Team: Lead Product Designer (that's me!), Project Manager, 4-5 Developers, QA
Tools Used: Figma, Maze, Confluence, Jira, GSuite, Slack
SonderMind is a mental health platform that connects individuals with licensed therapists and mental health professionals. Clinical questionnaires (CQs), also known as clinical assessments, are a key component in this process, playing a crucial role in diagnosing conditions, developing personalized treatment plans, and tracking progress. SonderMind leverages these assessments to provide clients with tailored care and to equip therapists with essential information for delivering effective treatment.
The Problem
Although Clinical Questionnaires (CQs) are a proven tool that improves treatment outcomes and benefits both clients and therapists, our data indicates significant underutilization -- only 66% of SonderMind clients complete their initial Baseline CQs, and only 24% complete subsequent Ongoing CQs. Additionally, only 29% of therapists regularly review their clients' CQ results.
Our Goal
Increase % client & therapist engagement with CQs by making substantial UX/UI improvements to touchpoints throughout the CQ journey.
My Process
1. Conducted an in-depth analysis of recent company research and current data on clinical assessments, and created artifacts to present key findings to stakeholders. 🕵️
2. Facilitated in-depth stakeholder discussions of the current clinical assessment user journey with Product, Clinical, and C-Suite to gather additional insights 🤿
3. Analyzed the competitive landscape of companies utilizing clinical assessments 🏞️
4. Developed high-level recommendations to address identified pain points for users and providers throughout the CQ journey 💡
In a nutshell, clinical questionnaires are standardized self-assessments that clients may complete at the beginning and throughout treatment to measure different mental health symptoms.
For example, one assessment called "GAD-7" is a seven-question assessment measuring Generalized Anxiety Disorder symptoms with questions like "Over the last two weeks, how often have you had trouble relaxing?"
These self-assessments are a quick, easy, and important way for clients to share how they’re really doing with their therapists.
What are Clinical Questionnaires (CQs)?
Mapping User Journeys to Identify Pain Points and Plan Development
To gain insight into current pain points and identify opportunities for improvements at various touchpoints, I developed several key artifacts, including user journey maps which were crucial for stakeholder discussions and alignment.
Benefits of journey map discussions:
• Ability to view the entire CQ journey, better understanding how each part influences other parts within the larger system.
• Ability to break the work into phases, from an initial MVP stage to more expansive follow-up development.
• Defining project scope and developing a detailed product brief.
Timeline of notifications and assessment dispatch in the current client CQ journey with key pain points
Comparing current client CQ journey with proposed MVP and later phase improvements
Improvements throughout the CQ journey
Although our proposal encompassed numerous individual updates, the following examples highlight some of our key recommended solutions for the project:
PRE-CQ:
Improved dynamic email notifications and messaging to demonstrate value and increase buy-in for clients
We previously sent several redundant email notifications (e.g. three different emails for three different assessments). The email content was outdated and visually boring.
To reduce reported email fatigue, I proposed new logic for combining emails whenever possible. I also outlined how to increase the value of these emails by incorporating visually-engaging psychoeducation and progress updates.
CQ EXPERIENCE
Increasing client trust & sense of safety
A user survey surfaced concerns about data privacy and discomfort with personal questions, which negatively impacted drop rates during assessments.
To address this discomfort and build greater trust, I designed a modal offering important psychoeducation and context-setting. By allowing users to ask, "Why do we ask this?" we can help them understand the reasons behind each question and enhance their sense of security.
CQ EXPERIENCE
Create a more supportive environment for completing clinical questionnaires
A majority of survey respondents (61%) mentioned, “I just forget to take CQs.” We understand how hectic life can be and don’t want to add one more thing for clients to remember during their busy week.
To address this, I decided to allow clients to complete their CQs in a virtual "waiting room" that would open up 15 minutes before their session. I advocated for the importance of meeting clients where they are at and setting them up for success.
POST- CQ
More intelligent and comprehensive score interpretations
Previously, clients received limited information about their assessment scores and interpretations, reducing their long-term engagement with CQ results.
I addressed this in three different ways:
1. I developed more detailed personalized interpretations and recommendations based on their CQ results, leveraging AI to identify impactful next steps.
2. I enabled clients to flag their results for discussion with their therapist, addressing an issue reported in user surveys of therapists never actually reviewing CQ results during appointments.
3. I created a new data visualization providing a comprehensive overview of all CQ attributes in a single view, when previously clients and therapists could only view one mental health attribute at a time. This lends itself to a more holistic, comprehensive view of mental health.
Measuring success
To assess satisfaction and collect feedback throughout each phase of the improvement rollout, I developed separate client and therapist satisfaction surveys using Maze. Additionally, I intended to track metrics such as the percentage of clients completing their CQs and the percentage of providers reviewing CQ results.
Preview of the final client satisfaction survey I created in Maze
Final Thoughts & Next Steps
This project was a major undertaking over the course of 5 months with a scope that continually evolved as we received new insights and direction from stakeholders. I feel proud of how our team skillfully managed these changes, exhibiting exemplary collaboration and flexibility while generating several innovative ideas to enhance the Clinical Questionnaire experience.
Unfortunately, the project was deprioritized due to a round of layoffs which affected most of our team members. Despite this, several of the UX/UI enhancements I proposed have been successfully adopted by other teams. I remain optimistic that the work completed has laid the groundwork for future roadmap initiatives and improvements to our product.
