Therapy Match- helping patients find their perfect match
Mental health is having a moment in a big way and while it’s becoming more mainstream the methods for finding a provider are still very archaic. For those unfamiliar with the process it typically goes a little like this:
When people finally decide to seek out a therapist they tend to be an extremely vulnerable place which makes it even more that important for the searching process to be quick and easy. When Samora and Monica started their design sprint they identified this pain point and sought out an opportunity to fix this obstacle.
While I wasn’t involved in the entire process I learned a lot from jumping in and joining this design sprint. This is as much a tale about finding a solution for this space, as it is about facing your fears as a junior designer.
Background
I was asked to participate on day four of their design sprint and help bring their research and sketches to life with a prototype. Prior to this, Samora and Monica explored the space and used the Google Venture design sprint method to go from idea to product over the week. While I faced some beginners doubts and anxiety I leaned into the discomfort, jumped in with a ‘heck yes!’ and set up a time to connect with them on day 4 of the sprint.
Day 1- Mapping
Samora and Monica started the sprint by asking questions, gathering information and mapping key pieces of information to develop a shared understanding of the problem space. From the beginning they knew their long term goal was to reduce the time it takes to find and meet with a therapist. As someone with a background in behavioral health I was excited to jump into this project and help out because I know firsthand how relevant this problem is; and the whole reason I entered UX in the first place was to create better experiences for impacted populations in the behavioral health tech space (talk about a dream project to be handed).
Their day was spent exploring the space through a series of How Might We questions, interviewing subject matter experts, and mapping the current user experience to shape the problem.
Day 2- Sketching
Knowing more about how they might solve for helping people connect with the right therapist, the team set off to find inspiration to help formulate their product and shape their sketches. They gravitated towards apps and platforms that utilized white space, had simple illustrations, bright colors and used storytelling throughout.
Once they shared their inspiration the team split off to do 6–8–5 sketching where they each drew their vision of how a therapist matching site would look. They added their sketches to the Mural board and stepped away until the next day of the sprint.
Day 3- Deciding
Their morning kicked off with the Art Museum exercise which allowed them to view each set of screens collectively and quietly assess and vote on liked features. After a couple rounds of silent voting it became apparent that the top rated features were those which brought the therapist matching process to life through easy guided steps and that the team was most focused on finding the right questions that would lead to better matches. Once they agreed on these important features Samora and Monica began creating a user flow to clearly define this process.
Day 4- Prototyping
My involvement with the project began on the morning of Day 4 with a kickoff call with Samora to learn about their vision and get caught up with the first three days of work. I was brought on to help with the prototyping but was able to help provide insights as a subject matter expert as well.
My experience in the mental health field involved me creating discharge plans for my patients which othen times resulted in me needing to find them the right provider to see after treatment. Our talk shed light on some of the challenges I, and others, faced when it came to finding the right therapist for patients and together we came up with questions to help shape the onboarding process.
We wrapped up the kickoff meeting with a plan to hop on later in the afternoon for a 2 hour time-block where we would bring their sketches to life and refine the user flow.
The afternoon started with a palpable excitement in the air- in just 2 short hours Therapy Match would come to life and help move the next stages of the process along. We hopped on and they reviewed the storyboard while I listened to how they wanted the site to look like. At the end of this time block I had a created a beautiful high fidelity MVP that ran perfectly and we all walked away extremely pleased and chipper…...
While I would love to be able to say that I was able to stick to the time block and breeze through this exercise, my experience was far from that but so important to my growth as a designer. That palpable excitement that filled the air at the start of the meeting quickly turned to anxious jitters that I fought off through the remainder of the session. As soon as we muted ourselves and jumped on the screens I had a Spongebob moment where I suddenly forgot everything and became flooded with doubt.
When the 2 hours came to an end I felt a drop in my stomach because I was far from done. That doubtful voice became louder and I started to question whether I had made the right choice to switch into UX (dramatic I know but anxiety’s funny like that). Since we were all in differing time zones we agreed that it was best to call it a night, so they thanked me for my time and we parted ways.
I found myself at a crossroads — I had a side of me that felt defeated and wanted to shut down, call it quits, go back to my old job, etc. However the other side of me, the side that has gotten me to where I am today, was determined to push through the discomfort and deliver the product I promised them. After a short internal battle I took my pit of a stomach back to the computer and got to work.
I spent the rest of the night working to incorporate the copy and imagery that had been collected by the team during the previous meeting. I even woke up early to make sure there were no broken links and that the prototype would testing ready for their final day of the sprint. In the end they had a functioning prototype to work with and completed their final day with testing.
I could sit here and pick apart each screen until there’s nothing left but I’m choosing to focus on the flipside. I managed to battle the ‘you can’t do this’ voice in my head and deliver a prototype for a product in just a few hours. I challenged discomfort, doubt, and fear in order to deliver to teammates who were depending on me. I tolerated imperfections to create a MVP to be tested with users.
As a junior designer I know it’s going to take many of these experiences before I enter the land of “I got this” so it’s important to continue finding these opportunities to challenge that voice and overcome. You’re not going to love everything you produce, or even feel confident in all your outcomes but the important thing is to never stop. Each blunder is a learning opportunity and a chance to take a step closer towards being the designer you’ve imagined.
So to all my fellow junior designers out there- continue to embrace the uncertainty and seek out discomfort because each experience is a crucial step in living out your passion. And for those feeling extra doubtful just know that I’m in your corner and I believe in you.
