Many people have some consistent worries, doubts and hidden fears in their lives. But people with Obessive Compulsive disorder or OCD live in constant apprehension, fear and anxiety. Living with OCD can make you physically tired and emotionally exhausted. It can be defined as a brain condition that causes the brain to create repetitive worries and fears – it includes fear of germs/contamination, a need to have everything in
order, counting things over and over again, excessive cleaning etc.
What makes OCD a difficult disorder to treat and roadblocks in treatment of OCD?
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People hide symptoms and do not seek help.
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It takes courage to face OCD triggers. Patients are averse to change, begin treatment and OCD is far more painful than any discomfort.
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Not all physicians and mental health clinicians are equipped to diagnose and treat OCD.
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People still rely on ineffective, unproven methodologies of treatment.
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Some people are unable to afford the treatment or therapy is not accessible to them in remote towns.
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According to reports insufficient exposures are prevalent. Patients do not complete daily exposure exercises to be completed between therapy sessions.
The problem statement that we identified is that “As per reports published by International OCD Foundation 2-3 million adults are living with OCD in the United States. The international OCD foundation also states nearly 500,000 children in the USA suffer from OCD. 2.0% of the people worldwide suffer from OCD. It is necessary to develop an application that overcomes barriers of logistical issues, financial concerns, and availability of services”.
This is a prototype of an OCD therapy application, which is accessible, low-cost solution to OCD disorder at the tip of your fingers.
Proposed Solution
As per the solution that we are proposing, the OCDone application creates a virtual reality space for patients with OCD symptoms to understand their triggers and for the therapist to diagnose the severity of the disorder. The therapist would have complete knowledge and training of how to handle the software. A person who has an issue with unordered things will be placed with a VR headset. The therapist would keep a check on the Blood Pressure and heart rate and would go on increasing the intensity till the patient gets triggered by some visual. The therapist can take notes here which will help in further diagnosis.
Customers
Researchers working
in the applications of
VR, treatment of OCD
using VR etc
Name: Throstur, 50
Goals: research about OCD triggers,
response to ERP using VR
Motivations: do path breaking research in treatment of OCD, study cognition of thoughts behaviors and feelings, compare VR based ERP to traditional methods of therapy
Pain Points: might hate process of
therapy, therapist might think the case is incurable
Individuals of all age
groups with mild to
severe OCD.
Name: Carleigh, 25
Goals: acquire coping skills during OCD triggering situations.
Motivations: move through fear,learn to rely on healthier responses for OCD
Pain Points: might hate process of
therapy, therapist might think the case is incurable
Therapists actively
working and treating
patients with OCD
Name: Nicole, 31
Goals: have a better understanding of
the treatment progress their patients.
Motivations: have a better understanding of the progress their patients are making
Pain Points: make therapy
accessible, compliance of health
apps with HIPPA, data transparency
Hypothesis for identified customer persona.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Ideation
Idea: To develop an application that overcomes barriers of logistical issues, financial concerns, and availabilityof services. An OCD therapy session costs around 300$. We aim to create a VR based solution for OCDtreatment and make it more available to people.
Step 1: Market Research
We first conducted some market research to understand if the idea is even feasible. While conducting marketresearch, we came across multiple OCD therapy-based applications like NOCD, GGOC, TalkSpace. We cameacross constraints to be taken care of like HIPPAA and other licenses.
Step 2: User Research
We spent a lot of time identifying the customers/users for the application. The OCD patients were the obvioususers. The most important users were therapists as they would control the levels for simulation in theapplication. We even identified researchers as one of the customers as a lot of research is taking place worldwide in the area of VR based therapy.
Step 3: Designing the user journey
The team then designed the user journey. This helped us gain a lot of clarity regarding the requirements andthe role of each users in the application. The screenshot attached at the end of the MVP document depicts theuser journey that the team designed.
Step 4: Brainstorm on features/functionalities
After designing the user journey the team worked on brainstorming the features. We went back to our idea andthe problem we are trying to solve. VR as a technology is expensive to implement and this being a new productin the market. We wanted to add a differentiating factor to compete with existing products. So we came up with3 devices for patients to engage with the environment. The Google Dashboard being then most cost effective.
Step 5: MVP Launch
As we identified the differentiating factor. We tried to create a simulation that matched the most with our vision.
The MVP for OCDone was then presented before the class.
USING THE CREATE FRAMEWORK
Cue- When a patient approaches the therapist
regarding anxiety due to certain triggers which seem
like OCD triggers, before drawing conclusion the first
though that crosses the mind of the therapist to
determine the severity of the disorder.
Reaction- The reaction to this is to asking the user
to switch to the application and giving them the
confidence to go ahead with simulation environment.
Evaluate - As evaluation the therapist needs to be in
full control and increase the intensity of triggers as
per the heart rate and wait for the patient to get
comfortable.
Ability- The therapist can carry out this as we
expect the therapist to conduct trainings to get
comfortable with the application and we plan to
design the application in a user friendly manner.
Timing – This would be a smooth running
android/Appstore application so timing would not be
an issue to run the entire journey.
The curve plotted is the anticipated lifecyle of the product OCDone over the next 5 years.
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The Y axis represents the ROI (Return on Investment) and X axis represents the Time.We are currently in the Research and Development phase , where we are identifying pain points, brainstorming features for our application, user research, technology research.
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In the introduction phase, we are going to release the first iteration of the product with the MVP. We plan to release the MVP in this launch, to understand the market fit. I expect the introduction phase to last forabout a year. It would take therapists to get comfortable with VR as a technology being a non-technical audience.
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If the MVP is implemented is implemented with minimum bugs, we expect the sales to go up. Bugs/Issues will be fixed on priority in this phase by the software development team. We would focus on getting the product to the top of the market. Feedback from stakeholders will be taken in serious consideration.
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In the Growth Phase, OCDone will overcome the “entry barrier” in the market, with new features (including differentiators), MVP etc. It will be placed at par with the competitors. We expect more clinics and OCD research labs to use OCDone application. Newer technology stack will be used. I expect the growth phase to last up to 2-3 years approximately. Marketing would work on promoting the product at health conferences, OCD awareness programs, therapists, medical schools, psychology students etc.
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I expect the analytics team to work proactively in the growth phase, to get exact metrics to evaluate performance of the product and the development can work in synch to introduce/modify features.
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After the Growth Phase, I expect the product to enter the Maturity Phase, where the ROI will stabilize (represented by flat curve). The software team would focus on the maintenance of the software application. The customers will be more acquainted with the product.
Product Vision
