CHALLENGE / Helping Doulas and Lactation Consultants
Motherhood Design is an organization striving to make the birth experience positive for new and expectant mothers and to address the challenges facing post-birth service providers, specifically doula and lactation consultants.
The product work stream had many teams conducting user research on post birth clients and service providers as well as competitive analysis.
Our team focused on researching service providers and gaining insight in their challenges. The research explored the proposition that:
TEAM / Who We Were + Our Process
> I was a UX Researcher/Designer on the Service Provider Team
> 6 members (West Coast, East Coast, Germany)
> 1 product manager
Weekly Meetings (Online)
Tasking on Slack
> Research and Interview Insights on Google Docs
> Interview Tracking on Google Sheets
> Themes and Synthesis on Trello Boards
Design Sprint Tasks / Research + Recruitment
In 8 weeks we …
> Conducted Desktop Research
> Searched for and Recruited Post-birth Service Providers
> Conducted Interviews
> Synthesized Insights Supporting Further Product Development
Desktop Research: Understanding Service Providers
Prior to preparing for interviews we tried to understand service providers. We conducted desktop research on Postpartum Doulas (PPDs) and Lactation Consultants (LCs) based on the following:
SOME KEY TEAM TAKEAWAYS
> Interest: More people are interested in the services than before.
> Stigma: The stigma for PPD services is still there; many sources for LCs but conflict with LCs who have denied formula to nursing mothers and their babies at risk.
> Certifications: DONA is the most recognized certification for PPDs; International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners is the most recognized certification for LCs.
> Cost: PPDs are not affordable for all; LCs are supported through Affordable Care Act of 2012 and cost can vary from $0-300 per session.
> Regulation: Services not regulated.
PERSONAL TAKEAWAYS
Recruitment: Refining Our Outreach
Our experience during recruitment and interviewing led us to trial and error. We experimented with language/tone, outreach method, warm vs. cold leads, follow up, and location.
We learned:
> It was valuable to embed ourselves into the community of service providers (i.e. joining Facebook groups, asking for personal referrals during interviews)
> The post-birth service provider communities are small and building personal relationships led to referrals and higher probability for interviews
> Targeted persistence paid off
> It takes time to build meaningful connections with postpartum service providers
We generated 138 leads and 23 interviews.