Case Studies

Hims & Hers

College of American Pathologists

Thrivent Financial

The Allender Center

Hims & Hers - Discovering patient motivations to increase subscription flow conversions.

I was brought in as a research consultant to plan and execute high-profile UX research and product strategy alignment for telemedicine pharmaceutical offerings.

Hims hired me due to my diverse background as a psychotherapist and UX researcher which uniquely positions me to successfully navigate in-depth interviews in sensitive topic areas such as sexual performance and mental health.

My Role

Sr. UX Researcher & Strategist (contractor)

The Challenge

Hims is a fast growing asynchronized telehealth start-up disrupting the healthcare industry through offering seamless online consultations and treatment options without the hassle and barriers of a doctor’s office. In 2021, they brought in a new Chief Growth Officer and went public with a valuation set at $1.6 billion.

However, the market is saturated and Hims was not yet profitable due to massive spend on user acquisition through paid digital marketing and dropping off prospective customers in crucial points in the flow journey.

The erectile disfunction (ED) drug flow pre-registration stage was redesigned and effort was underway to improve the post-registration steps as well. However, flow abandonment remained the same and experiments failed to increase conversation. The product management, growth marketing, and engineering teams needed to better understand why prospective customers were dropping off at specific areas and how user intent levels may contribute to perceptions of experience and needs for motivation to complete.

Core Business Question: Can we increase ED visit submit rate by making frontend improvements to the onboarding flow?

The Process

Hims had previously identified three key personas defined by intent levels (lower, mid, and higher). In the early stages of research planning, I partnered with market researchers in a supportive role through notetaking and synthesis on a separate research project to better understand lower and mid intent prospective customers.

This research led us to redefine the persona types on a matrix rather than a linear line of “readiness”. This helped me craft targeted screener questions based on user behaviors, health needs, and brand perceptions.

Before launching into user research, I ran a psych level workshop with stakeholders to have them empathize with the user experience and map our assumptions and hypothesizes of the emotional journey a user may experience when completing the flow.

From there, I scoped and planned a 4 week qualitative research initiative to test our hypothesizing and learn what the true user experience is. I chose contextual interviews as a methodology so that I could both observe user behavior in the designs and ask probing questions to understand needs and motivations in real time.

Due to the depleting market of high intent prospective customers and Hims deep knowledge of the segment, product leadership chose to focus on mid-intent for growth opportunities.

• 2 lower-intent

• 4 mid-intent

• 2 higher-intent

The Impact

The research led to strategic design changes with a focus on UX personalization. Going beyond a well-crafted research report - I stayed on to consult and ideate with the product and design teams to help ensure insights and recommendations were implemented. I partnered and built influential relationships with product leadership and provided guidance on UX needs across other digital touchpoints as well.

The research insights led to a newly designed flow resulting in a 30% conversion increase through experiments in Facebook Ads.

College of American Pathologists (CAP) - Rapid prototype testing new mobile app with early career physicians.

The CAP is the leading organization of board-certified pathologists, serves patients, pathologists, and the public by fostering and advocating excellence in the practice of pathology and laboratory medicine worldwide.

As Sr. UX Researcher & Strategist I managed and expanded the UX research practice to scale impact across the enterprise.

My Role

Sr. UX Researcher - individual contributor for this project

The Challenge

Membership retention is on a steady decline year-over-year. First year in practice members drop 50% when asked for dues after free membership during residency and fellowship. Overall, new in practice pathologists do not see the value in their membership and choose to not renew.

Developing a mobile app was requested from senior staff and late-career members as as an attempt to be relevant to newly boarded pathologists. Leadership and the board approved a $1.5m spend and development project with no generative research to understand user needs and opportunities.

As UX Manager, I intercepted the project to align stakeholders and product owners on an MVP approach. This allowed me to coordinate research during development by securing 3 “research sprints” in the development schedule which would allow us to test and iterate prototype designs even though development had already begun.

The Process

Springing into action, I quickly recruited early career members with 1-2 years in practice. We ran prototype testing with the initial clickable prototype built by the app developer vendor.

During Round 1 we uncovered several usability issues and design recommendations but primarily discovered major issues in the login and profile onboarding experience. We learned that many of the profile building questions were also significantly misaligned to user expectations.

Combining co-creation techniques with prototype user observations we managed to test design iterations and uncover deeper insights throughout the project. I worked closely with product managers, stakeholders, and SMEs to quickly address user feedback concerns and shape design direction.

As UX Manager, I also supervised the design team to ensure designs met brand standards through a new cohesive mobile app design system. And worked both tactically and strategically to incorporate insights and learnings from the research sessions.

The Impact

We successfully launched an MVP with user feedback shaping the first release and driving feature prioritization for post-launch enhancements. The app today is successfully achieving a 40% stickiness ratio for WAU/MAU. Our KPI was to achieve 20% stickiness by the end of 2021, this user-centricity approach led to staff incentive bonuses across the enterprise given the surpass of success measurements. I also was recognized by executive leadership for my contributions and thought leadership, earning an outstanding performance for my annual review.

The research proved the value in design thinking methodologies and UX research as successful. Executives are often heard now saying, “let’s build on the success of the app by doing more user research.” This helped us gain board and enterprise level buy-in for greater spend on research and ensuring UX is involved early and often.

“Matt is a key contributor and leader to the Digital team and the CAP. His research expertise, drive, and passion for members and customers resonates throughout team discussions and organizational efforts. His contributions to the MyCAP mobile app, decisions surrounding cap.org page layouts and analytics, and UX resource management were all cornerstones of a successful 2021.” - Senior Director of Digital Strategy

I leveraged the time between v1 release and v2 planning to conduct additional generative research on the target audience’s device usage and perceptions of value of membership. I then co-facilitated 3 Design Sprints to test ideas with users before development begins later this year. We now have a clear direction on the best features to launch next.

Thrivent Financial: Finding Bold Ways to Revolutionize Financial Freedom

Worked on a collaborative team to conduct generative research on kids and teens financial journeys— resulting in creating a new membership experience centered on financial literacy, student lending, a native banking app, and strategic brand positioning.

My Role

Lead Researcher

The Challenge

Thrivent is a Fortune 500 not-for-profit financial services organization. As a member-owned fraternal benefit society, it operates under a chapter system, serving nearly 2.3 million members.

New membership enrollment was on a 10 year decline and current product design and strategy was aimed at a saturated market of pre-retirement individuals. Our team was tasked with researching and designing products that would meet the unique money experiences and needs of GenZ and Millennial consumers.

The Process

Learning Loop 1: we chose to conduct in depth guided storytelling interviews and field research with a focus on uncovering JTBD for kids and parents. In addition, we conducted secondary research through market insights, analyzed industry and generational trends, and mapped a customer journey. Why start with Jobs to Be Done? Because we were doing exploratory research, we wanted to uncover the social, emotional, and cultural forces of kids, teens, and parents regarding all aspects of money management. The JTBD framework helped us identify the core needs of both parents and kids.

Learning Loop 2: I served as support role in the design of a quantitative research study to validate our assumptions, studied peer reviewed research, and collaborated with human development experts. I assisted in survey design, analysis, and connecting results to previous insights.

Learning Loop 3: I led three separate design sprints with key stakeholders, experts, and end users in order to bring business leaders and customers into the design process. The outcome resulted in 3 unique prototypes aimed at a particular touch point within the customer journey. From there, I ran user testing for each prototype.

Prototype Interviews - I led all aspects of the prototype user interviews — recruiting, scheduling, executing, and presenting key insights. My expertise in social psychology enables me to conduct effective, intuitive, and empathetic interviews. Being able to connect with users and advocate their experience is one of my favorite aspects of the work.

The Impact

Our research led to the design of several new customer experiences; including designing a mobile first experience to help teens earn money and prepare for and pay for college. Parents expected digital solutions for teaching their kids about money and generosity. We were able to deliver on that need based on our UX knowledge, research, and design.

The research also helped support a redesign of the membership experience into a multigenerational POV. Together as a team, we helped reposition the brand to meet customer desires and continued to drive innovative digital solutions for digital native users.

The Allender Center: Building a UX Practice for Digital Innovation

I served as the Manager of UX & Strategic Partnerships for The Allender Center at The Seattle School. The Allender Center is an innovation hub within a larger organization offering online and in-person trainings in leadership transformation.

I built and led a team of high-performing UX designers and UX researchers in order to design and launch a strategic plan of innovative digital solutions, connecting the worlds of technology and human psychology. In my tenure, we helped launch two online courses, a multilevel training certificate, and a digital content strategy with a podcast of over 1 million downloads.

The Challenge

Significant decline in graduate degree enrollment and brick & mortar trainings. The Allender Center was birthed out of a digital revolution but struggled to keep up. My team was tasked in managing and leading the human-centered design research practice within the organization.

Here is an example of just one key challenge: Increase enrollment and online course completion.

The Process

Utilizing a mixed-methods approach we assessed the validity of future product features and the usability of existing products. Some strategies:

• Contextual User Interviews

• Usability Testing

• A/B testing

• User diaries and ethnographic field research to understand “real use”

Utilizing Design Thinking methods, I conducted design sprints and brainstorming sessions with key stakeholders and customers in order to iterate on research and design strategies through collaborative sessions, rapid prototyping, and identifying end user needs and wants.

Analysis & Key Insights

We learned that the current online courses had an 8% completion rate. Due to data tracking issues, product teams had no knowledge as to why or where users were dropping off. Through our research, we learned many users became overwhelmed by the emotional intensity of the content and experience and therefore were not able to move through to completion. We also learned that there were several usability issues with log in, course access, and overall digital experience.

I presented our research through:

• User Personas

• Wireframes and User flows

• Prototypes that led to MVPs and mature products

• Storytelling through deliverables, blending qualitative and quantitative data insights.

We worked collaboratively with internal product teams, content writers, and marketers to redesign the online course experience. I advocated to introduce emotional support facilitators, a cohort experience, and we solved basic usability issues resulting in a 80% completion rate and 200% enrollment increase.

The Impact

Across the organization and throughout my tenure, my role was to champion user and customer insights in order to design innovative human-centered products. I also focused my time on mentoring, coaching, and retaining high-performing UX talent. Reporting to the SVP, and serving as an executive team member, I led UX strategies, user research and design teams, and built strategic partnerships in order to increase organizational impact.

• Established User Personas and Customer Journey Maps

• Drove redesign of full suite of products based on UX insights

• Streamlined Employee Digital Experiences

• Provided research in Service Design for Certificate Training Experiences

• Helped launch several digital products into new markets

• Led teams built on collaboration and creativity

• Mentored researchers, designers, and developers to help them achieve excellence