Launching a Healthtech Business

Sliding Line

  • Our client is a leading retailer in the U.K. looking for new ways to develop its retail proposition with innovative products and services that support customers’ health and wellness.

    Over the last 10 years, consumers have become accustomed to increasingly sophisticated health tracking products. The market has rapidly shifted from devices capable of measuring simple internal metrics like sleep duration to products measuring recovery or ‘body battery’ with a combination of multiple heart rate metrics, blood oxygen levels and breathing rate, which until relatively recently would have only been available in a hospital.

    Leading the next phase of this evolution, we have supported the launch of end-to-end diagnostic testing as a service where consumers are empowered to improve their health and wellness by getting accurate insights from laboratory tests.

    Customers provide a finger-prick sample of blood which is posted to a laboratory for testing, then receive their results through an app. Follow-on services are available to book with experts to support customers to make positive lifestyle changes.

  • Exevion worked on the project from the early stages to the product launch.

    • Strategy and Planning: the project’s first step was to help develop the team’s long-term strategy. We ran a series of design thinking workshops with stakeholders to align and agree on the direction. The outputs were used to build project plans, create ways of working and find possible partners to support the service.

    • Onboarding and Implementing Partners: the service relies on best-in-class partners to deliver follow-on services to customers. We supported partners through the due diligence process and agreement of commercial and data protection contracts.

    • Pilots and Testing: an MVP was developed and piloted with around 200 users to find pain points and areas to improve before launch. We managed the end-to-end testing process.

    • Soft Launch: the team supported a soft launch in the U.K. to expand the rollout gradually. This period is being used to optimise digital marketing, develop the proposition through real customer feedback and onboard the next phase of partners. We are supporting the project to deliver these changes.

    • Full Launch: we are currently working on a full launch for 2023, focusing more on store operations and effective marketing use before expanding outside of the U.K.

  • We supported the delivery of two pilots to test and iterate the proposition for an initial soft launch. Given how innovative this service was to the core business, many of the internal processes were built from scratch. They can now be used as new products and services are trailed and launched by the business.

  • For traditional retailers trying to launch innovative propositions, it is important to do several things:

    • Ringfence resources and act as a start-up within the business: this lets teams work without having to worry about outdated technology architecture or established ways of working;

    • Build robust processes and toolkits: this allows follow-on projects to quickly move from ideation to launch, to test and learn;

    • To build cross-functional teams: this gives teams autonomy and empowers them to make decisions quickly.

    This is just one example of how we support our clients through the entire journey, from ideation and strategy to implementation and roll-out.