China healthcare discovery
Challenge
A European healthcare company had an early hypothesis that it could address a socially sensitive condition in the Chinese hospital context. However, they lacked an understanding of the cultural differences, the competitive landscape, and China’s hospital system. The complexity of the healthcare context and the condition’s sensitivity with patients were two critical challenges.
Approach
We began by commissioning a social listening study to gather initial insights into patients’ perceptions of the domain and current competitor solutions. We followed this with desk research and expert interviews to deepen our understanding of China’s medical practice and different hospital tiers. This exposed the full complexity and ambiguity of the challenge and uncovered a potentially more significant opportunity area. We validated this by conducting interviews with doctors, nurses and patients to map the current experience.
Later in the product development process, we tested a product prototype for functional and aesthetic perceptions with users and made design refinement recommendations.
Impact
- Helped our client learn rapidly about a new topic
- Pivoted the exploration to a more lucrative opportunity area
- Validated a pre-production prototype giving the confidence to launch, with some design refinements