Ekvi
Background
Endometriosis is a global women's health problem, affecting 1 out of 10 women worldwide. This means 200 million women of reproductive age, which has a huge cost to the women affected, and our society as a whole.
€19B
Global productivity loss
It takes on average 8-10 years to be diagnosed with Endometriosis, leaving many women incapable of contributing to society.
€900B
Global cost for IVF
40% of women with Endometriosis experience infertility, due to their condition.
€70B
Global cost of treating depression
25% of women diagnosed with Endometriosis have depressive symptoms linked to their diagnosis.
Crafting Solutions with Precision
When I joined Ekvi, our mission was clear: we needed to find a way to empower women with Endometriosis and let them be in charge of their bodies and their treatments. The pressing question was, how would we achieve this?
To address this, I introduced the double diamond design process, mapping out its various phases. This approach not only guided our efforts but also educated the team on the benefits of a structured approach to product development.
Discovering the Pain Points
After hours of interviewing women with endometriosis, doctors dealing with their diagnosis, and specialists treating their symptoms, the team and I gathered the biggest pain points;
1 / Detailed Tracking
The users had a hard time finding digital tools with effective symptom-tracking and management
2 / Holistic Treatment
Current apps do not offer personalized insights to find evidence-based, holistic treatments
3 / Information
Limited access to trustworthy, relevant, and proactive information
4 / Gaslighting
No easy way to share symptoms with healthcare professionals to avoid medical gaslighting
Hypotheses
Users will experience improved health outcomes and greater trust in their healthcare when a solution is developed that enables effective symptom tracking, provides personalized holistic treatment insights, and facilitates easy symptom sharing with healthcare professionals.
Starting small, scaling up
Being a small team with limited resources, we needed to focus on the right things in the beginning. Big ideas were broken apart into small pieces and prioritisation was key.
Keeping a close conversation with the key players from the user interviews helped us prioritise the different features, flows, and pain points until we had a structured way ahead.
In a hectic start-up environment, the whole team needed to fill the empty spots and wear a lot of different hats on a daily basis. To streamline our process, it was essential for the entire team to be on the same page. I facilitated workshops, activities, and team sessions where we brainstormed and discussed the most efficient ways to build our products and make the best use of our tools.
The Birth of the Tracker
To provide the best care, we realised we needed the users to log their symptoms in our product. This data would allow us to analyze their patterns, when certain symptoms show up, in correlation with other symptoms, and what they could do to break unwanted patterns.
Looking back at the interviews with doctors and women with Endometriosis, we decided to start by focusing on the most important symptoms.
We wanted to ensure users could log bleeding, pain, painkillers, hormones, as well as mood, energy, and stress. This level of detail aimed to empower users with precise information, and improve the quality of care they received from their doctors, but also understand what they could do for themselves.
Good enough today, perfect tomorrow
Working with a small team and a complicated infrastructure brought its own set of challenges. We had to learn to balance between "good enough for today" and "perfect for tomorrow." One of the biggest lessons was learning to let go and accept the app in its current state.
Building in public added another layer of complexity. As a perfectionist designer who loves when everything is flawless, it was tough to relax and just go with the flow. However, this experience taught me the invaluable skill of embracing imperfection and focusing on progress over perfection.
Systematic Designs
To ensure consistency across the product, streamline the design and development process, and make our work more scalable and maintainable, I created a detailed design system.
The system provided a unified foundation, enhancing collaboration between the team members by offering a shared set of tools and a common language.
The first milestone
Our first release was a significant milestone for us as a team but also for our test users. The users were now able to start tracking the top 15 symptoms.
Additionally, we integrated an insights section, transforming their data into easy-to-read graphs. This feature allows users to visualize their health patterns, empowering them with valuable insights and a deeper understanding of their bodies, as well as a communication tool with healthcare personnel.
To get an overview of the patterns in an easy way, we also introduced a calendar function where users could see how their pain and bleeding levels had looked in the past.
Appstore here we are!
We're incredibly happy with the first release of our product, but we also know we have a long road ahead.
Engagement metrics are high, with frequent symptom tracking and positive feedback on personalized insights. Surveys indicate high satisfaction and trust, and healthcare professionals find the shared data valuable.
For now, the foundation is laid. The basic tracking is here, as well as the basic Insight feature. Next up we're working to add even more detailed monitoring of more symptoms, a more in-depth insight feature and content with trustworthy research.