Empathy-driven solutions

User Research & Proposition Development

Context

This project focused on developing a user-centred service for women's health, co-creation being at its heart.

It was undertaken at Admiral Pioneer, Admiral Group's innovation hub (FTSE 100 company), and marked the company’s first health sector pilot. We aimed to reimagine the future of women's health, particularly focusing on menopause support.

I was involved in the creation of the pilot from start to finish, working on everything from research and proposition development to testing the proof of concept (POC) and minimum viable product (MVP).

The challenge

Our mission was to design an inclusive service to support people going through menopause—a topic still considered sensitive yet vital to the wellbeing of half of the world’s population.

Key Questions:
- How do we research a subject with empathy?
- How do we design a service that supports users on such an emotional and physical journey?

Team

2 Service Designers, 1 Growth expert, 2 Commercial. Support from: Risk, Legal and Compliance, Tech, Data, Finance.

My role

Service Designer, I was involved in developing user research, proposition development, and testing POC and MVP.

Period

February 2022 - October 2022
Admiral Pioneer

Discovery & Define

Market Research 
We started with extensive market research to better understand the growing demand for women's health services in the UK, Europe, and the US. Through competitive analysis, I reviewed various brands offering menopause and fertility services to identify gaps and opportunities in the market.

User Research

Planning: I collaborated planning and defining research objectives and assumptions to validate.
Interviews: Recruited and scheduled interviews with 35+ users (menopause & fertility users and their partners) and 6+ healthcare professionals, employers, and HR team members.
Conducting Research: Worked with the team to design conversation guides and conduct interviews with users and stakeholders.
Data Analysis: Analysed qualitative data from interviews, identifying patterns and insights. Conducted quantitative studies using Typeform, gathering nearly 1500 responses from menopausal women and employers.
Sharing Insights: Created personas, user journeys, and visual content to share insights with the broader team.
Challenge: The sensitivity of the topic required adapting to different user realities, emphasising empathy and understanding.
Double Diamond

We used the Double Diamond Methodology, allowing us to work in an agile environment.

Key Learnings from User Research

Awareness

There's a lack of education about menopause and its 30+ symptoms, with it still being perceived as a taboo topic.

Access to Experts

Gaps exist in NHS services for menopause, including access to experienced GPs, specialist treatments, non-medical health advice, and timely services.

The Long Path of Diagnosis

Many users experience a long journey to get a diagnosis, often facing misdiagnosis.

Support and Treatment

Access to proper treatment is challenging, with misinformation about HRT and a lack of support in the workplace.

Develop & Deliver

Ideation & Co-creation

Planned and facilitated sessions to share research findings and start ideation, involving stakeholders and colleagues from Admiral Pioneer.
Conducted 2 online co-creation workshops with users: one with menopausal women and one with couples facing fertility challenges.
Engaging stakeholders who weren't part of the user research was crucial. Sharing findings and onboarding them effectively was one of the main challenges in this stage of the project.

Testing POC & MVP 
We created Nalah Life, a menopause employee benefit providing quick access to diagnosis, experts, peer support, and holistic treatments. Our first pilot of Nalah Life was tested within Admiral Group (10,000 employees).

Co-created the initial user journey with the design team and users.
Designed a menopause diagnosis tool to facilitate quick self-diagnosis. The result was a questionnaire with almost 400 possible questions embedded.
Worked with menopause experts to validate the diagnostic tool.
Collaborated with UI and Digital Designers to create communication pieces and a prototype for our landing page.
Conducted tests on UserZoom to evaluate the service offering. This helped us improve our different communication pieces.
Managed the creation of 70 menopause reports for initial users.
Organised and coordinated menopause group consultations.
Collected user feedback to refine the user journey.
I collaborated in the recruitment and onboarding of healthcare professionals for group consultations.
Joined most of the group consultations, helping me better identify possible challenges within the sessions and their format.

Some of the main challenges faced were ensuring accurate medical diagnoses, communicating the service effectively, and providing an inclusive medical service.

Pilot Outcome

The pilot ran for 2 months, focusing on service awareness, diagnosis tool access, and group consultations. The results were highly positive:

111

users signed up

77

used our diagnosis tool

88%

rated the service as Good or Excellent

100%

attendees signed up for a follow up consultation

My Learnings


‍
The Live to 101 team has been a referent in Admiral Pioneer. Within those seven months of work, we assured that:

Access to diagnosis & advice

Through this project, 77 people got free access to a immediate diagnosis which usually takes at least 12 months in the UK. What is more, they also got access to free holistic advice from different menopause experts including GPs, nurses, nutritionists and life style coaches.

Service Design Lense

The importance of believing in the process. It was one of the first businesses the company built using the double diamond from the start, which helped us built a user-centred proposition.

The B side

This was the first pilot the company launched within the health industry. Despite proving desirability, the project was paused due to the market size and revenue potential not meeting Admiral's expectations. However, partnership opportunities within the healthcare industry are being explored.