The Opportunity:

Connect2Trials is a web-based SaaS platform designed to support patients throughout their clinical trial journey. The company aimed to improve recruitment, engagement, and retention by making trials more accessible and emotionally resonant for patients.

As Product Strategist, I was responsible for shaping the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) vision, aligning internal and external stakeholders, and leading the product strategy through its early definition, design, and validation phases. My work laid the foundation for a scalable, human-centered platform focused on long-term impact.

Key Responsibilities:

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Acted as the bridge between product, design, and external partners. Ensured that clinical and business stakeholders (Sponsors, Sites, CROs) were continuously involved in shaping the product.
• Translated high-level strategy into user stories, workflows, and technical requirements.
• Managed design execution and sprint planning alongside a product designer.

Human-Centered Design & Research

• Led co-design sessions with patients and internal stakeholders to uncover key pain points.
• Developed experience maps, interaction frameworks, and user personas to guide design decisions.
• Used qualitative insights to align platform tone, language, and interaction patterns with patient trust and literacy levels.

Prototyping & Usability Testing

• Oversaw creation of mid- and high-fidelity wireframes using Figma.
• Designed and tested hypotheses for each flow (onboarding, matching, community).
• Ran usability testing to gather structured feedback and refine designs before development.

🔑 Core MVP Flows Prioritized

• Patient Onboarding: Simplified and streamlined patient registration and qualification to reduce friction and improve conversion.
• Engagement: Integrated health literacy tools and transparency into the matching process to build patient confidence.
• Community: Created trust-building structures to foster meaningful peer connections and long-term retention.

Key Stakeholders

While the patient experience was at the core of the platform's design, it was crucial to consider other customer segments as part of the user experience. The key stakeholders in this project included:

• Patients: End users navigating clinical trial participation.
• Sites & CROs: Clinical teams managing recruitment and trial execution.
• Sponsors: Pharmaceutical and research sponsors funding and overseeing trials.

Product Development Framework

The project involved a collaborative effort between myself a product designer, and Connect2Trials stakeholders. I organized the work into four distinct phases, with each phase spanning two-week sprints, each aimed at achieving specific objectives. The project's main priority was to address patient user flows for the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and conduct user testing.

Approach

1. MVP Strategy & Roadmap Ownership

• Defined the MVP vision and structured delivery into three sprint-based phases.
• Prioritized core user flows based on business impact and clinical user needs (Patients, CROs, Sponsors).
• Facilitated alignment across internal teams and external clinical stakeholders to ensure business and user goals were tightly integrated.

2. UX Framework and Mid-Fidelity Wireframes:

• Define how the product will be organized and how users will interact with it.
• Consider the user models for interaction for each stakeholder group.
• Develop design concepts and mid-fidelity wireframes.

3. High-Fidelity Wireframes and Prototypes:

• Led the production of high-fidelity prototypes for review and requirements validation.
• Detailed all unique screens and states for key tasks within the application.

4. Concept & Usability Evaluation:

• Conducted usability evaluations and refined design based on structured feedback.
• Obtain user feedback and make necessary improvements to enhance usability. Ensure the design aligns with the goal of creating a patient-centric, trustworthy, and engaging clinical trial platform.

Results & Business Impact:

I delivered a validated, high-fidelity MVP prototype that addressed the most critical patient needs, laying the foundation for a patient-centered clinical trial platform. Through a modular design system and phased rollout plan, I accelerated iteration, reduced development risk, and positioned Connect2Trials to improve patient trust, recruitment, and long-term retention.

The resulting Connect2Med prototype reflected key patient user flows and incorporated direct feedback from Sites, Sponsors, and Patients. User testing played a pivotal role in refining the experience, ensuring the platform met the needs of all stakeholders while supporting scalable, human-centered trial engagement.

Key Learnings:

• Human-centered research is essential in healthcare SaaS—it shaped both tone and functionality of the product.
• A modular, phased MVP approach accelerated iteration and de-risked the build process.
• Success came from aligning clinical objectives with user emotion and behavior; not just function.
• Aligning business outcomes with user behavior was critical to designing a product with lasting impact.