ABOUT SESAME
Sesame is a cash-based healthcare marketplace that connects patients directly with physicians, enabling care to be offered at a lower price. Sesame inverts the traditional healthcare pricing model by showing patients the price for their appointments upfront before booking. With over 100k patients served, Sesame offers in-person and virtual care across specialities and recently launched a partnership with Costco to bring affordable care to more Americans.
👩‍💻  Type: Internship
💡 Role: Product Manager, User Researcher, and Designer
🗓️  Timeline: June - August 2023
USER PROFILE SYSTEM
Synthesizing Research
One of my first projects was synthesizing the qualitative and quantitative research Sesame had conducted up to that point to create a system of User Profiles that mapped the behaviors, jobs to be done, attitudes, and pain points for Sesame’s user segments. This synthesis created a birds-eye view of who Sesame serves.
Final User ProfilesÂ
Focusing on Cost-Conscious Users
Through this work, I identified that many of Sesame’s users are “cost-conscious,” meaning they either have high-deductible insurance or are entirely uninsured, so they have a limited budget when it comes to seeking care. From this, two key behaviors emerged:
Cost-conscious patients take a reactive approach to health care because they don’t want to risk pricey medical bills. But, they have specific, long-term health goals and needs that they want to address.
provider-specific membership
Identifying the tension between the reactive approach that Sesame’s users take to accessing healthcare and their aspirational desire to address ongoing, preventative concerns lead us to start thinking about how Sesame could shift from being an affordable urgent care to a long-term health partner.Â
To do this, we tested a membership where patients could subscribe to a specific provider on Sesame.Â
We created a working prototype of a mobile app where users would have an appointment with a provider and then be given the option to subscribe to that specific provider to access ongoing care. The prototype included an A/B version with the membership upsell happening at two different points in the flow.
Testing the Prototype
The prototypes were tested with seven Sesame users during live, moderated interviews, and here were some of the key findings:
4/7 users stated that they are hesitant to sign up for a subscription initially after an appointment, wanting more time to evaluate and try Sesame.Â
4/7 users stated that the difference between Plus and Basic were not enough to justify the price difference.
4/7 users were not clear that the main value prop was subscribing to a dedicated provider.Â
6/7 users stated that they want to take a more proactive approach to their health as they get older, but they seem unclear as to how Sesame will play role in that.
These findings illuminated a few core problems with how we had pitched the membership in the prototype:
- We need to do a better job at messaging the core value of subscribing to a provider
- Given users’ price sensitivity, there is a strong urge to really vet and try the product before signing on to a subscription, so offering an intermediary step between a month-to-month subscription and full yearÂ
- Conduct further testing to identify which membership benefits are most appealing and high-value for users
ITERATING ON MEMBERSHIP STRUCTURE
What if subscribing to a specific provider felt like choosing to add extra leg room to your airfare…rather than signing up for a whole new membership.Â
From the first round of tests, we saw that users were nervous to sign up for a membership without knowing that they would get the value they were paying for.Â
Rather than having a tiered membership program, I proposed that we explore alternative payment structures for accessing ongoing care with a provider.
TESTING REVISED MEMBERSHIP STRUCTURE
Using messaging as a proxy for ongoing, continued care with a provider, we decided to test:
Option A: Messaging as a one-time add-on to any appointment for a small fee
Option B: Messaging bundled with other benefits under a Sesame Plus membership
Once the structure was in place, I built a high-fidelity end-to-end prototype for both conditions, which I then tested with 10 users. We screened users to select for people who:
- Had seen a doctor virtually in the last 6 months
- Had either a high-deductible insurance plan or are uninsuredÂ
Unlike the first A/B test, we showed each user both prototypes and asked them to articulate what they perceived the difference to be to demonstrate whether or not our messaging was clear.
RESULTS FROM A/B TEST: USERS PREFERRED OPTION B
Understanding Option Differences
10 of 10 users understood Option A as a one-time, add-on to message a doctor for a week after an appointment.
7 of 10 users understood Option B as a membership that included 7 day messaging on top of other benefits.
Preference
6 of the 10 users preferred Option B (membership), over Option A (add-on).
- For the users who preferred Option B, most felt that it was better value for their money.
- For the users who preferred Option A, they felt that they don’t go to the doctor enough to see $60/year as valuable. Or, they valued the flexibility of being able to add messaging on an as-needed basis.
LAUNCHING MESSAGING AS ADD-ON
Leveraging the findings from the first test, where we learned that users are hesitant to “subscribe to a provider” without evaluating their care and having follow-up visits, we decided to launch messaging as an add-on feature (Option A) to any appointment.Â
This enables users to continue building a relationship with their provider following their appointment, without having to commit to a full membership.
This was the model that was now available on Sesame, but the team is continuing to explore how messaging can be a lever to help patients seek ongoing care with providers of their choosing.Â