Care management platform for aging adults.
Project:
DMBA Studio Class
Team:
Cortland Moore
Ana Soto
Yasmeen Kamel
Expertise and skills:
End-to-end product development
Design Research
Concept Ideation
Rapid prototyping
Duration:
10 Weeks
Location:
San Francisco
My role:
Stakeholder management & Comms
Research
Synthesis and creative ideation
TL;DR:
We conducted design research and used rapid prototyping to create a care management platform that helps primary caregivers and their extended care network who want manage all aspects of their aging parent’s life. The platform allows users to stay informed by consolidating various sources of information to track and enabling seamless organization through secure information sharing with the rest of the family.
By 2030, more than one in five Americans will be senior citizens, which is known as the ‘silver tsunami’. Despite this growing demographic shift, innovation in care management remains limited.
Leading Insight
Project Timeline
01. Discovery
4 weeks
Problem Discovery
Research Assumptions
Interview Guide & Sacrificial Concepts
Interviews
02. Define
2 weeks
Synthesis
Personas + Opportunities
Concept Ideation
Value Prop + Jobs to be done
Customer Journey / Design Roadmap
03. Develop
2 weeks
Prioritization Matrix
Business Model Canvas
Risk Identification and Testing
Define KPIs + Product Metrics
First Pass Prototype
04. Deliver
2 weeks
Go to Market Plan
Prototype Testing + Iteration
Preliminary Pitch
01. Discovery
This "silver tsunami" presents both challenges and opportunities, as aging adults desire to stay in their homes longer while their generational wealth makes them a foundation for large businesses. Despite this growing demographic shift, innovation in care management remains limited. Through conversations with caregivers, we uncovered a significant gap—while aging parents need support, the real burden often falls on the family caregivers who are left to devise their own organizational and support solutions
Gif: Screen-grab showing the current management a caregiver used for their aging parent
Market Trends
>50%
Of people are more afraid of losing their independence than dying as they grow older
77%
Of older Americans want to age in their homes
820K
New positions projected by 2033 in home health and personal care aides, making it one of the fastest-growing fields in America this decade
70%
Of the country’s disposable income is controlled by Boomers
1/3
Millennials and two in five Gen Xers either manage or help manage their parents' healthcare
Research
4
Discovery interviews with family caregivers
3
Discovery interviews with aging parents
3
Validation interviews with family caregivers
02. Define
Full time Job: Family caregiving can be a full time job. Tasks involve financial management, daily communication, and booking and/or attending appointments.nd booking and/or attending appointments.
Support: Lighten the burden of day-to-day caregiving management
Managing many aspects of care: Family caregivers face challenges in consolidating and managing all the different aspects of their aging parent's life in one central location.
Consolidation: Bring all aspects of care into a single place
Caregiving sharing and updates: Caregivers want a quick way share tasks and update groups.
Collaboration: Streamline task-sharing and group communication
Looming Anxiety: There is anxiety and dread for family caregivers when it comes to reaching the phase of needing to hire more permanent caregiving services.
Reassurance: Support planning for future care transitions
Pervasive loneliness: Aging adults often experience loneliness and isolation, thus placing high value on human interactions in their day-to-day lives.
Connection: Foster social engagement and human connection
Jobs to Be Done
Pain Points
Empowerment: Affirm autonomy and reduce feelings of burden
Worry of being burdensome: Aging adults worry about being a burden often at their own expense
How might we simplify caregivers lives, reduce caregiver stress, and make caregiving more collaborative?
Final Problem Statement
Ideate
Coaching Services
A service pairing caregivers with trained coaches to provide emotional support, strategic planning tools, and stress management resources.
Care Management Platform
A digital platform simplifying caregiving by centralizing schedules, medication tracking, task coordination, and communication.
Task Rabbit for Care Giving
A gig-based marketplace that connects caregivers with vetted local helpers for errands, companionship, transportation, and more.
First Iteration of MPV Features
04. Develop
MVP Updates with Validation Testing
Key Learnings and Impact
01.
User Insights and Iterative Testing Drive Product Decisions
This project reinforced the importance of user-centered design and iterative testing in product development. By focusing on the real needs of caregivers, features such as document storage and chat that we identified as secondary needs were moved to MVP development based on user feedback.
02.
Validating Assumptions Early Prevents Costly Mistakes
Validating the riskiest assumptions such as finding out that caregivers would not switch from their current organizational systems once they had enough momentum, saved us from including them in our target audience.
03.
Prioritization is Key in Product Roadmapping
The team used feature prioritization based on impact vs. effort, ensuring that essential tools like task templates and visibility settings were built first, while encryption and security were future builds.