey as a group, and identify both customer and business pain points. Stakeholders from IT, Marketing, Operations, Pharmacology, and the Customer Call Center were included in strategy sessions during the sprint, allowing us to guide definition of an MVP feature set.  After a series of strategy and sketching activities, we rapidly designed a proof-of-concept prototype application, which was then tested with 10+ volunteers around the country.

OUTCOME:

Because key features were validated and refined with trial participants, the business was able to move forward with a technical architecture and refined design phase over the next month, allowing for an immediate build phase. The prototype was updated, tested with users again, and subsequently refined with guidance on technical feasibility. The client now has a clear metric by which to measure success: achieving a 95%+ trial fill rate, along with increased customer satisfaction with their brand.