Leveraging Blockchain to Support Organ Transplants
My Role
Product Manager
UX Researcher
Team
Myself &
4 x UX Designers
4 x Developers
Skills
Product Management
Project Management
Team Leadership
UX Research
Roadmap Development
Business Impact
• Led discovery of opportunities to expand SAP's product portfolio with application of blockchain technology.
• Proposed monetization route for SAP's own hyper ledger framework within the health tech field.
Timeline
Jan 2020 - Jul 2020 (7 mos)
The Design Process
Background
SAP fosters an innovation hub called D-shop where motivated employees can develop innovative new products with successful ones joining the SAP product portfolio. I joined as a team lead to see how blockchain could be used to facilitate the organ transplant process.
The Problem
In British Columbia, the organ transplant process suffers from a lack of available organs and resourcing.
Currently there are over 2000 people on the waitlist for an organ transplant.
2000
2010
228
On average people will wait 2,010 days for a match
228 people will die each year before receiving a transplant.
The Goal
Explore how blockchain could improve the trust, transparency, and efficiency of the organ transplant process in British Columbia.
Project Kickoff info graphic
Our Approach
Stakeholder interviews and desk research informing rapid design ideation and proof of concept development.
Desk Research
To start, we needed to get a baseline understanding of the current organ transplant process. To do this, we read articles, research papers, and published journal articles to gain a better understanding.
Stakeholder Interviews
We needed contextual information of the current landscape, pain points and opportunities so we conducted 1 hour semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders.
7 Participants
4 Organizations
Doctors
Nurses
Logistics
Patients
4 Roles
Key Insights
Data was analyzed and synthesized from the desk research and interviews to generate 4 key insights.
Siloed Health Care
Healthcare across Canada is siloed between provinces due to primarily being provincially funded. Only Critical cases for organ transplants are shared federally.
Trust in the System
Trust and transparency were not major issues for patients on the waiting list. There is a high degree of faith in the health care system.
Many Stakeholders
There are many different stakeholders throughout the organ transplant process with different roles. Support for large scale role based access needs to be supported.
Time Investment
It takes time to manually match organs to recipients. More automation here can help facilitate this process.
Design Direction
A journey map, personas, and service blueprint were created to visualize the problem space and decide where the greatest impact could be made. We decided to focus on the organ recipient decision as this was a pain point across all stakeholders.
Concept Ideation
Initial ideas were mocked up and a design review was done with the internal team.
Design Solution
Feedback from the team review was built into high fidelity mockups and presented back to stakeholders which received approval and validation.
A Single Hub
One place for all healthcare workers to input, track, and monitor their patients organ transplant journey.
Matching Algorithm
A customizable matching algorithm to support healthcare professionals quickly finding the best match available.
Blockchain Based
Leveraging blockchain technology for additional trust and transparency from organ availability to surgery.
Impact
Created by Alzam
from the Noun Project
New Venture Discovery
Led discovery of opportunities to expand SAP's product portfolio with application of blockchain technology.
Product Portfolio Proposal
Proposed monetization route for SAP's own hyper ledger framework within the health tech field.
Product Management Skillset
Through this project I was able to up skill myself with project management, people management, and product roadmapping to be a more effective designer.
Reflections
Team Leadership
For this project I was leading a team of 7 unique individuals all with their own working style. I found it challenging to strike a balance of creating a space for everyones needs while pushing the project forward. In the future I would take more time at the beginning of the project to hear and identify each teammates working style to be able to create the right environment throughout the project.
from the Noun Project
Solving the Wrong Problem
There was a major assumption around patients not having trust in the organ transplant process and wanting more transparency throughout their experience. This was proven false in our user interviews and moved the importance of using blockchain technology to a background nice to have feature rather than a spotlight. This was yet another example of the importance of removing assumptions from the product development process and making data driven decisions.
from the Noun Project
Leadership Style
Throughout this project I was able to experiment with different leadership styles and felt further settled in my own being a mix between a delegative and participative leader. I was able to effectively create systems and structures to allow for autonomy, alignment, and support in getting the work done.
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