MY ROLE: Lead researcher and designer—solely responsible for all content
TIMELINE: 2 months
CLIENT: Ruby, a B2C startup
Background
Ruby was struggling to find product/market fit for their primary product — a tool to help families collaborate on finances and important documents. The idea arose that families caring for a loved one with dementia might be a prime target audience. Individuals with dementia become increasingly prone to financial mistakes and sadly, scams. The more involved family members can be in overseeing a loved one’s finances, the more they can protect them and their financial future.
The Challenge
The goal was to understand the key needs of this target audience to determine potential product/market fit and feature recommendations. A primary challenge is how to connect this group, overwhelmed and looking for answers, with Ruby at the right time.
The Outcome
I learned that tools to help someone know what to expect would not only alleviate stress, but could be the bridge to connect the target audience to our product.
crowd-sourced timeline
A budgeting tool to help anticipate the costs of care options
I also defined personas, created journey maps, and made additional recommendations to inform business strategy.
RESEARCH + DISCOVERY
Process + deliverables
Research plan | Evaluation plan | Stakeholder interviews | SME interviews | Quantitative research | Qualitative research | Product assessment
Evaluation plan
SME interviews
SME-informed Journey map
“Often it’s the financial decisions and mistakes that start being a clue that cognition is impaired.”
Quantitative research
Qualitative research
pain points
Role reversal: This experience brings with it the struggle of a change in role from partner or child to caregiver. Participants felt particularly conflicted about role reversal when it comes to money.
The financial unknown: Several people mentioned how not knowing what to budget for added a great deal of stress to the situation.
“We had it budgeted out but we don’t have a crystal ball to know how long he’s going to live so the financial side is just a constant worry.”
Newfound responsibility: From providing transportation, to ensuring medicines were taken, to taking on the care of their loved one's hygiene, food, and home, people's lives are drastically changed.
A series of individual battles: Participants expressed that new problems to solve and decisions to make, arrived piecemeal. This added a huge layer of frustration to an already stressful time.
“Everything was one problem at a time as they came up. Boy, would that have been nice if everything had been all laid out at once.”
SYNTHESIS + DEFINING
Affinity mapping
Defining insights
Personas
Journey maps
SOLUTIONS
I learned that Ruby would be most valuable to those who have not yet put a plan in place who are waiting for an incident to inspire action. What helps people take action is information specific to their situation. I also learned that tools to help someone know what to expect would not only alleviate stress, but could be the bridge to connect the target audience to our product.
CRowdsourced TIMELINE
Data about key points in the experience of a navigating a dementia diagnosis are collected, aggregated, and displayed on a timeline. This provides an individual a sense of what’s to come and how to plan for it.
budgeting tool
Give a user the tools to anticipate the costs of care options and how to budget for them. The tool gives estimates of local care facilities as well as identifies expenses the user might not have considered.
Help start the conversation
Provide guidance about how to have the difficult conversations around the shifting of financial management roles due to dementia. This could take the form of blog posts, physically mailed material, or connecting people with specialists.
help simplify the complicated
A major pain point for people was understanding all of the legal, medical, insurance, and tax issues that arise. Incorporate guidance and clarity for what they are likely to encounter.
Something as simple a checklist of actions to take could be very valuable.
paper statements
Individuals with dementia are typically of the age demographic to expect financial statements on paper. Help build trust and make it an easier transition for them by providing that option.
customizability
As the disease progresses, roles change. Help make the transition gradual by allowing family members to customize access and set limits for an individual with dementia as needed.
FINAL TAKEAWAYS
This project was particularly challenging due to the incredibly emotional subject of dementia. I was humbled by participants’ willingness to be vulnerable in sharing their stories. Given a glimpse into how difficult caring for a loved one with dementia can be, I felt very motivated in building a product to help.
There is definite need for products that ease the enormous stress of this experience. My research made clear that Ruby is well-positioned to do so. I look forward to more opportunities to make lives a little easier through design.