Parachute Health is an online medical ordering platform between suppliers and facilities that allows users to create orders, see order status, and receive real-time messaging between clinicians and suppliers. This project is broken up into three parts: Research, MVP Design, and MVP+ Design.
Company
Parachute’s Health
Team
1 PM and 5 Engineers
Timeline
9 weeks
Takeaways
Product Thinking, Research –Led Design Decisions, Designing with Complexity
The Problem
Data showed that orders between suppliers and facilities were delayed or sometimes dropped, leading to higher facility and clinician churn. Since sales reps act as the middlemen, we aimed to design a simplified experience for them to quickly follow up on orders, increase order completion, and reduce churn.
The Solution
After a directional pivot due to research revealing new insights, I designed an app experience to help sales reps get more clinicians to sign up for Parachute Health, one of our business goals. Then, I design features to help our Sales Reps find their most crucial orders through filters and search options.
Prelude
Our year-long goal was to increase clinician sign-on, increase order completion, and update our outdated Sales rep mobile app. The project has three parts: research that results in a pivot of direction, MVP design, and MVP+ fast follow.
The Final MVP Design
Creating A Callout For Clinician Signature Needed
To eliminate searching for clinician signatures, our PM proposed digital signature requests to boost sign-offs and sales rep engagement by 3k monthly. I designed the MVP using our design system to improve order conversion.
The Final MVP Design
Updating the visual hierarchy for readability and fixing bugs
Researching or restructuring the order detail page was out of scope. However, I did update the spacing, gave the page more visual hierarchy, and fixed the button bug.
The Final MVP+ Design
Filter Orders to Find Their Most Crucial Needs
Sales Reps want to find orders with missing documents that need urgent turnaround. Currently, the user needs to click each order to find this information.
The Final MVP+ Design
Searching Orders by Facilities or Patients Based on Sales Rep’s Mental Modal
I emphasized the need for a solution to decrease sales rep turnover. I improved the app's usability, enabling sales reps to prioritize work and patient follow-ups during facility visits. This resulted in faster order completion and increased app usage.
Outcome
We are still in the early months of our first release; however, we have seen a 20% increase in sales rep app. usage from our suppliers, such as Lincare and Adapt. Also, we see a 25% increase in clinician sign-on. We are in the process of releasing the filter experience.
Research
Timeline
3weeks
My Contribution
User Reseach and Analysis
Research: Problem
Ownership of recurring orders was disputed. Some advocated for sales rep management based on supplier feedback, while others cited insufficient incentives for reps to consistently follow up.
We did not have enough data to support that sales reps’ workflow includes following up with clinicians’ recurring orders. My solution was to conduct user interviews to learn more about their workflow.
Research: Outcome
My research show that an internal team manages these, so my team pivoted direction to design an experience for the internal team. We later returned to focus on the sales rep. experience in the mobile app.
We shifted our focus to designing for the internal team to improve the recurring orders experience first, then returned to the sales rep. app experience.
01: Research Process
Our first strategic approach was to design a recurring orders experience in the mobile experience; however, there were gaps in understanding if the sales reps are incentivized to follow up on those orders.
The PRD lacked user perspective. I scheduled a session with my project manager to identify the gaps between business goals and user needs, which helped to form the research plan's goals and assumptions.
02: Research Process
I collaborated with my PM to create the research script and used our assumptions to build out the questions.
Starting with assumptions helped me craft the research plan. When documenting my findings, I highlighted each assumption to indicate whether it was validated through research, and I also listed discoveries and user blockers.
Research Findings
Interviews with five sales reps revealed they lack incentives for recurring orders and either use the app for notifications or abandon it due to missing crucial information.
“We don’t typically work on pushbacks. We leave that to the office since they’re the ones who receive them.” - Sales Rep from Texas.
“I only use my app. for notifications because there are a lot of them [orders in app.]” - Sales Rep from Ohio.
03: Research Process
With the data, I designed a customer journey map, highlighting their flow, pain points, and needs, which helped guide our strategic direction shift.
I began mapping out the sales reps' experience to fill in the gaps for our PRD. I presented this diagram to my PM, highlighting their need for easily discovering orders. After a discussion with my PM, we persuade the senior leadership team to on a new direction.
Outcome
As a team, we decided to pivot and address the recurring orders feature as an internal staff desktop experience instead of a sales rep mobile. After designing that experience, we revisited the sales rep app. experience.
MVP Design
Timeline
4 weeks
My Contribution
Interaction Design
Usability Testing
MVP: Problem
Next, the team wanted to increase clinician sign-on through the sales reps’ mobile experience. I needed to simplify the current experience to increase the sales reps’ usage of the flow, which was currently at a median rate of 53% per month.
Our strategy was to design for finding orders needing a clinician's signature for order completion since sales reps complete the request flow at a median rate of 53% per month.
MVP: Outcome
I designed an experience to simplify clinicians' signature requests, boosting order completion monthly. Three months post-release, sales rep app usage from suppliers like Lincare and Adapt rose by 20%, and clinician sign-ons increased by 25%.
Through interaction explorations and usability testing, I designed a solution to increase order completionwhile advocating for greater exposure to help sales reps discover their most critical orders.
01: Current Experience
To achieve the goal and test the sales rep's mental modalities, I designed a “Clinicians Tab” that allows a sales rep to see the number of outstanding signatures per clinician.
I designed an experience that pulled the clinician signatures to the top of the page, exposing the first data points on the app. and allowing the sales rep to send a signature request to complete an order.
02: Design For Business Goal [Design Direction 1]
To accomplish the goal, I exposed the “clinician signatures needed” to the top of the page, helping them to follow up with clinicians to complete orders.
I designed an experience that pulled the clinician signatures to the top of the page, exposing the first data points on the app. and allowing the sales rep to send a signature request to complete an order.
03: Design to Meet Business Goal [Design Direction 2]
Currently, sales reps must click into each order to find orders that need a signature for completion.
Also, the bugs and inefficiencies in the outdated experience sometimes prevented the sales rep from sending the signature request to the clinicians through the app.
02: Research Process
Bringing the Engineer lead early into the concept phase, we assess the technical feasibility of each direction.
Working with the engineers, we began to measure the feasibility of each interaction and the time it would take to possibly build it.
Usability Testing Findings
Although users liked the clinician tab because it allows them to follow up on all orders with a clinician simultaneously, all five sales reps could easily navigate through "Direction 1”.
“I like the clinicians’ tab because I could prioritize the clinicians I need to see; however, I would not use it solely for sending signature requests.” - Sales Rep from New York
“The first direction quickly exposes the information I need to complete my task.” - Sales Rep from Flordia
04: Design to Meet Business Goal
After deciding on a direction, I initiated the process by drafting use case scenarios for the MVP. I then collaborated with the PM and Engineering Lead to refine and finalize these scenarios.
Incorporating the business goals and the users' needs, I began crafting a different scenario, including edge cases that the users could potentially encounter.
Hero Flow
MVP: Final Design
Based on the usability test, I designed the Streamline Flow to increase order conversion by 3k monthly by exposing the clinicians’ signature requests needed at the top.
MVP: Final Design
Card Redesign
From user research, I learned that patient and clinician information helps sales reps prioritize, so I included it. I also added tags on the “Outstanding Signature Request” page to show when a request was last sent.
MVP: Final Design
Sorting Feature
I introduced a sort by “earliest requested date,” which helps the sales rep contact the clinicians with the most urgent orders.
MVP: Final Design
Adding A Clinican
I added a feature for sales reps to add new clinical recipients. Previously, sales reps were removed from the signature request flow. Now, they can add recipients and send requests.
Sorting Feature No Signature Needed
MVP: Final Design
Continuously advocating for the user, I designed a disable button as an edge case when no signatures are needed.
Outcome
Three months post-release, sales rep app usage from suppliers like Lincare and Adapt increased by 20%, while clinician sign-ons rose by 25%. We were on track to achieve our business goal of increasing month-to-month clinician sign-ons to the Parachute Health platform. However, we need to investigate the root causes of app abandonment among sales reps.
MVP+ Design
Timeline
3 weeks
Artifacts
Product Roadmap
Final MVP+ Design
MVP+: Problem
Our team faced two critical challenges with the Sales Rep mobile app: developing a feature for quickly identifying crucial orders and creating a comprehensive roadmap to improve the app experience.
The MVP design successfully solved the business goal but did not help the sales reps quickly find their crucial needs. If the team wanted to revive the app, we needed to improve its discoverability.
MVP+: Outcome
I implemented filters and inline searches for urgent order identification based on internal workshop findings and usability tests. Preliminary feedback from key clients like Linden indicated significant improvements in sales rep efficiency.
The data from the usability test gave us insight into how the sales reps search for orders. I wanted to apply it in the fast-follow design.
03: MVP+ Design
Data from the previous usability test showed a high demand for filters to find the sales reps’ most crucial needs.
With the data, I convinced the PMs that we needed a fast follow-up. The PMs and I created a roadmap for the sales rep app. I worked with the engineers to understand the feasibility of the new feature.
01: MVP+ Design
I organized a workshop with sales experts, PMs, and engineers to strategize the future of the Sales Rep mobile app experience.
I planned a workshop with two PMs, seven internal staff who support the Sales Reps, and two Lead engineers for us to discuss the key pain points, needs of the Sales Reps, and the gaps within our current experience.
02: MVP+ Design
We organized the features for our sales reps from the least to the most important.
We organized the different features by impact and feasibility using the matrix framing exercise (time x impact) exercise. Ultimately, we listed the filters from least to most important.
More Usability Testing Findings
With the engineers’ feedback on feasibility, I recommended these features from the prior usability test to meet the users’ need to discover their crucial orders and prioritize their work. These additional findings help me convince my PM to do a fast-follow.
(MVP+) Feature One: Search Filter
Four of five sales reps stated they wanted to filter by facilities and patients, saying that it helps them prioritize their work for the day.
(MVP+) Feature Two: Other Filters
Sales reps thought missing documentation and other attributes were equally important as a clinician’s signature request.
(MVP+) Feature Three: Helpdesk
Sales Reps need to update orders. However, they all prefer to contact a Parachute Assistant to make those changes.
MVP+: Final Design
Search Filter
The search filter was in-page, allowing the sales rep to prioritize their work during facility visits and follow up with patients, increasing sales by search by facility or patient. Working with engineers, we decided not to have an auto-populate experience for the first release.
MVP+: Final Design
Additional Filters
The additional filter helped prioritize outstanding orders, not solely outstanding signature requests, so I added the “outstanding signature request” to the filters as “actions needed.” The next step is to explore a saved filter experience after the fast-follow.
Helpdesk Feature
MVP+: Final Design
For MVP, the Helpdesk future was out of scope. However, I created an experience that allows the sales rep. to email support if any changes are needed, like the clinician’s contact information.
Outcome
When I left, we were still collecting data, but top clients like Linden reported significant improvements in sales reps' efficiency. The inline search and filters helped reps find their most crucial orders faster, increasing their likelihood of using the mobile app more frequently. Additionally, the enhanced experience led to increased order completion rates, which could reduce facility and clinician churn.
Lessons Learned
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Balancing Business Goals with Users' Needs
As designers, we must evaluate and map out ways the business goals meet the user needs. I collaborated with the PM to balance business objectives and essential user needs, reducing facility churn and increasing order deliveries.
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Working within Tight Deadlines To Meet Goals
Over two years of neglected mobile app research resulted in bugs and sales rep abandonment. With no data and a tight timeline, I had to conduct research and usability testing based on assumptions quickly.
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Using Usability Testing to Pivot Direction
As a strong proponent of usability testing, I involved my PMs and engineers in this new process. I educated them on its significance by including them in test sessions, collaborating on research scripts, and explaining my analysis process.