In early 2019, Bridge Connector sought to revolutionize healthcare interoperability with their "no-code" healthcare integration platform. The platform aimed to simplify the integration of healthcare systems, traditionally a painful and expensive process.
As the first UI/UX specialist at Bridge Connector, I led the efforts to establish a unified product vision and design the user experience for the platform from the ground up.
The healthcare IT sector is notorious for its outdated thinking and approaches. When I joined Bridge Connector, the company was in its early stages, with a fragmented product vision and no dedicated UI/UX capabilities. This lack of cohesion was a significant hurdle in developing an effective and user-friendly platform.
My early goals became clear:
- Create a unified product vision endorsed by executive leadership
- Design a user-friendly, no-code integration platform
- Streamline the product development process to ensure timely delivery
To align the team and gather insights, I organized a week-long design sprint. This involved:
- Conducting workshops with key stakeholders, including subject matter experts, to uncover user needs and pain points.
- Mapping out end-to-end user journeys for various personas, from discovering Bridge Connector to creating their first integration.
The early sessions revealed that the team lacked clarity about user personas and their journeys. We did however identify critical pain points in existing healthcare integration processes. It was clear that we needed a highly intuitive, no-code platform which could cater to both technical and non-technical users.
Using the insights from the design sprint, I created a high-fidelity clickable prototype. This prototype demonstrated the platform's look and functionality, focusing on ease of use and seamless integration.
Design Decisions:
- Shifted focus to a no-code interface that allowed users to create integrations without technical expertise.
- Developed a consistent and scalable design system to ensure a cohesive user experience.
- Prioritized features that addressed the most significant user pain points, such as simplifying the integration process and providing clear, intuitive user journeys.
Collaboration:
- Worked closely with VPs, product managers, and engineering teams to translate the prototype into a shippable product.
- Facilitated the delegation of tasks by writing detailed user stories and technical documentation.
- Ensured clear communication of UX interactions and design standards to engineers.
Challenges:
- Overcoming initial resistance from leadership to adopt a unified product vision.
- Balancing complex business requirements with the need for a user-friendly interface.
- Successfully aligned executive leadership behind a unified product vision.
- Developed a prototype that served as the foundation for the product, leading to a successful $25M series B fundraise.
- Enhanced the platform's usability, making it accessible to a broader range of users.
Having a strong design system was crucial for our success at Bridge Connector. It provided a common language for product managers, designers, and engineers to discuss the UI, ensuring everyone was on the same page. This foundation allowed us to maintain consistency across the platform and facilitated more efficient collaboration.
Another key lesson was the importance of breaking work into meaningful chunks. By dividing the project into smaller, manageable pieces, we could set clear deliverables and deadlines that aligned with the expectations of product leadership and engineering teams. Initially, we struggled to ship a product within a reasonable timeframe because the prototype served as a 'north star' without addressing smaller, immediate problems. This oversight led to delays and hindered our ability to deliver incremental value to users.
Moving forward, I would implement a more iterative approach, focusing on continuous user feedback and smaller, incremental releases. This would allow us to address user needs more promptly and adjust our roadmap based on real-world insights. Additionally, expanding the design system to support future iterations will ensure scalability and long-term success.
