Definition and PO workshops

Recap

Improving access to therapy
More information is needed about the process of finding a therapist (e.g. types of therapy)
Barriers: cost, lack of information, particularly independent information
Simplified explanation of different types of therapy needed.
Ratings are important
Interest in remote therapy (e.g. skype)
Features that people would look for are simplicity and user friendliness (no popups, adverts, etc)
Would people use an online app? Potentially if easy to use

Possible User Needs

Name: User
Things they are trying to do:
- Access therapy
Ways they want to feel:
- Empowered. In control of the process and not being sold something
User
Needs a way to
- understand and access therapy
so that he/she can
- find treatment that is going to be appropriate and beneficial, quickly and easily

How Might We

Themes

Relevance
- how might we let the user decide if is he need a treatment +++
  - could help people to find out if they prepared for treatment
- How might we most simply construct a questionnaire that asks the most relevant questions ++
- How might we source the right therapists (to bring into the database) +
- How might we detect the suitable therapy for the user
- how might we see if the therapist is good as well
- How might we find out appropriate information about the user (age, experience with therapy, etc)
User Interface/Experience
- how might we let the user feel comfortable/safe/supported +++
- How might we provide a guide for the use of the platform +++
- How might we determine the time needed to display the questionnare results to the user ?
- How might we display the result for the questionnaire for the user
- How might we most appropriately display therapist information to the user (therapist profile)
- How are we going to present a lot of information very clearly +
- How might we provide a very clear and succint overview of the different types of talking therapies that are available
Connection
- how might we contact with therapist directly or Reservation. +++
- How might we connect between the user and the therapist.

User Journeys/Stories

User Journey

HMW
- How might we best connect users to the right kind of therapies
User
- a professional, educated person curious about exploring therapy
Single outcome
- I can investigate the differences between different kinds of therapy and investigate which will be most suitable for me by doing a questionnaire
Tweet
- I used #Shrinc to demistify therapy
HMW
- How might we get therapists to sign up for the service
User
- A therapist new to the industry or starting their own practice
Single outcome
- I can visit a page to find out more about the service and fill out my own profile to be shown to users
Tweet
- I used #Shrinc to reach new clients

User Journeys Shortened:

As a user seeking therapy, I can complete a questionnaire to identify/establish the most appropriate therapies for me, whilst also easily learning about the differences
As a therapist interested in reaching new clients, I can find out about the service and submit my own profile

User Stories

As a user, I can visit the website and find out more about the service
As a user, I can complete a questionnaire that will guide me towards the most suitable therapies
As a user, I can view therapist's profiles
As a user, I can choose to search (filter) for therapists by various categories (possible to search instead of doing questionnaire)
- location (need to think about implementing this properly)
- cost (from list of price ranges)
- speciality (from a list)
- skype/remote possibilty (yes or no)
As a user, I can learn more about the different types of therapy available
As a therapist, I can visit a therapist-specific page to find out more about the service
As a therapist, I can fill out a form to create and submit a profile

Stretch Goals

As the product owner, I can review and approve potential therapists
As a user I can leave a review for a therapist (?)

Consequence Scanning

Intended and Unintended Consequences

Theming

Positive

Accessibility
- people can find therapist quickly and easily.+++
- people can save their time by going to the appropriate theripy / people without enough time can use the app to access therapy+++
- people will be able to access better therapists for them, and get more out of it +++
- therapist can provide help to patients in any time and any case . +
- people who didn't have money can use this app to ask therapists and get contact with them easily +
- improved access to private therapists which might reduce overall costs+
- people who wouldn't otherwise actually see a therapist might do so
Education/Information
- improves general understanding of therapy and available options +
- people can know the prices and all information that they need to chose the appropriate theripy.++++
- people can see all therapist categories and contact with the appropriate one .
- a review system could improve the quality of therapists found by users ++
Therapist's professional practices (benefits)
- therapists can find more clients/ get money from users.++
- therapists can find clients and marketing his self.++
- allows therapists to easily expand their practice and consider offering new types of service/working privately
- new therapists can gain important experience++

Negative

Negative
- might be viewed as trying to commodify therapy
- might make it easier for bogus therapists to promote themselves (fake or unqualified therapists might scam someone)+++++
- might require more moderation than expected ++
- therapists wary of adding details
- Therapists may not want to receive reviews +
- therapists who aren't qualified might make a profile +++
- bad experiences with therapists can be damaging +
- a review system could damage therapist's reputations if dealing with certain people +

Notes as we go:

Will the therapist have a schedule of availability on the profile?
- Ideally yes, but for the MVP maybe just a list of available times. That way the user will know a bit about their schedule before contacting the therapist.
User view vs therapist view
- Guide/overview for user, and one for therapist
- eventually both user and therapist would make a profile/login
- most content is for user
- therapist only needs to create a profile, and then eventually accept or decline booking requests from users
- for MVP maybe we can just have a page with a guide for the therapist and overview of what is needed for the profile
- when user views therapists, there will need to be links or popups to explanations of what each field means (e.g. qualifications, approach, etc)
- Will the therapist need to fill out a form? Yes.
  - Can be very basic for now.
  - I asked if they would need to approve things that were submitted, because that adds complexity
  - Max suggested that maybe we could do a basic profile form that submits to the database, and adding a way to approve profiles could be a stretch goal
  - 1 page for therapists with explanation or process and the form
Therapist Profile
- Name
- Qualifications
- location
- Speciality
- Approach/orientation
- Reviews
- availability (skype/remote option)
User signup/login/skype/payment
- for the MVP I think we these are out of the scope
- but they will would be included in the future
- Ideal app flow - not all in scope for MVP:
  - user would do the questionnaire
  - user would be presented with suggestions for types of therapy (with explanations)
  - user would then have the option to check availability within the app and then book an appointment
  - user would be able to pay within the app (after the session). Possibly would hold the payment until confirmation closer to the time (therapists often deal with patients not paying so this woudl be helpful)
App
- Needs about page
- also option to search instead of questionnaire