Reminders to Take · Pharmacy innovation

Making medication reminders easier to act on.

A Kaiser Permanente pharmacy concept that helps members set, track, and follow through on medication reminders with more confidence.

Healthcare

Case study

Design sprint

The Opportunity

Members needed a way to set and track medication reminders—without losing context around side effects, schedules, or the right kind of notification.

The approach

We grounded the concept in 21 member interviews, then used design sprints and iterative prototypes to test how reminders could feel clearer, more useful, and more human.

A Minimum Lovable Product framework helped prioritize the features that mattered most.

What changed

Daily reminders and history that people could understand at a glance.

A more encouraging, supportive tone for everyday medication routines.

An intuitive, customizable experience that users said they would use and pay for.

Improved adherence to prescribed medication plan

Brief

KP Pharmacy has a huge impact on both KP's bottom line and member interactions
52% of KP's net profit is driven by Pharmacy
$9.5 billion in annual drug spending
150,000 daily member interactions
Pharmacy is biggest department in terms of interaction—more than doctors, nurses, labs combined

Challenge

Improve Adherence
Significant portion of KP members do not adhere to their prescribed medication plan
Stay competitive in marketplace
KP Pharmacy experience is not keeping pace with competitors
Empower Patients
Must understand their needs and contexts to give transparency, control and convenience
Improve Productivity & Efficiency
Make things easier for KP, ie: reduce phone calls

Research

Competitive analysis
Conducted
21 User interviews
- How can we simplify this process to make it as easy as possible?
- How can we make tracking the most beneficial?
- How would members like to track side effects from medications?
- How would they like their reminders displayed via push notification?
21 Usability testing
- Concept testing

Design Sprint

Leveraging interactive prototypes gives us a cheap shortcut to learning and mitigating risks
Opportunity to learn and pivot

Ideation

MVP = MLP = Minimum Lovable Product

What to include?

High confidence - know how should work
Medium confidence - generally know how should work
Low confidence - needs exploration
Out of scope

What elements are needed to set up reminders?

What do buckets look like?

Buckets can have properties

Quick early sketches

Iterating

Research Insights

Some users wanted snooze

Some users suggested journal notes and to add related medications

Users found it helpful able to see a broad view of their reminders for the day so they could see what had been taken.

They appreciated the encouraging messaging and found it to be uplifting.
When prompted to look for their history, all users were able to discover and use Tracking.

Quotes

“I would buy this product. I would pay for this.”

“I'm excited and I want it to come out because I totally would use it. My husband is always telling me to set my reminders. I love the customization. I think it's really intuitive.”