Overview
Two Chairs is known for its personalized matching process that pairs clients with the right therapist based on their symptoms, availability, and preferences. While effective, the initial consult appointment—where this information is assessed—is highly manual, inefficient, and not scalable. I was a part of this ambitious project to build a streamlined, tech-assisted consult service to increase consistency, improve clinical outcomes, and reduce wait time to care.
My role
Led end-to-end design from discovery, research, concepting, design, testing, to implementation support.
Collaborators
Cross-functional partnership between Product, Design, Engineering, Data, and Clinical Innovation
Timeline
8 months
2025 launch
Impact
The primary goal of the initial release was to systemize the consult experience, capturing real-life consult data, allowing us to define success for future iterations based on real-world data.
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Let’s take a closer look
Problem
An unobservable service is not scalable. The consult appointment—where clinicians assess clients for appropriate care—was delivering strong clinical outcomes and high client satisfaction. However, with minimal oversight, each clinician approached assessments differently. As the company grew, this critical part of our business became increasingly unstable and unsustainable.
Goal
Create a repeatable consult process that provides high-quality, same-day care recommendations for every client.
Approach
Redesigning the consult service was a highly clinical and technically complex project, initially led by the Clinical Innovations Lead during the research phase. I partnered closely with her and stepped in to help the team bridge user needs with business objectives and clinical best practice, aligning on what we don't know and where we want to go.
Expert-led clinical research
The project Clinical Innovations Lead conducted industry and academic research to identify evidence-based tools that could help standardize and elevate how Two Chairs assesses clinical needs during consult appointments.
Shadow and interview consult clinicians
Observational study
User interviews
We collaborated with our clinical leads to audit over 20 consult appointments, where a supervising clinician observed real sessions. We then conducted targeted user interviews to gain deeper insights into clinicians' mindsets and workflows, uncovering how they approach client assessments most effectively.
Analyze current tools and processes
We took stock of the various tools and services clinicians used during consult appointments, identifying pain points as well as the aspects of their current system that worked effectively.
Map the system
Service blueprint
User journeys
I hosted cross-functional workshops, bringing together subject matter experts to map the consult service ecosystem and identify key opportunities for improvement.
Key Insights
Set clear standards to account for clinician skill and experience variation
Accurately diagnosing mental health issues is hard. Without standardized procedures, each consult was conducted differently, leading to inconsistent and inaccurate results.
Identify different levels of clinical needs earlier in the consult
The system didn’t effectively understand and account for the diverse client population seeking care, and funneled everyone down a single pathway to care that didn’t fit all
Need better risk assessment
The absence of clear standards and expectations meant many clinicians fell short in following proper safety protocols when assessing clients' risk of self-harm or harm to others.
Improve consult to treatment handoff for seamless client experience
There was no warm handoff between the consult clinician and the treatment clinician, resulting in lost information and a fragmented, negative experience for clients.
Make visions come to life
Co-creation workshop
Wireframes
Building on the 5-year vision we established for the entire Care Platform, I used the consult discovery insights and jobs-to-be-done to collaboratively shape the near-term vision for the holistic consult experience with my cross-functional partners.
Design, test, and iterate
UX/UI design
Interaction design
User testing
In the early stages, I worked closely with our clinical experts to de-risk new clinical concepts and policy changes that consult clinicians (end-users) were unfamiliar with. Once training and policy updates were implemented, we tested the designs with consult clinicians and conducted small group beta tests to gather feedback.
Define MVP with high risk concepts
Once the team aligned on a holistic vision for the end-to-end consult experience, I helped to define the first release and iterated on high-fidelity designs to make them delivery-ready. The highest-risk concepts—in terms of effectiveness and adoption—included an app-guided, real-time consult assessment and new matchmaking features. This marked the first time clinicians were required to use a computer during sessions, a significant shift given many were unfamiliar with tech-assisted therapy workflows.
Solution
MVP: evidence-based, semi-structured clinical assessment tool with decision support
Adaptive clinical assessment - offers recommendations based on client responses, providing therapists with best-in-class clinical guidance while allowing them the flexibility to override and adjust as needed
Data-informed risk alerts - leverages client intake information to help clinicians triage clients based on varying levels of acuity.
Clearly actionable insights - informs clinicians when the match criteria is highly restrictive, so they can use their clinical judgement to assess whether the criteria is required, flexible, or not necessary. This way we can optimize time to care based on each client's needs.
All-in-one Tool - manages the entire consult appointment from start to finish in one tool, streamlining workflows and boosting overall efficiency. This new tool consolidates three separate products that clinicians previously had to juggle to complete each consult.
3 year vision
Snapshots of an all-in-one consult tool featuring integrated video, automated consult notes, and a virtual waiting room for clinicians to prepare for upcoming sessions. The MVP aimed to test the effectiveness of the semi-structured assessment tool and key aspects of notes automation—core components of our long-term vision.
Product Strategist
Researcher
Designer