Protothon HeroBaby
I participated in May 2023 for the Dubs Tech Protothon which is a hackathon with no coding. The finished product is meant to be a working prototype instead of a working digital app so that designers can participate more than in traditional hackathons. My group and I created HeroBaby, a convenient grocery and supply delivery service for new mothers who may find it difficult to leave their homes while caring for their newborns. The app aims to ease the stress and pressure associated with the postpartum period, alongside mental health counseling, and free resources.
Project Overview
Challenge
This is the challenge prompt provided by the Protothon leadership team: Femtech has been a rapidly growing trend in recent years, with more and more technology companies developing products and services that focus on women’s health. A Key Area of FemTech That Needs Attention is the Postpartum experience of new mothers.
Solution
- Create a free app that can help low socioeconomic mothers get connected with affordable supplies, as well as provide resources that can help them during this time such as information about healthcare or mental health.
- Work closely in a team of 5 to create this app in 32 hours.
- With the allotted time, make 1 version for phones, vertical orientation only.
Role
Product Designer
Tools
Figma
Our Team’s Design Process
Empathize
Research
Postpartum refers to the period following the birth of a baby, typically lasting six weeks, during which a mother’s body undergoes physiological and hormonal changes as it returns to its pre-pregnancy state. This period is also commonly referred to as the postpartum period or the fourth trimester. During this time, the mother may experience a range of physical and emotional changes, including fatigue, mood swings, breastfeeding challenges, and postpartum depression. Low socioeconomic mothers statistically face postpartum symptoms more severely due to a lack of financial resources.
Research Goals
- Understand the postpartum phase and its related symptoms
- Identify the biggest pain points for low socioeconomic women during postpartum
- Discovery of how existing companies are addressing these issues
Market Research
- Postpartum symptoms range from physical (fatigue, vaginal bleeding, breast tenderness, abdominal cramping, sleeping issues, etc.) to emotional (anxiety, mood swings, sadness, irritability, anger, etc.).
- Best ways to cope or address symptoms: rest, nutrition, exercise, emotional support, self-care, medical attention.
- The global postpartum recovery market size was valued at $18.9 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $37.5 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 9.3% from 2020 to 2027.
- Rapid growth in the food delivery market with increasing demand for convenient meal solutions.
- Rising concerns over profitability and sustainability due to high operating costs and delivery fees.
- Potential for partnerships and collaborations with restaurants, grocery stores, and other stakeholders to enhance service offerings.
Consumer Trends
- According to a survey of over 1,500 postpartum women conducted by BabyCenter, 76% of women use apps on their smartphones to help them with parenting and pregnancy.
- A survey of over 1,000 postpartum women found that sleep deprivation was the most commonly reported challenge, with 73% of women reporting difficulty sleeping. Other commonly reported challenges included physical pain (58%) and postpartum mood disorders (34%).
- 70% of women experienced at least one physical or emotional complication in the postpartum period.
- Growing consumer preference for online grocery shopping and home delivery.
- Expansion of delivery services to suburban and rural areas to reach a broader customer base.
Competitive Analysis
Strengths
- Offers of a lot of features: talk to a specialist, symptom list, personal content/resources
- Intuitive and easy to use
- Encompasses a big demographic
Weaknesses
- Doesn’t specialize in one thing
Strengths
- Wide selection of grocery stores
- Convenient and user-friendly app
- Flexible delivery options
Weaknesses
- Markup on product prices
- Reliance on third-party shoppers
- Inconsistent availability of items
Strengths
- Extensive restaurant network
- Efficient delivery logistics
- Seamless user experience
Weaknesses
- High fees and pricing
- Dependence on independent contractors
- Controversies regarding worker treatment
Research Insights
With my preliminary research complete, I felt confident making some important conclusions about how my found data relates to this topic:
- Consumer Demand: Research indicates a significant increase in consumer demand for food delivery services, driven by factors such as convenience, time-saving, and a desire for diverse culinary options.
- High Pricing and Fees: While the industry demonstrates rapid growth, profitability remains a challenge for many delivery platforms. Research suggests that high fees and pricing is one of the biggest obstacles for potential customers.
- Low socioeconomic women may face more severe postpartum symptoms due to limited access to quality healthcare, including mental health services, which can result in undiagnosed or untreated conditions. Additionally, factors such as financial stress, inadequate social support, and higher rates of pre-existing health conditions in low socioeconomic populations can contribute to the exacerbation of postpartum symptoms.
- How the industry is trending shows there is a demand for these services if executed well for a more personalized experience, and better pricing.
User Persona
We have identified our demographic as low socioeconomic mothers with postpartum depression. Using the insights gained from my research, we created a user persona to help us guide our design decisions. Please meet Abby.
Background
Maria is a first-time mother who recently gave birth to a baby girl named Sofia. She lives in a low-income neighborhood and works as a cashier to support herself and her baby. Maria completed high school but did not have the opportunity to pursue higher education due to financial constraints.
Goals
- Develop a plan to balance work and parenting responsibilities
- Gain access to resources that address postpartum depression and anxiety
- Find a supportive environment and connect with new mothers who share similar experiences
- Have the time to bond with her new baby
Pains
- Financial constraints: She cannot afford postpartum care and support services due to affordability issues and inadequate health insurance coverage in her neighborhood.
- Limited Support System: She has limited support from family or friends leaving her feeling isolated and overwhelmed.
- Language Barriers: English is not her first language, so she needs language support and resources in Spanish.
Define & Ideate
Empathy Map and Features
To synthesize all the information I had gathered from the research, we used Figjam to write our findings on sticky notes and create a short empathy map. By identifying patterns, we could define our user’s needs and what features we wanted to focus on to address those needs.
Problem Statement
Low socioeconomic mothers in postpartum face challenges finding enough time to care for their babies and accessing affordable supplies.
User Flowchart
Our team created a simple user flow chart to plan how our app’s information architecture and start defining what screens will need to be created.
Branding
Since I had the most experience in branding and logo creation on my team, I took a pause from the product to make a logo and define our company/app colors. We all agreed purple felt like the way to go with our primary color to represent comfort and femininity, and the design
Prototype
High Fidelity Wireframes
With the discovery phase concluded, our team had to get going on our screens and prototyping. With the short amount of time we had to create our digital product (32 hours) had to bypass some steps and go straight to high-fidelity wireframing in figma.
Final Prototype
Once all of our screens were finalized, we used Figma to create an interactive high fidelity, limited functionality prototype for our product’s final deliverable.
Project Reflection
I hadn’t participated in a hackathon since college and had a really fun time with this project. Coming together with a team of like-minded designers and sprint designing is a great way to make connections, learn from others, and practice one’s craft. While my team faced a lot of challenges in our short 32-hour design window, I am proud and happy with the digital product we all came together to create.
What’s Next
- Perform usability testing with new mothers who are new to HeroBaby.
- Partner with non-profits, and local businesses to provide discounts on their products.
- Use machine learning algorithms to provide in-app assistance (ie. language barrier-related questions).
- Include more financial aid resources for affordable healthcare and mental health information.
Takeaways
- Our team experienced a lot of miscommunication and unalignment regarding what our product goals were. I think our team rushed to the ideate phase too quickly and should have made sure we executed the empathize and define phase better. That way, we could have all been on the same page better.
- 5 people I think were too many to be working on this project. The winning teams all had 3 people per team I noticed, which might have been easier to communicate and execute during this short period of time to create an app.