Quickly iterate our direction to create a working, high-fidelity prototype
Sketches
These sketches were quick ideas meant to illustrate a concept and communicate it quickly, whether for internal or external purposes
Storyboards
These concept storyboards were constructed to allow us to quickly validate our concepts in order to narrow our focus on specific solutions
Interviews
We had interviews with various subject matter experts, conducted speed-dating sessions, semi-structured interviews, and ran think-aloud usability sessions.
Where we left off:
In the spring, we identified our pyramid of needs as a visual representation for the direction we were going to choose. And we knew that was a very broad solution space. For the spring, that was okay - we wanted to immerse ourselves in an understanding of the domain of recovery.
But our first order of business for the summer was to identify a “slice” of that scope in which we could make our solution more specific, more narrow, and ideally as a result, more impactful.
To identify that slice, we looked back at our research and articulated “Moments of Truth” in the recovery journey.
Moments of Truth:
Key moments in a person’s journey that hold high emotional, mental, and consequential importance, greatly impacting a person’s relationship with a given product, service, or experience. In other words, these are essentially "make it or break it" moments.
OUR MOMENTS OF TRUTH
Our “slice” would be associated with one or some of these Moments. We identified eight Moments of Truth in our research, displayed below. From initial testing, spring data, and consulting with our clients, we identified “Attending Your First Meeting” and “Managing Relapses” as the two with the most opportunity for innovation.
OUR TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC
Another way to narrow our focus was to select a target demographic. From our spring, we quickly discovered that addiction was broad, and incredibly diverse and complex. With variances in experiences resultant from age, substance, gender, race, and many more, we felt we could best impact people by selecting a specific demographic.
We ended up choosing young adults. First, it was because they faced the most adversity with current recovery offerings. Many offerings involved 12-step fellowships, which are highly spiritual, and are generally attended by much older individuals. As a result, young adults generally do not feel comfortable attending. Secondly, young adults are well versed with technology, and respond naturally well to mobile/digital platforms, which our solution would most likely live on.
CONCEPT 1: SPONSORSHIP MATCHING
The first concept we decided to start testing was sponsorship matching. While 12-step meetings didn’t seem to work for everyone, they still had incredibly valuable practices that would provide benefit to most in recovery. One of these benefits is sponsors.
Sponsors can provide individualized support, and be a familiar face, a number to call, or a shoulder to lean on. We wanted to test an idea that would streamline this process of sponsorhip matching; almost similar to a “Tinder” style approach of being able to virtually filter, match, and message a potential sponsor.
While this idea initially showed promise, we had concerns from participants about the commitment aspect; it was difficult to find support for being too casually paired with someone that would have such an integral part in your recovery process. However, the takeaway we did have was that a “buddy” of some form was desired, just at a more casual level than a sponsor.
CONCEPT 2: MEETING BUDDY
With the sponsor matching feedback in mind, we shifted our idea to be more of “meeting buddy”. This would be someone that would help facilitate your first time attending a meeting, ranging from meeting up with you in person at your first meeting, to being a virtual chatbot that could answer any general questions about getting ready for your first meeting.
We received more positive responses this time, and we were able to understand a bit more about what were the emotional needs driving those responses. First off, we had resounding negative feedback towards a chatbot; participants felt that they needed to know they were communicating with another human being. Second, there were large logistical issues of recruiting people to be meeting buddies, and being able to mitigate any potential risks or harms caused by those seeking to exploit others on the platform. While it was difficult to assess how large of a buddy network we could have, we did start picking up on a pattern of a) wanting to experience what a meeting was like without attending and b) a desire to give back to the recovery community.
CONCEPT 3: TWITCH FOR RECOVERY
For our next round of testing, we used core elements that we had previously validated (ex: experiencing a meeting before attending) and displayed them in several formats, using modern social platforms as design patterns. This was to quickly understand what elements worked, what didn’t, and how to best create a platform that wouldn’t cause dissonance. Further, since we were focusing on young adults, they would be most familiar with an existing social platform.
We got resoundingly positive feedback for the Twitch idea (far right). People loved the idea of being able to stream a live meeting, chat with others, and be able to view these meetings from the comfort of their own home. Other ideas had positive feedback as well, particularly mood-tracking and journaling. Now confident that we were building in a promising direction, we set off to build a platform that could combine these elements into a cohesive and versatile platform.
A Pyramid Was Incorrect
We saw our spring pyramid of needs more as an objective: Meet People Where They Are... With the Right Resources At the Right Time. And this
objective could actually be broken down further to much smaller needs.
“Right Resources, Right Time” and “Meet Them Where They’re At” became the needs for Relevancy, Community, Clarity, and Immediacy. Using these needs as a framework for our solution, we wanted to design the core ideas of our platform to meet these core needs.
NEED 1: RELEVANCY
For some young adults, they’re unable to connect with the 12 step’s philosophy’s towards recovery, so they aren’t able to understand their own reasons for addiction, or why they are currently unsuccessful at recovery. They need relevant information so they could understand their own addiction.
NEED 2: COMMUNITY
The community aspect of recovery is one of the most important and effective reasons to being successful at recovery. Everyone needs a support network, especially if that person is also trying to overcome an addiction. A community makes people feel connected and provides a sense of belonging.
NEED 3: CLARITY
When people have an addiction, so much of their time revolves around substances, so cutting that out of their life can be scary since it also includes changing their lifestyle significantly. Being able to introspect and start to understand what causes could have lead to someone’s addiction can be immensely helpful in understanding how to live a sober lifestyle again.
NEED 4: IMMEDIACY
Time is of the essence in recovery. Successfully fighting off a relapse can come down to a matter of minutes. Timing is crucial, and help needs to be prompt and immediate.
