Digital clinic app Maven Clinic on the spot; JustWorks launches new permissions level

NEW YORK– The product challenges at the Product Council last August 31 were the digital clinic app offered by Maven Clinic and the new permissions level to be offered by JustWorks starting September 1. The meetup was held at the Pivotal Labs.

Maven Clinic’s Suzy Grange presented her app as a way to connect women with vetted healthcare experts via video complete with a forum for female patients and medical practitioners to talk to each other. It’s her answer to Googling your symptoms well and the endless wait in clinics.

The app works this way: You choose a practitioner, book an appointment and follow up. Pricing is $15 per session.

Why women? Women, said Grange, make 80 percent of healthcare decisions in their families. Women interact with the healthcare system at so many different points in life. And 80 percent of healthcare practitioners are women.

Launched last April 2015, the app is available nationwide with prescriptions offered in 5 states. It runs on iOs only right now.

What are the barriers to usage? Grange pointed out education, trust and immediacy. Just getting message across platforms can be a challenge along with immediacy, which may be reactive and requires developing a relationship with a practitioner.

Also present to give their inputs were Camilla Velasquez, Head of Product at Justworks, Jung Sin, a Product Design and UX Consultant and Jen Ator, Fitness Director at Women’s Health Magazine. –

If things don’t work out on video, Velasquez pointed out how it might be good if the company could help her schedule and meet her doctor in person. Safety was also raised. But overall, the response, even from the audience, was positive, saying it could make people more pro-active about their health.

To make the app sticky, another panelist suggested big-name practitioners to anchor the site. Others said determining her market is also crucial. She may also need to look into how coaching sites work, so people will keep coming back to the site. This is because if they only go when they’re ill, that’s a one-time incident. Offering something free for a period of time was also suggested.

As far as understanding her audience, it’s also important not to assume a lot of people know about what ails them or what they need to be tested for. College-age students may not know a lot of things about their health, for instance. It would have been better if the meetup had a doctor already signed up to the system as guest to give us an idea what she thinks about it and how she will be compensated.

Another panelist stressed again out how the app is “breaking a culture,” which means changing women’s behavior, young or old, into becoming more pro-active about their health.

The next speaker of the night was Velasquez of JustWorks, also one of the panelists, who talked about the launch of the site’s new permission system. Justworks is a platform that automates HR, payments, benefits and government paperwork for SMBs. There are 28M small businesses in the US.

Camilla Velasquez, head of Product at Justworks, pointed out the four product principles to explain Justworks’ new permission system: simple, fast, guiding and scales.

She said Justworks is solving the problem but sticking to their principles. Simple and fast: Small number of easy to understand permissions; too early for groups; Guiding: instruct users which permissions are for which roles; require admin status before adding permission; Scales: one overview screen, two entry points; flexible framework.

For direct reporting, she cited the changes in the following manner. Simple, fast: Turn on/off. Limit groups until later, with option to take action via email; Guiding defaults: Clear communications. Roll up and transparency for senior levels; Scales: Lay foundation for groups as new features are rolled out.