Building a research program for Personal Health Records
Foundational research that uncovered unmet needs, shaped a 0 to 1 health product strategy, and created a new product workstream.
Health data was available.Understanding it was much harder.
People had access to increasingly more health information, but understanding and managing that information remained complex.
For a new Personal Health Records product, the opportunity was bigger than designing a place to store data: how could we help people understand and use their health information in ways they could trust?
From researching a product to building a research program
I built a research program spanning foundational discovery, participatory design, concept testing, and evaluation to understand how people manage health information and where the product could meaningfully help.
The program followed the product from understanding unmet needs → defining opportunities → iterating concepts → evaluating the experience at scale.
How should we design this product? → What problems should this product solve?
Research uncovered critical gaps in how people understood their health information, including an unmet need around lab result comprehension. That insight expanded the product strategy beyond the original scope and led to a new product workstream.
Impact
- New product directionResearch uncovered an opportunity that became a new product workstream focused on helping people understand lab results.
- Long-term strategyInsights informed the Personal Health Records strategy and roadmap.
- 300+ participantsValidated key findings at scale, uncovering trust barriers that led the team to reverse three product requirements before launch.
The work wasn’t just about making health information accessible.It was about identifying what people needed to understand their health—and turning those needs into product direction.