Health Match 360
Rapid validation of a therapist matching web app
Challenge
Validate product assumptions, understand user journey, prioritize next features
Outcome
Clarity about how people used the product and how to grow it. Successfully won a Grant to build out the validated prototype.
Screenshots from the Health Match 360 Prototype
“Participating in the Product Design Sprint was like a slingshot and positioned us to be much more competitive for grants and accelerator programs and also left us with a clear picture of next steps.
Health Match 360 CEO and co-founder
About Health Match 330
Health Match 360 approached thoughtbot with an app that helps people find therapists.
Health Match 360 is a service for matching prospective patients with licensed mental health therapists in the Greater Cincinnati Area. Clients seeking therapy create a secure account, complete a questionnaire about their needs and preferences, and receive a connection to a therapist through Health Match 360’s proprietary matching algorithm.
The algorithm prioritizes therapeutic fit and considers the style and personality of the therapist. To help clients get the help they need quickly, all Health Match 360 therapists agree to offer a free 15 minute phone consultation and an intake appointment within 2 weeks.
The Challenge
Health Match 360 had a pre-revenue and bootstrapped first-iteration MVP and needed guidance in design and product direction.
Bailey Bryant (Founder) is a licensed clinical psychologist with a passion for increasing accessibility to good mental healthcare. She and her partner, Jeremiah Harlan (CTO), applied for thoughtbot's pro-bono Product Design Sprint initiative.
Photos from the Health Match 360 Design Sprint
The Solution
The team conducted a five-day research, design, and testing exercise.
thoughtbot ran a design sprint for Health Match 360 in order to test the assumptions that were made for their first MVP iteration. thoughtbot Designers worked with Bailey and Jeremiah to isolate the problem statement, a user journey, and assumptions within the first day of the sprint. By the end of day two, the team had a full storyboard of the user journey to be tested. The interactive prototype was built off of the storyboard over the following two days. Assumptions were organized into a table with validation criteria and testing methods which both informed the prototype and the interview script.
The Prototype
Figuring out where to go next
After identifying what to focus on, thoughtbot interviewed a range of prospective clients and had them navigate an interactive prototype. Both the interview script and the prototype contained ideas to test and get feedback on.
In conducting these interviews, thoughtbot was able to quickly validate and invalidate ideas for where to grow the Health Match 360 service. In addition, valuable ideas and insights were captured about prospective features and directions the service could take.
“Every thoughtbotter we met was amazing. Each person was warm, supportive, knowledgeable, and helpful. I felt like I could let go of the reigns for a week and follow their lead which was such a wonderful experience. As a founder it’s rare to experience other people being as excited and invested in your company as you are; but for the week of the PDS I felt that I was surrounded by people who were “in it” with me and all pulling in the same direction.
Health Match 360 CEO and co-founder
Outcome
Winning a Grant with the prototype
Immediately following the PDS, the Health Match 360 founders applied for a Grant using the output of the PDS to build their case. A few weeks later, they were thrilled to learn their proposal had been accepted. Bailey and Jeremiah confidently pitched that they had a validated business need to build out a patient-tested prototype which would bring their company to the next level. Congrats to the whole team!