Getting patients started on their fertility health journey
OVERVIEW
Frame is a fertility health startup that provides virtual care, fertility coaching, and clinical guidance to help people manage their fertility health, navigate options, and achieve their goal of having kids and building their families.
project Impact
I designed a patient onboarding experience that guides users from signing up to booking their first visit with a fertility expert, resulting in:
59% improvement in conversion
63% completion rate from signup to first visit (2-3x higher than typical telehealth benchmarks)
2 weeks average time to first visit
ROLE
Lead Product Designer (reporting directly to CPO)
Team
VP of Marketing, Chief Product Officer, Frontend and Backend Engineers
SKILLS
Growth design, user research, product analytics, systems thinking, prototyping, web and mobile design
Final Products
New Signup Flow
Content overhaul and launch of new custom landing pages with clear calls to action drive patient signups
We overhauled the Frame website and created customized landing pages to engage new patients. With crisp messaging on Frame’s services and values propositions, cobranded partnerships, and clearer calls to action, these improvements created more clarity, while also building trust and credibility to motivate users to sign up to book their first visit.
New intake process
Building trust and streamlining intake for an easier and more personalized experience
Our customer research revealed that patients place the highest trust in recommendations from their doctors when seeking additional healthcare services. Calling out clinician partnerships and providing more context establishes credibility and clarifies expectations for patient care.
Additionally, we personalized the onboarding process for patients from specific channels (provider referrals, employers, direct consumer, etc.). By cutting down the intake length by 60% to only the most relevant questions, we improved completion rates and matched patients with the appropriate provider based on their individual needs.
New Patient PORTAL
Making next steps obvious through better info hierarchy, progress indicators, and mobile-friendly UX
The previous patient portal was designed for desktop. However, when our VP of Marketing and I looked into product usage metrics, we discovered that over 90% of new users were going through Frame’s signup flow on mobile. This led to redesigning the portal to make it optimized for mobile and improving the information hierarchy to make next steps obvious and actionable.
By reframing the primary goal of onboarding around the first visit (rather than getting a personalized plan), it became clearer to users what to expect from Frame and the steps to get there.
product Goals
Our goal was to increase the number of first visits by reducing friction in the signup process. To do this, we needed a clear onboarding experience that sets expectations and is easy to complete, while enabling the Frame care team to collect enough info to provide quality patient care.
research & Discovery
Problem
Fertility health care is a relatively new space and still unfamiliar to most. New patients coming to Frame are unsure where to start, what services they need, and whether or not Frame is right for them.
Many people sign up but get stuck before they can meet with a fertility healthcare provider and get the care they need.
Opportunity
The most valuable part of the Frame experience is meeting with your dedicated care team to help you assess your fertility health and determine whether you need lab tests, prescriptions, counseling, referrals to specialists, or other treatments (e.g., egg freezing, IVF, IUI, etc.). Getting to the first visit enables you to get the professional support you need for family planning.
From Frame’s perspective, collecting patient information efficiently before the first visit enables the care team to develop a unique care plan and provide personalized care.
User Research
Through interviews with prospective users and new Frame patients, we gained insights into their motivations for seeking fertility healthcare, their perceptions of Frame based on our website, and identified general usability issues. Users expressed a desire for:
Clear understanding of their fertility health and actionable next steps
Guidance on treatment and referrals to specialists
Emotional support and counseling
the signup funnel
Tackling drop-off between signup and first visit
Product metrics showed a big drop-off between signup and intake completion: about 30% of users never made it through the intake, and the average time to first visit was around 4 weeks. I facilitated working sessions with our CPO, COO, and VP of Marketing to dig into the funnel and figure out where people were getting stuck.
We looked closely at signup conversion, onboarding completion, and time to first visit, then mapped out the biggest friction points. From there, I helped prioritize next steps and led experiments around content, calls to action, and simplifying the intake and appointment booking flow. The goal: increasing activation rates and help more people complete their first visit faster.
previous Signup Flow
The value of Frame is lost in vague messaging and unclear next steps
Frame’s old website did not resonate with many of our research participants. They found the content unclear in terms of what types of services Frame offered and whether or not it would meet their needs. Large blocks of lengthy text, lack of good visuals, and responsiveness issues on mobile devices added to their confusion and reluctance to continue.
previous intake
Tedious and time-consuming intake process: a perfect storm for user abandonment
The previous intake process was extremely long (127 questions total!). Some people felt the intake questions were too basic, repetitive, and not relevant to their needs. This, combined with the form not saving progress and usability issues around scrolling and progressing to the next screen, all added up to a long and frustrating experience that contributed to higher drop-off rates.
Product Evolution
Redesigned website, onboarding, and patient portal
Collaborating closely with our CPO, VP of Marketing, and engineers, I redesigned all pieces of the onboarding funnel, overhauling our content, visuals, and signup flow to make the process easier to understand and to complete.
We relied on the expertise of our Medical Director and fertility coaches to cut down the intake by 60%. By keeping only the questions that were essential to fertility assessment and care, we improved overall completion rates while still getting the data our clinical team needed to deliver effective patient care.
Design explorations led to a more streamlined layout with clearer info hierarchy, less noise, and a focus on next steps.
Impact
More patients experiencing the value of frame
Enhancements to the signup and onboarding flow had a big impact on reducing drop-off and improving completion rates. The 63% signup to first visit conversion rate we achieved is 2-3x higher than typical telehealth benchmarks (20-40%) in a highly sensitive, complex space such as fertility health care.
By addressing the most painful sticking points — lack of context, unclear next steps, and a tediously long intake— we were able to get more patients through to their first visit and closer to their goals of understanding their fertility health and building their families.
Positive customer reviews
“I felt supported, and it was the first time learning about my fertility and what the options are. As a person who is going through this for the first time, I was a little nervous and apprehensive, but I figured it could also be good news. It was super simple.”
T.L, New Frame Patient
“I can imagine my anxiety reducing and feeling more confident about this next step in my journey.”
- L.M., Prospective Frame User