Taking a Moonshot
Activities: Strategic leadership, project management, design thinking workshops and process, building partnerships, product development, marketing and promotion
All day ideation sessions helped the team share experiences and knowledge, generate ideas, identify overarching themes, and develop a plan of action.
I had the privilege of leading a multi-year, multifaceted project focused on epilepsy, a neurological condition that causes recurring seizures. Epilepsy is the fourth most common neurological condition in the United States after migraine, stroke, and Alzheimer’s disease; approximately one in 26 people will develop some form of epilepsy over the course of their lifetime. Yet it remains a condition that is both enigmatic and stigmatized.
The goal was lofty: Make Boston the best place in the world to live if you have epilepsy.
From the outset, we knew we would take a design thinking approach to identify creative and human-centered concepts. We also took a participatory design approach, including individuals representing the target audience(s) as full members of the team. These two elements were critical in identifying actual gaps and opportunities for those impacted by epilepsy. The final team assembled for this effort included my group at Connected Health, an external partner, and an advisory board comprised of one patient, one physician, and one advocate.
Over the course of sixteen weeks we worked as a unified team, moving from formative research to two unique concepts that each have the potential to transform the daily lives of individuals living with epilepsy. The solutions harnessed an essential ingredient that was missing: the patient voice.
Nine unique initial concepts were initially presented. For each one, a storyboard was developed and tested to gather feedback. This input help to consolidate, eliminate, and reshape concepts into two distinct concepts which were further developed.
One of the two final concepts was Radius, a ride-sharing service providing free nonemergency medical transportation (NEMT) and discounted general transportation to people unable to drive due to seizure activity.
Advisory Panel Handbook
Participatory Design, like ice cream, comes in a variety of flavors. For this project, we wanted advisory board members who would be involved in the process, and not just feedback sessions. To make this clear, we developed a handbook describing the project, our approach, and general expectations.
Project Overview
We were proud of what we accomplished and wanted to share it with others. This booklet provides a 10,000 foot of what, why, and how we accomplished our project goals.
While employed at Partners Connected Health