Lesson 2: Redesign processes before adding tech
The next step was to look at processes. At first, we thought digitizing existing workflows would be enough. But what we discovered was that many of the processes were themselves inefficient or inconsistent.
For example, record-keeping varied from nurse to nurse. Some used notebooks, some scraps of paper, some nothing at all. If we had simply built a digital tool to replicate this, we would have digitized chaos.
Instead, we worked with the nurses to create a simple, standardized process for patient intake and follow-up. We created a complete process map with the nurses as to what happens when one visits a healthcare facility. We co-created the complete patient journey in a physical setup. Only once this process was agreed upon, we mapped the journey to design the user screens to give them the same experience. Not only this, when we wanted to roll out the system in the field, we again got all our nurses to recall the entire manual process and showed them step by step on the digital platform.
