Lisa deBettencourt is a product design leader, Founder, and CEO of Forge Harmonic, an innovation and strategic design firm that collaborates with healthcare and life science organizations to envision and create solutions that transform the lives of people, care providers, and health systems. Lisa has been at the forefront of experience design and human-centered design since the pre-dot-com era. Before founding her own strategic design firm, she has worked in-house at notable companies, including Bose Corporation, Autodesk, and Confer Health, and many others. In our conversation, Lisa shares insights on:
The evolving terminology and roles within design, emphasizing skills over titles
The integration of design in healthcare, from care delivery settings to tech-based services
Common misconceptions about design, such as its perceived role as merely aesthetic enhancement
The critical role of design as facilitation, fostering collaboration and alignment
The importance of human-centered design and its impact on user experience
Identifying workflow inefficiencies in e-prescribing and improving patient-doctor interactions
Prototyping in practice management software and engaging stakeholders early in the process
Challenges in health tech design, including the complexity of the healthcare ecosystem and distance from end users
Forge Harmonic's mission to create innovative, human-centered products and services for healthcare
Her optimism about emerging trends in healthcare, such as the focus on patient experience and investment in femtech
Lisa’s insights highlight the strategic role of design in healthcare and the importance of addressing real user needs, underscoring the transformative potential of empathetic, human-centered design in driving innovation in healthcare.
Some takeaways:
Design Terminology and Roles: Lisa explains that design titles have evolved, with many terms often overlapping. She highlights that the primary focus should be on the skills outlined in job descriptions rather than specific titles. Here are definitions of some common design terms mentioned:
Experience Design: Focuses on creating meaningful and engaging experiences for users by understanding the entire user journey and ensuring every interaction with a product or service is intuitive and satisfying. This encompasses all touchpoints, both digital and physical, to create a cohesive experience.
Product Design: Involves designing the features and functionality of a product to meet user needs and business goals. Product designers define how a product works, ensuring it is usable and functional while collaborating with cross-functional teams to bring a product from concept to market.
UI (User Interface) Design: Concentrates on the visual elements of a product interface, such as buttons, icons, typography, and color schemes. UI designers create aesthetically pleasing and consistent interfaces that enhance usability and user interaction.
UX (User Experience) Design: Focuses on optimizing the overall user experience by conducting research to understand user needs, behaviors, and pain points. UX designers aim to create intuitive and efficient interactions that meet user needs and enhance satisfaction.
Interaction Design: Involves designing the interactive aspects of a product, focusing on how users engage with it. Interaction designers define system behaviors in response to user actions, creating engaging and logical interactions.
Human-Centered Design: An approach that prioritizes user needs, behaviors, and preferences throughout the design process. It involves empathizing with users, defining their problems, ideating solutions, prototyping, and testing to create products that truly meet their needs.
Integration of Design in Healthcare: The integration of design within healthcare organizations varies greatly depending on the type of organization. Lisa highlights the differences between physical spaces like hospitals and tech-based healthcare services:
Care Delivery Settings: In hospitals and clinics, designers must consider the physical environment and how patients, staff, and technology interact. Design must address the context in which products and services will be used, considering factors such as workflow, ergonomics, and the needs of all people in the space.
Tech-Based Services: In software companies serving the healthcare industry, the focus is on creating seamless digital experiences that integrate with existing technologies. Designers must ensure that software products are intuitive and effectively meet user needs while considering the technological landscape and user workflows.
Organizational Maturity and Goals: The design approach is influenced by the organization's size, maturity level, and objectives. Larger organizations with more mature design practices might focus on systemic improvements and strategic design integration, while startups might prioritize rapid prototyping and adaptability
Human-Centered Focus: Successful design integration requires understanding user journeys and addressing the unique challenges faced by healthcare organizations, whether they are directly serving patients or developing technology solutions
Misconceptions About Design: There is a widespread misconception that designers are primarily responsible for enhancing a product's visual appeal. Lisa emphasizes that design’s real value lies in addressing complex problems and optimizing workflows. By involving designers early in the process, organizations can leverage their expertise to gain a deeper understanding of user needs, identify pain points, and develop solutions that are both aesthetically pleasing and functional
Design is Only About Aesthetics: A common misconception is that designers are tasked merely with making things look pretty. Many designers encounter requests to "make it sizzle" or "make it look nice," which fails to recognize the deeper value of design in problem-solving and functionality.
Designers as Fix-All Superheroes: There is a prevalent belief that hiring a designer can solve all organizational problems, but this sets unrealistic expectations for both the designer and the organization. Designers are sometimes viewed as superheroes who can come in, fix everything, and then leave, which can lead to failure and burnout if they do not build consensus and facilitate alignment
Reskinning as a Solution: Some people believe that reskinning or simply changing the visual design of a product is enough to improve it. Lisa argues that this approach is often a waste of time and money because it doesn't address the underlying issues with functionality or user experience
Prototyping Equals High-Fidelity Tools Like Figma: There is an unspoken expectation that prototyping must be done in high-fidelity tools like Figma. Lisa advocates for broader definitions of prototyping, including low-fidelity methods like storytelling, whiteboarding, and sketching, which can be more effective in early-stage ideation
Centralization vs. Decentralization of Design Teams: There is often debate over whether design teams should be centralized or integrated within product teams. Lisa emphasizes the importance of considering organizational goals and the experience you want to deliver when structuring design teams, rather than rigidly adhering to one model
Design as Facilitation: Designers serve as facilitators who bring together diverse perspectives and ideas to drive projects forward. Effective communication and collaboration are essential to ensure alignment among team members and stakeholders. Lisa emphasizes that designers must take in ideas, inputs, and data from various sources and synthesize them into cohesive concepts. Here are some examples of how designers can facilitate the process:
Continuous Collaboration: Designers need to engage in ongoing communication with product and engineering leaders to understand business goals, product vision, and technological capabilities. This ensures that design concepts are aligned with organizational objectives and feasible within technical constraints
Iterative Feedback Loops: Designers should present concepts and prototypes to stakeholders early and often, gathering feedback to identify gaps, potential issues, and opportunities for improvement. This iterative process helps refine ideas and fosters a collaborative environment where stakeholders feel involved and invested in the solution
Managing Expectations: By keeping stakeholders informed and involved, designers can help manage expectations and reduce the risk of surprises. This approach ensures that the final product aligns with what was promised and provides a rationale for any necessary changes
Human-Centered Design: Human-centered design prioritizes understanding and addressing the psychological, social, ergonomic, and emotional needs of users. This approach involves conducting thorough research to gain insights into users’ experiences and challenges. By focusing on human needs, designers can create solutions that are more intuitive, effective, and satisfying. This contrasts with other problem-solving methods that may prioritize technical or business considerations over the actual user experience
Identifying Workflow Inefficiencies in e-Prescribing: The company initially sought to modernize its user interface, but Lisa’s team discovered that the real challenge lay in the inefficiencies of the existing workflows. By focusing on understanding the needs of different user groups, they identified opportunities to improve patient-doctor interactions and streamline the prescribing process. This approach prioritized functional improvements over cosmetic changes, demonstrating the importance of addressing underlying workflow issues to create more effective solutions. The story underscores the value of comprehensive user research in identifying the root causes of user dissatisfaction
Prototyping in Practice Management Software: During a prototyping phase, the company used storyboarding to present a new concept involving tablets in exam rooms. Feedback from a practice owner about the cost implications of purchasing multiple tablets led to a reevaluation of the proposed solution. This early, low-fidelity prototyping approach provided valuable stakeholder insights and helped the team identify potential barriers before committing significant resources to development. The story emphasizes the importance of engaging stakeholders early in the design process to uncover potential roadblocks and make informed decisions
Challenges in Health Tech Design: Integrating design effectively within health tech organizations can be challenging due to several factors that Lisa highlights:
Distance from End Users: Designers often find themselves several layers removed from the actual users of their products due to intermediaries like insurance companies, healthcare providers, and regulatory bodies. This distance makes it challenging to gather direct user feedback and tailor solutions to meet users' actual needs
Complexity of Healthcare Ecosystem: Healthcare is a complex field with many entrenched interests, including government, insurance companies, and various healthcare providers. This complexity makes it difficult to implement changes and innovations, as healthcare involves treating chronic diseases and improving health over time, making it a challenging and slow-moving field for designers
Lack of Design Maturity in Organizations: Many healthcare organizations lack design maturity, meaning they may not fully understand or appreciate the value of design beyond aesthetics. This can lead to underutilization of design capabilities and a failure to integrate design thinking into strategic processes
Misalignment of Business and Design Goals: Aligning business goals with design work is essential but challenging. Designers must ensure that their work contributes to broader business objectives, such as improving patient satisfaction or increasing revenue. This requires careful measurement and alignment with business KPIs, which can be difficult when multiple factors influence outcomes
Risk of Oversimplification: There is a risk of oversimplifying problems and solutions in healthcare. Simply reskinning an application or focusing on superficial changes without addressing underlying workflow or user experience issues can lead to ineffective solutions. Designers need to engage in comprehensive research and understanding to avoid this pitfall
Need for Continuous Collaboration: Effective design in health tech requires ongoing collaboration with various stakeholders, including product and engineering leaders. Designers must stay aligned with the organization's direction and adapt to changes quickly, requiring constant communication and the ability to synthesize diverse inputs into cohesive design solutions.
Prototyping: Lisa challenges the notion that prototyping should be limited to digital tools like Figma. She emphasizes the importance of low-fidelity prototyping methods, such as storytelling and sketching, to explore ideas and gather feedback early in the design process. These methods encourage creativity and open discussion, allowing teams to quickly iterate on concepts and identify potential issues before significant resources are invested. Prototyping should be viewed as a flexible and iterative process that helps refine ideas and align stakeholders
Forge Harmonic's Mission: Forge Harmonic aims to improve the experience of care delivery by creating innovative, human-centered products, services, and systems for healthcare organizations. The company adopts a partnership model, working closely with clients to deeply understand their needs and collaboratively develop solutions. This approach ensures that the final product aligns with the client’s vision and effectively addresses the challenges faced by their users. Forge Harmonic’s focus on partnership and co-creation sets it apart as a leader in design-driven innovation within the healthcare sector
Hope for Healthcare: Lisa expresses optimism about several emerging trends in healthcare, including the increased focus on patient experience, the shift of care delivery to the home, and the growing investment in femtech and women’s health. These trends reflect a broader recognition of the importance of creating healthcare solutions that are responsive to the needs of patients and embrace technological advancements. The emphasis on patient experience and personalized care models presents exciting opportunities for design to play a transformative role in healthcare
Advice for Designers:
Set Realistic Expectations: Designers should manage expectations by clearly communicating what design can and cannot achieve. It's important to be upfront about the limitations and potential impact of design work, ensuring that stakeholders understand the scope and process involved.
Focus on Collaboration: Collaboration is key in design. Designers should actively engage with other team members, including product managers, engineers, and stakeholders, to ensure that their work aligns with the broader organizational goals and that all perspectives are considered in the design process.
Facilitate Consensus and Alignment: Designers play a crucial role in facilitating consensus among different stakeholders. By bringing diverse perspectives together, they can help align everyone around a common vision and ensure that design decisions are informed by a range of insights and priorities.
Embrace Iterative Feedback: Seeking and incorporating feedback is essential. Designers should create opportunities for stakeholders to provide input early and often, using iterative processes to refine and improve design solutions based on real-world insights and needs.
Build Trust and Credibility: Establishing trust with stakeholders is crucial for successful design work. By demonstrating reliability, competence, and a commitment to addressing user and business needs, designers can build strong relationships that support effective collaboration and implementation
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Where to find Lisa deBettencourt:
email: lisa@forgeharmonic.com
Forge Harmonic: https://www.forgeharmonic.com/
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Where to find Angela and Omar:
Angela Suthrave
Omar Mousa
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Referenced:
Forge Harmonic: https://www.forgeharmonic.com/
Experience Design: https://www.clockwork.com/insights/what-is-experience-design/
Human-Centered Design: https://www.uxdesigninstitute.com/blog/what-is-human-centered-design/
Design Thinking: https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/what-is-design-thinking
Facilitation for Product Designers: https://medium.com/zalando-design/the-science-of-facilitation-a-guide-for-product-designers-f14bf77910c9
Conway’s Law: https://www.atlassian.com/blog/teamwork/what-is-conways-law-acmi
The Myths of UX Design/ Product Design/Whatever They Call It This Week: https://cwodtke.medium.com/the-myths-of-ux-design-product-design-whatever-they-call-it-this-week-ef37a39cac6b
Product Design Prototyping: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/prototyping
Some Resources for Product Designers: https://www.edorozco.com/product-design-resources/
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Check out our website: https://www.concepttocare.com
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Episode #11 - Lisa deBettencourt, Founder and CEO of Forge Harmonic