Customer Discovery: What We've Learned

Hypothesized Problems

We have two customer segments, which are post surgical patients and athletes. For patients, we believe that the brace will help them shorten their recovery time. For athletes, we hypothesized that the features of the brace will help increase overall performance due to the real-time results that could be seen while working out. We have not been able to test the product out, however we have conducted a series of interviews to test our hypotheses and gain insight into our markets.

Interviewees (sample)

- Erik C. who is a sufferer from patella tracking disorder and has had surgery on both of his knees

- Carlos O. who is an entrepreneur and was able to give us insight on how to break into the medical market

- Dimitri G. who is a long time athlete and has played football and basketball, practiced karate, and is currently a semi-professional golfer

- Malaya P. who is a sales representative for Stryker Corporation, which is the world's leading medical device company

- Billy A. who is a physical therapist

What we Learned & What This Tells Us:

Here are some key points:

Physical Therapist

• Physical therapists (PT) look for easy to use and easy to clean tools

• The brace may not be a desired product for a PT, because that's another data entry point the physician has to deal with and input into their logs.

• The product may benefit the patient more that the PT, because it could mean more time dedication.

Hospitals

• Most reimbursements happen through Medicare and Medicaid, but it's hard because rules can change from month to month with the insurance companies.

• Pushback to overcome would be factors like how we are inexperienced and young before hospitals even focus on the product.

• Patients have a 30 day window where, if something happens to them in regards to the knee that was operated on, they have the ability to hold the hospital liable.

• This tool can be attractive for many reasons, one main reason being that it could decrease a hospitals liability for the patient.

Customers

• Issues: braces haven't been supportive enough and didn't hold the knee cap in place, no brace has been 100% effective, some braces have been painful because they were too sturdy due to the material it was made out of (nonconforming material)

• Qualities looked for: support, adjustment ability (universal fit), comfort, simple to clean (machine washable) and use

• The vibration feature may not stop motion instantly during athletic training because movements happen so fast, but maybe effective in physical therapy

Overall, we have learned that athletes are a little reluctant about this product and may not be the customer segment for us. Most of the information we've gathered has pointed back to physical therapy in some way. For the post surgical patients, they would be our end user, but they wouldn't be our customers. The group who would have the buying power in their situation would be organizations that perform orthopedic surgeries. We have more interviews to conduct in order to gather more insight, but this has given us a lot of clarity.