We are a data-driven company. This means that we are constantly gathering as many insights as possible so we can develop our service in a way that feels helpful to the user, and also provides real quantifiable benefits.
Here are some of our main user research methods:
Semi-structured user interviews
We love chatting with our users and getting direct feedback on what they like, what they don’t like and any ideas on what we could do differently. These one-to-one chats are also a great opportunity to dig deeper into the main health and wellbeing challenges they may be going through and to understand how we can best address them.
The many insights that come from user interviews then go into a thorough thematic analysis that informs our product roadmap based on the most common requests and feedback.
Health surveys
One of the main ways in which we measure the health benefits of our service is by asking users a few questions across different health and wellbeing areas when they first join Holly Health. After 8 weeks of using the service, we send the same health survey so we can measure any changes that may have occurred in that time.
Some of the questions we use in this survey are individual items from longer validated questionnaires, and we also include a personal wellbeing measure developed by the Office of National Statistics (ONS-4).
To understand the significance of these changes (i.e. so we can be sure that these changes are not just random), we apply a statistical method called paired samples t-tests to assess the difference in scores from baseline to week 8.
Most questions are answered out of 5 options (assigned a score from 1-5, from least healthy to healthiest answer), apart from the ONS-4 items which are scored on a scale from 0-10. Taking this into account, we also assess the impact of Holly Health on those who are struggling the most when they first join the service. This is why we do a sub-group analysis for users who score 1-3 at baseline for the main survey and 0-5 for ONS-4.
In-app feedback/suggestions
Great pieces of feedback come to us at the right time when the user is experiencing a challenge with the app or getting a great benefit. This is why we have an embedded ability to send feedback very easily through the app. We also have processes in place to constantly review this feedback, discuss it as a team, and decide on an action plan.
Engagement metrics/user behaviour
Of course, measuring how our users are engaging with different elements of the service is a great indication of what works, what doesn’t and what needs to be tweaked. It also gives us an understanding of behavioural patterns across people, time and circumstances.
If you’d like to hear more about our user research, or you’d like to get involved, please get in touch at [email protected]
