RED

RED provides product ideation and prototyping services to assist McKesson in the definition and crystallization of a new product and business service idea.

Problem

McKesson Corporate Strategy group had identified a large market opportunity with few competitors and with constraints uniquely addressable by McKesson. They had spent considerable time investigating the market and outlining potential solutions, but needed to be able to more clearly define the product for the purpose of obtaining buy-in from potential customers, corporate management, and potential project team members. The product would be a highly complex system involving multiple business constituents in the healthcare industry, and there was great skepticism among stakeholders as to whether or not this was a feasible undertaking.

Solution

McKesson hired RED to assist in developing a deeper understanding of the user constituencies, focusing on the common workflows, information needs, and usability concerns related to the problems being addressed by the product. RED worked directly with McKesson project team members to crystallize and document the users and core workflows of the product, and presented these to potential customers in provider offices, laboratories, and commercial Payors across the country in order to gather feedback. RED then led the McKesson team through a highly collaborative and iterative process of developing a fully functioning prototype of the application that was to demonstrate a full breadth of functionality, user scenarios, and dedication to usability.

Conclusion

The prototype, completed in three months from initial definition through code delivery, was critical to telling the story of the proposed business to executive management, for the purpose of securing additional funding to proceed with the project, and to potential customers for the purpose of generating excitement and future revenue. The project was fully funded as a new business within McKesson and has grown from a team of eight part-time staff to over 40 full-time employees and contractors, with several prominent customers in just over one year. The RED prototype and associated workflow and ideation artifacts have served as a baseline for the definition of features and functionality developed into the core product, providing great leverage for the product management and development processes.