Telemedicine: from smoke test to a service in the patient app
During the pandemic, access to specialists became a bottleneck across Docplanner's markets. In the New Ventures unit I led design for a telemedicine service from first validation to full integration. We tested demand with landing pages before building anything, launched a standalone iOS and Android MVP, and learned enough from real consultations to fold the service into the main Doctoralia patient app as a paid offering.
Type
Mobile app
, 0→1
Role: Product Designer, design and research lead
Team: 2 front-end developers, 1 back-end developer, product manager, business owner, operations manager, and 2 customer success specialists per launch market (Poland, then Spain)
Timeline: 1.5 years, 2021-2022
Company: Docplanner, New Ventures
The pandemic reshaped healthcare overnight. With limited access to specialists, telemedicine became essential. We saw an opportunity, but before building, we chose to listen and learn.
Validating the Opportunity
To test early concepts, I designed smoke test landing pages across 3 markets.
Custom branding kept the experiment distinct from Docplanner's core offering.
Users explored the service, selected plans, and moved through the payment flow.
Before final checkout, they were informed it was a test.
The outcome? The Google ads drew strong click-through, and a solid share of visitors went all the way to choosing a payment method. I treated that step as the real signal: picking how to pay is the closest a test can get to proof that people are ready to pay for the service. That was enough to commit to an MVP.
Building the MVP
Instead of embedding in the Doctoralia app, we launched a standalone mobile app (iOS & Android) for faster iteration. I led the design, focusing on:
A seamless chat-first consultation flow with general practitioners
Integration with a third-party doctor platform
Tools for early insights: AI support, workflow analysis, user feedback
We launched in Poland first, with free access, to learn from real patients and doctors and shape both the product and the operational model. Once we knew how to run the operations, we added Spain.
Learning points
Three insights stood out:
Strong demand, especially for quick, low-barrier consultations
Clear patterns across patient segments and health concerns
Foundational understanding of doctor operations and service delivery
This project wasn't just about launching a product. It was about finding the right value to deliver in a radically changed landscape.
Giving the service a direction
The business case for the service was simple: similar services already existed, so the risk was low. That told us what to build, but not why, or where to take it next. Together with our operations manager, I built the narrative the team was missing. Drawing on the user research I ran, we mapped the jobs patients come with, their pains and concerns, the conditions they bring, and how their needs change across life stages. From that we defined the values of the service and a plan structure: a basic plan, with extensions for different stages of life. It gave the team and the business a shared direction for the following years.
Patients' needs across life phases
Services proposition
The Final Phase: Going Live
With validation behind us, it was time to scale. I led the design of our full solution within the Doctoralia Patient App, focusing on a smooth user experience and clear service integration. To support monetization:
I designed the official landing page and pricing model
Services were shaped around real patient needs, jobs, and pain points
Results
The service became part of the Doctoralia Patient App and brought new leads to doctors on the platform. It was one of the 12 concepts explored in New Ventures and one of the two that reached revenue and made it into the core product. Docplanner later retired the service: after the company became a unicorn, the returns expected from each business line rose sharply, and telemedicine no longer met that bar.