Coursera – Learning Launch for ‘Wollega’    Challenge:  Through market research including competitor analysis, empathy mapping, government law  review and stakeholder interviews a market opportunity has been identified for a Medical  app, a Chabot helping people with diagnosis and support treatment.     The app named ‘Wollega’ supplies highly accurate and free medical advice to in need  patients through accessing and  interrogating open source medical  information. The product is in the format  of a ChatBot which plugs into open  source government data supplied by the  UK National Health Service and provides  patients with accurate diagnosis and  treatment recommendations for mild  conditions.    The main challenge was to launch and validate the product with a select group of people  which will enable the product to:

-  Gain credibility within the medical community

-  Gain funding for future iterations

-  Uncover new medical data with private institutions who are impressed with the  product

-  Gain trust and references with users who may use this product in the future

-  Provide quantitative feedback on the product which can be used for future iterations

-  Gather as much information as possible which can be stored and used for the  products accuracy.

Selection:  To successfully validate the prototype, we conducted a live ‘Learning Launch’ at the  Automation & Robotics medical conference in San Diego. The conference was an specialised  event to showcase new tech within the medical and pharmaceutical industry which is the  marketplace our product Wollega sits.     The audience included members of the public, medical practitioners, insurance companies  and financial institutions. A combination of support, buy in, trust and testimonials were  needed from all four attendee types in order to deem the product validated and viable for  market entry.    I selected a Learning Launch at this conference as it provided a platform for interacting with  the key audiences that are needed to validate and scrutinise the prototype. As conferences  are high in traffic and fast in pace it provides an opportunity to speak to a high number of  relevant persons which will give me high quality and a good quantity of data.

I previously have used a learning  launch with an event management  platform at a Tech Conference, what  I have already learnt from using  Learning Launches is the need to run  the product with over 30 people, for  this reason we had 8 people running  conference site store, with an  expectation that each person would  engage 20 people throughout the  day ensuring the day provides  extensive feedback and statistically  significant data for any interactions  needed for launch.     The reference material provided in week 3 of the Design Thinking Course, ‘The IBM Story’  provided me with knowledge on the environment and space needed to better interact with  participants vs other stalls at the conference   (https://www.coursera.org/learn/uva-darden-design-thinking- innovation/lecture/iq0kE/the-ibm-story)

Application:  The Learning Launch consisted of a stall in the middle of the conference where users came  through and interacted with a product demonstrator. Key features of the stall included:

-  No walls, meaning many people can see through and feel invited to pass through

-  Soft flooring, meaning people felt comfortable and rested within the store

-  Light music, creating a relaxing environment

-  Positive imagery, helping people realise this is a human based product

-  Medical professionals have been hired (but won’t be openly advertising they are this  role until after simulations) to manage the product demonstrations.

-  8 demonstrators to maximise data collection

The participant who entered into the stall at the conference will run through the following  experience:

-  Demonstrators will ask persons to sit and talk about the last time they were ill.

-  The demonstrator will take down key information and enter it into the chatbot  Wollega

-  The Chabot Wollega will then run these criteria and make a diagnosis

-  The participant will confirm if accurate

-  The Chabot Wollega will then recommend a treatment

-  The participant will confirm if the treatment is the same or differs from the course  taken.

-  Post the simulation the demonstrator will reveal they are a medical practitioner and  will speak with the participant to either confirm or challenge the diagnosis provided  and insight into how the product works.

-  A testimonial will then be provided along with feedback and a request for us to store  their test information.

The learning launch provided a scenario where people hopefully have their Wollega  diagnosis confirmed by two sources, providing trust and credibility with the product. The  learning launch and it’s part was implemented successfully however some elements could  be improved for future learning launches as will be described in the Insight section.      Insight:  The biggest takeout / insight from the Learning Launch was the need to reduce noise and  traffic within the conference stall. The high noise volume from the conference meant that  people would have to speak loudly to compete with the background noise, this created a  secondary problem where people felt uncomfortable to speak about their previous medical  history, as they felt they were communicating to a wider audience and not just the  practitioner. While the amount of data collected was sufficient the trust element from a  relationship perspective was hard to establish.     I am satisfied with the buy in from stakeholders but additional PR will need to be completed  in order to prove it’s success and market entry. I think this challenged my perception on  environments in which is use Learning Launches in the design thinking process as the  environment can be just as significant as the audience being tested, it also helped me  rethink the timing of a learning launch vs the audience m trying to engage. For a future  Learning Launch I would focus on one industry group / audience type at a time.      Approach:  For an alternate approach, I would still maintain the use of a learning launch as it did  provide a successful scenario for engaging key industry professionals, however the key  difference would be in its application in order to engage members of the public and build  trust and word of mouth amplification of the product.    I feel if post the learning launch public trust was my biggest barrier so I would need to apply  the learning launch in two scenarios, a private (one already conducted at the conference), in  addition to a public one where I can engage and wow members of the public.     In this public scenario, I would include walls on three of the four activation stall sides to  reduce noise, I would select a lower foot traffic area so time spent with participants could  be extended and more personalised and provide seating. This would help build comfort and  security when discussing personal matters, it would also allow for more time to collect  qualitative data on each patient and in turn provide a higher success rate of patients  allowing us to store and use their data for future product improvement (as the product  accuracy is reliant on vast collection).

