Case Study: Astra Wellbeing

View the video testimonial here:

Client Video Testimonial

1. Introduction

Overview:

Astra Wellbeing is a Wellness provider based out of Boston, MA. They have partnered with the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association for their first round of funding reaching a valuation of 7 million from their first pre-market funding rounding. They look to target health systems and clinics alike to address the burnout issue in the healthcare industry by providing a platform for wellness assistance driven by peer-to-peer SMS based recognition.

Challenge:

Johar Singh, the co-founder and CEO of Astra, along with his other co-founders, recognized the growing national crisis of burnout in healthcare organizations across the USA. Discussing the issue with his family and friends, he was determined to build a technology solution to combat the crisis. He determined that a SMS based platform where professionals can text each other messages of encouragement was an awesome way to counter the problem.

Objective:

Developing a comprehensive wellness platform that allows professionals to securely send each other messages of encouragement, and a database of wellness resources.

2. The Problem

Background:

The nation's health depends on the wellbeing of our health workforce. Confronting the long-standing drivers of burnout must be a top national priority. We need to build a culture that supports wellbeing. - Dr. Vivek Murthy, 21st Surgeon General of the United States

Since COVID, the healthcare industry in the US has encountered a crisis of burnout amongst health care providers and support staff. Crushed by the intensity of service, many health systems and clinics are scrambling for a solution.

This is where Astra Wellbeing steps in. By providing a SMS based, wellness platform, professionals can access assistance to crises on the go from their mobile device. This is imperative for the mobile nature of healthcare where a normal mobile application can be too cumbersome. Our providers and support staff need wellness assistance in as frictionless a way as possible.

Pain Points:

Astra Wellbeing needed a reputable team to properly build a platform for them that would cover all of their project requirements. Furthermore, they needed a Benmore teammate working for them full time following the initial engagement as certain clinics and health systems might require custom development or training.

3. Our Solution

Discovery Process:

After meeting the Astra team in person and understanding their vision, we worked with their internal UI designer to build an initial prototype of the application in Figma. We focused mainly on the ease of use of the application, the SMS based functionality, and ensuring proper security measures as Astra would be working with highly sensitive data. After all requirements were gathered, Astra's designer made the initial prototypes for the application and set off to start developing the platform.

Proposed Solution:

It was decided that a web solution that was driven by SMS messages for personalization was best. Specifically, rather than have an application or a dashboard for example, each employee would get a single onboarding message when their organization signed up, with a secure link to their dashboard. Any messages of encouragement or recognition sent to them would also include their dashboard link. This way employees would not have to download another app, and all interaction of the application is SMS driven

The reasoning behind this determination was two fold, first, healthcare professionals are always on the move and we did not want to bog them down with another application or dashboard that they would have to remember to check.

Second, the open rates on SMS messages are close to 100%, meaning, more so than any other medium by far, people check their texts. We wanted to make sure that users were getting the most out of the application, and so SMS messages were determined to drive the most impact.

Technology Stack:

Sticking with our specialty of Django, we decided to use Django and Django Templates for the core of the application, a SQL database hosted on azure, and deploying the platform on Azure App Service. An integration with Twilio was needed to manage SMS texts and other third party's were integrations with for bug tracking and analytics.

Development Process:

In the beginning of our engagement, we used a waterfall development process as the application was not functionally that complicated. We would have weekly sync meeting with the stakeholders to keep them up to date with progress. After the initial MVP was built and piloted, Astra developed their own development processes that our developer conformed too.

4. Implementation

Challenges Encountered:

What was interesting about this specific engagement was the build out of the actual application was not difficult, however, like with our Logistics clients, understanding the nuances of the industry was interesting.

For example, we determined early on the need for staff training of end users. This was a wellness platform that was to mainly be managed by the Director of HR at a health system or clinic. Typically, HR Directors are not technical and did not intuitively grasp the workflows of the application. For example, here is what our admin dashboard looked like:

So, we understood that some generalized onboarding and training of admin staff would be needed to assist the endusers in grasping the platform and using it effectively.

Similarly, certain health systems or clinics request custom development or features that were specific to their organization. So, keeping that in mind, we needed to allow the platform to be adaptable and open to integrations with other tools.

Timeline:

We built the MVP with Astra over the course of 6 months, and after launch, placed a full time member on their team.

Collaboration:

We conformed to Astra's preferred communication channels and processes.

5. Results

Key Outcomes:

Astra, after launch, reached a pre-revenue valuation of 7M lead by an investment from Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association.

Astra has won various startup competitions (linked in the news sections above), but we are most proud of their usability metrics:

6. Lessons Learned

The biggest takeaway for us was learning how to working with Enterprises doing over 1B in revenue and how you need to set up your development structure to accommodate the complex need of large organizations. They will require custom development, they will require a support staff, and they will need onboarding and training. Going through the exposure to that with Astra, directly helped up understand how to support some of our larger customers down the line.

Specific to Astra, it was amazing to see them evolve as a company, hire staff, and raise a round. We are excited for what they will go on to accomplish.

7. Conclusion

Summary:

All in all, we assisted Astra from an idea to a funding round - and it was awesome!

Call to Action:

If you need technical or professional services, please don't hesitate to book a call with us! Click the "Let's Talk" button.