Home » Case Studies » Narvado Product Strategy & Roadmap
NOTE:
This study emphasizes problem-solving and process while maintaining NDA confidentiality by excluding the company name and project details.
NARVADO | PRODUCT STRATEGY & ROADMAP
Designing a Product Strategy for Smart Assistive Technology
Research
Strategy
UX Design
Healthcare spending
$7.2 Billion
and growing rapidly
Why?
• Aging and growing population
• Rising prevalence of chronic diseases
• Emerging market expansion
• Advances in medical treatments
• Rising labor costs
Just to name a few...
As a result,
of this unprecedented market growth,
people are paying more and demanding more.
​
The evolution of people taking charge
of their health is emerging.
ENTER
The Age of...
“Connected Independence.”
“Connected Independence” is the confluence of intelligent communication technologies and actionable, data-driven services that help people and their families live healthy and independent lives.
Overview
A global multi-disciplinary, $2 Billion technology company wanted to expand its current product line of smart home and medical alert devices with new digitally innovative products addressing the need for “Connected Independence.” I was brought in to work with the Director of Strategy to develop a product design strategy within a 12-week accelerated timeline, resulting in a four-part presentation series that included proposed products, services, and a five-year roadmap to present to the company's Chief Strategy Officer.
My Role: UX Consultant
Duration: 12-Week Accelerated Schedule
Partner: Director of Strategy
Team: Department Team, Select Staff
Stakeholder: Chief Strategy Officer
7 Consumer Segments
5 Roadmap Themes
5 Psychographic Profiles
14 Personas & Scenarios
50+ Journey Stories
4 Customer Journeys
20 Product Concepts
2 Roadmaps
1 Product Design Strategy
PROBLEM
Many of those in need don't know how to ask for help.
Family members often don’t know how to support or tend to their loved ones' needs. Technology can help alleviate some of the stress and burden, but only if it’s the right kind that works for the caregiver and care recipient at the right time and in the right way.
SOLUTION
Collaborative
Care Hub
A comprehensively designed, user-centric, customer portal, comprised of web-based, mobile-friendly, modular applications that work with connected smart devices, empowering family caregivers and care recipients with access to knowledge, communication, and specialized services when and where they need it.
Product Design Strategy Framework
Insights were delivered in the form of the following 4-Part Presentation Series.
01.
Discover
Goal:
Understand user needs and market dynamics
Activities:
• Defining the problem
• Examing Healthcare Situation
• Assessing market activity
• Conducting consumer research
• Identifying uncertainties & risks
• Analyzing data & information
• Documenting findings​​​
DISCOVER
Research
The kickoff to our Discover phase was rooted in research. My references consisted of a mix of consumer / user and market research, including both qualitative and quantitative methods. My objectives were to empathize with consumers and to align our strategy with user needs, market opportunities and business goals to build a foundation for user-centered design and ongoing product improvement.
RESOURCE STACK
• Conjoint statistical analysis studies
• Stakeholder interviews
• User and usability evaluations
• Marketing field surveys
• Previous XP journey mapping studies
• Product and service pricing research
• Quantitative consumer research
• Qualitative consumer research
• Product concept testing
• Customer support logs
• (VOC) Voice-of-customer studies
• SME articles, industry reports, and publications
GUIDING QUESTIONS
With the consumer in mind, I approached market and consumer research by consistently asking key questions to guide our project goals and integrate research insights into our design strategy. The findings revealed our consumers as vulnerable individuals living alone, desiring independence but facing challenges due to mobility issues and safety concerns. Their main challenges stemmed from maintaining autonomy despite physical limitations and fear of relying on caregivers. To address this, our product design strategy focused on a plan to create accessible home solutions, incorporate assistive technologies, and foster community support to empower consumers and lead them toward a more independent and fulfilling lifestyle.
By asking these questions, my goals were to:
-
Develop empathy: Who is the user we’re describing? What is their day like?
-
Establish context: What is the problem that the user is trying to solve?
-
Describe the conflict: What is getting in the way of solving the problem?
-
Resolve the conflict: How can we solve the user’s problem?
02.
Define
Goal:
Establishing a clear direction for our design strategy
Activities:
• Determining target customers
• Creating psychographic profiles
• Capturing population snapshots
• Defining roadmap themes
• Realizing behavioral patterns
• Specifying benefits & challenges
• Identifying population needs
DEFINE
Determining Target Audiences
Utilizing the findings from my market and consumer research, I aimed to identify our target audience segments by analyzing common demographics, behaviors, preferences, and pain points. I considered factors like segment size, growth potential, and alignment with the company’s current and future products and brand. To ensure value for both the business and consumers, I prioritized research insights related to cost, accessibility, ease of use, and positive impact when considering their needs and goals.
CAREGIVERS & THEIR RECIPIENTS
DEFINE
Creating Psychographic Profiles
After identifying our target audience segments and gathering insights on demographics, behaviors, preferences, and pain points, I wanted to delve deeper into consumers' emotions and actions. To do this, I created psychographic profiles that represented different personality traits, helping me better understand caregivers and care recipients and their distinct care and health-related needs as I prepared to create consumer personas.
NEEDS EXERCISE CRITERIA
I gained new insights informing the development of the psychographic profiles by conducting a "needs" exercise to uncover shared patterns and collective needs among the various segments.
Profile "Type"
• Believe their...​
• Look to...
• Like to...
Profile Statements
• "I do..."
• "I'm not..."
• "I am..."
Key to Engagement
• Educate them...
• Empathize when
• Discuss how to...
Exercise Outline
PSYCHOGRAPHIC PROFILES
DEFINE
Defining Roadmap Themes "Care Categories"
After creating psychographic profiles, I proceeded to create roadmap themes, we called "Care Categories". Alongside the roadmap timeline for our product design strategy, we wanted to incorporate a theme-based roadmap to provide a structured and customer-centered approach, to improve internal communication and alignment, and help teams prioritize and adjust their efforts efficiently to meet strategic goals.
NEEDS + MARKET ACTIVITIES = CARE CATEGORIES
DEFINE
Realizing Behavioral Patterns
Following the creation of our care category roadmap themes, I conducted further market research to pinpoint essential areas for leveraging technology to improve care and care coordination. My additional research lead to further insights into business trends, market drivers, product strengths and weaknesses, entry barriers, consumer sentiment, and how consumers are increasingly utilizing technology to shape their healthcare and care experiences.
DEFINE
Identifing Population Needs
To understand and assess the shared needs and challenges within our seven diverse, at-risk target segments, I conducted an exercise using statement prompts like "I WANT," "I NEED," and "I FEAR" to gather valuable insights. This strategic approach aimed to provide a holistic view of our audience's requirements, uncover commonalities, pinpoint disparities, and ultimately guide the creation of segment personas.
When conducting this exercise, I used statement prompts, like I WANT, I NEED, I FEAR, to gather valuable insights across our 7 target-segments.
POPULATION NEEDS EXERCISE
03.
Develop
Goal:
Create foundational elements to inform product design
Activities:
• Craft personas & scenarios
• Frame value to customer
• Map journey stories
• Plot customer journeys
• Visualize journey evolutions
• Develop product concepts
• Prioritize concept statements
DEVELOP
Crafting Personas & Scenarios
After completing our target segments needs exercise, I used what I learned to craft primary personas for caregivers and seniors (omitting the others due to time constraints), along with real-life scenarios. These personas and scenarios helped us envision the "ideal" customer and provided insights into their behavior, lifestyle, needs, challenges, and goals. They were instrumental in shaping our product design strategy and inspiring concepts for products and services tailored to our segments individual needs.
PERSONAS
Caregiver:
(Non-segment specific)
• "No-Nonsense" Nancy
Seniors (65+)
(Personified across five psychographic profiles)
• "Proactive" Paul
• "Carefree" Connie
• "Level-headed" Lydia
• "Tell me what to do" Tilly
• Take Charge" Thomas
DEVELOP
Mapping Journey Stories
The next critical step in shaping our strategy was to comprehend the different interaction and entry points within customers' journeys, encompassing their pain points, challenges, coping mechanisms, and decision-making processes. With our research insights and personas ready, I devised a comprehensive plan to initiate a customer journey mapping exercise. I arranged a workshop and welcomed stakeholders to participate, urging them to contribute their insights and ideas. This approach not only yielded valuable ideas, thanks to participants' institutional knowledge and perspectives, but also nurtured a collaborative environment that kept everyone engaged in the project.
JOURNEY STORIES:
Mapping Exercise
Comprehensive wall map to explore, understand and define the customers' journeys.
Wall Map
(Yes, it was that big)
DEVELOP
Plotting Customer Journeys
After finalizing our customer journey wall map, I need to create a simplified version for the purposes of our final presentation. I used the map to extract essential sentiments and touchpoints, aligning them with consumer goals. This created a quick snapshot that illustrated our understanding of the consumer and revealed areas for potential business opportunities.
CUSTOMER JOURNEY SUMMARY
DEVELOP
Visualizing Journey Evolutions
To provide different views of the customer journeys, I developed three distinct journey evolution scenarios highlighting the progression of a consumer's health and care needs, the changing levels of care required over time, and the unique entry points within these journeys catering to different customer needs.
THREE DIFFERENT JOURNEY EVOLUTIONS
Health Journey Evolution
Levels of Care Over Time
Journey On-Ramps
DEVELOP
Exploring & Analyzing Needs
At this point in our strategy development, we had gained substantial insights into customers' needs, pain points, motivations, and goals. However, we sought to leverage this knowledge through an exercise that would enable us to view how these needs could align with prospective future products and services.
PRODUCT CONCEPT NEEDS EXERCISE
Needs Worksheet Outline
DEVELOP
Developing Product Concepts
Building on the insights from our "Concept Needs Exercise," our next step was to craft product and service concept statements. These statements served as the foundation for exploring enhancements to existing products and new offerings proposed in our product design strategy. In total, we generated 20 concept statements, carefully developed using insights from our prior research and population needs exercises. Each statement was associated with a themed care category, including the specific need, a headline marketing message, insights into the negative outcomes of not having the product or service, its benefits, and a detailed solution description.
CONCEPTS STATEMENTS
Concept Statement Outline
DEVELOP
Prioritizing Concept Statements
I chose to use the KANO Analysis Model (also known as the “Customer Delight vs. Implementation Investment” approach) to prioritize our product design concepts because it provided a structured way to assess the concepts' impact on customer satisfaction. This approach ensured that we concentrated on concepts that would both enhance customer satisfaction and meet their expectations. By categorizing customer preferences into five groups, we gained a user-centered perspective, aiming to deliver lasting value over time. This approach directed our choices for product concepts to incorporate into our roadmap, aiming to improve the overall customer experience while considering their marketability potential.
KANO ANALYSIS MODEL
Five emotional response categories:
• Must-Be (or must-have)
• Performance (happy based on quality)
• Attractive (customer delight)
• Indifferent (customers don't care)
• Reverse (low customer satisfaction)
KANO Wall Canvas
04.
Deliver
Goal:
Guide product design & tactics
to ensure alignment
Activities:
• Refine mission statement
• Adjust goals & objectives
• Form customer promise
• Define solution vision
• Build roadmaps
• Present product strategy
• Discuss lessons learned
DELIVER
Building Roadmaps
Following the prioritization of our product concept statements, I proceeded to construct two roadmaps to shape our product design strategy. Initially, I created a themed roadmap, communicating the strategic direction, overarching vision, and priorities. Then, I plotted a timeline-based roadmap, providing a detailed plan and execution timeline extending over a five-year period. These complementary roadmaps were produced to balance long-term strategic objectives and the tactical steps necessary for future product design and development.
THEMED TRANSFORMATION ROADMAP
The map above displays five themes (care categories), followed by subsequent epics (sample text) per theme.
PRODUCT DESIGN STRATEGY ROADMAP
5-Year Timeline
DELIVER
12-Week Design Methodology Progression
To realize the customer value, we employed a product design process that analyzed the…
DELIVER
Next Steps