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INFORMATION
About
Résumé
©helen peng 2024
fueled by 心 & mooncakes
fueled by 心 & mooncakes
Throughout my year at Medtronic, I led 3 projects in their largest and most profitable division, landing a projected $489M in sales.
Role
Product DesignHuman Factors
For
Cardiac Rhythm Management,1 year
With
Mentors- Linda Massie, Audrey San Diego, Steve Nelson
Other human factors engineers, product managers, and developers.
01. Overview
What is Medtronic and what did I do there?CONTEXT
What is Medtronic?
Medtronic is a global leader in health technology, known for inventing the modern-day pacemaker.
WHAT DID I DO THERE?
Product Design and Human Factors Co-op
I doubled as a product designer and researcher, working on both patient and clinician-facing experiences, digital and physical products, and even internal software. Towards the end of my year, I chose to specialize in product design.
For this case study, I’ll be focusing on MyCarelink Heart.
02. MyCarelink Heart
A heart monitoring app for patients with implantable heart devicesTHE OUTCOME
Owning Onboarding and Education
I owned the Onboarding and Education features of MyCarelink Heart from concept, design, to delivery. I presented these slides to our core team highlighting new feature updates I designed through a persona.
**Content blurred for confidentiality purposes
03. Motives
CONTEXT
Why the Updates?
Product Management and Business intiated a redesign on MyCarelink Heart due to new hardware innovation.
RESEARCH INSIGHTS
Empathizing with Users to understand Current Interactions
I cross-referenced hypothesized user behaviors with past formative studies to confirm these pain points.
Empathizing with Users to understand Current Interactions
I cross-referenced hypothesized user behaviors with past formative studies to confirm these pain points.
🏠 Users Prefer to do Onboarding at home
Currently, Onboarding initiates in-clinic. However, patients feel groggy after surgery and would rather do onboarding at home.
︎︎︎Flexible Onboarding: Users can do Onboarding at home
📚 Users read Education articles... but never return
Users expressed skimming through education articles but only right after they downloaded the app.
︎︎︎Education Dashboard, Quick Tips & Saved: Users learn essential quickly and additional information at their own rate
Currently, Onboarding initiates in-clinic. However, patients feel groggy after surgery and would rather do onboarding at home.
︎︎︎Flexible Onboarding: Users can do Onboarding at home
📚 Users read Education articles... but never return
Users expressed skimming through education articles but only right after they downloaded the app.
︎︎︎Education Dashboard, Quick Tips & Saved: Users learn essential quickly and additional information at their own rate
04. Solutions
DESIGN OBJECTIVES
Users should be able to...
Based on validated pain points, I identified 3 key goals.
CORE FEATURES
What Changed?
I designed four new features to add to My Carelink Heart, balancing the complexity of new updates to hardware design with ease of user understanding.
What Changed?
I designed four new features to add to My Carelink Heart, balancing the complexity of new updates to hardware design with ease of user understanding.
🕓 Flexible Onboarding
📚 Central Dashboard for Education
👉 Quick Tips
📖 Saved
🕓 FLEXIBLE ONBOARDING
Having the Option for Delayed Onboarding
Initial device onboarding covers just the essentials: allowing settings so that MyCarelink Heart can interact with the device. Users have the option of skipping non-critical, information-heavy parts of onboarding to save for another time.
**Text blurred for confidentiality
Having the Option for Delayed Onboarding
Initial device onboarding covers just the essentials: allowing settings so that MyCarelink Heart can interact with the device. Users have the option of skipping non-critical, information-heavy parts of onboarding to save for another time.
**Text blurred for confidentiality
.
📚 CENTRAL DASHBOARD FOR EDUCATION
Building a Mental model for Education
Introducing the Discover! Here, users know exactly where to go to answer questions they might have on their heart device, including the option to onboard again in case they need a refresher.
Building a Mental model for Education
Introducing the Discover! Here, users know exactly where to go to answer questions they might have on their heart device, including the option to onboard again in case they need a refresher.
👉 QUICK TIPS
Presenting Device Essentials with Quick Tips
I designed Tips as conscise ways for users to learn the most essential information about their device. These are modals that users can tap through to refresh their memory on device basics.
Presenting Device Essentials with Quick Tips
I designed Tips as conscise ways for users to learn the most essential information about their device. These are modals that users can tap through to refresh their memory on device basics.
📖 SAVED
Customizing the User Experience
User can also save articles and return to view them at any time, allowing more agency in building mental models.
Customizing the User Experience
User can also save articles and return to view them at any time, allowing more agency in building mental models.
05. Process
ITERATING USER FLOWS
Creating More Agency for the User
I started by documenting the current user flow for MyCarelink Heart. This helped me identify potential pain points and understand anchors in the design. Then, I redesigned the user flow based on identified pain points.
Click me to zoom in!
ORIGINAL FLOW-
I focused on the Patient flow, in purple.
REDESIGNED FLOW-
I redesigned the Patient flow, adding more deciscion points in order to create more flexibility
ZOOMING IN
Dashboard Information Architecture
One of the key design decisions I made was restructuring the dashboard. I first looked at current UI dashboards for apps that connect a user to a device.
Dashboard Information Architecture
One of the key design decisions I made was restructuring the dashboard. I first looked at current UI dashboards for apps that connect a user to a device.
Then, I began to create midfi mockups with content specific to MyCarelink Heart.
CONSTRAINTS
Uh-oh!
After viewing the first iteration of prototypes, Development and Systems voiced concerns about implementing the design.
![]()
Uh-oh!
After viewing the first iteration of prototypes, Development and Systems voiced concerns about implementing the design.
ITERATING VISUAL DESIGN
Building Around Existing Models
Based on constraints, it was back to the drawing board for me. My process looked something like this:
![]()
Building Around Existing Models
Based on constraints, it was back to the drawing board for me. My process looked something like this:
06. Reflection
Human Factors and Research
Coming from a science background, I intionally applied for roles where I could do research. I wrote test scripts, conducted interviews, usability testing & surveys, created task analysis, and presented insights. Being a researcher made me a better designer. It helped me analyze data, work with reseachers, and understand the importance of research-informed design decisions.
Design System Management
Medtronic had just created new branding guidelines and was transitioning from Sketch to Figma. I helped organize our design system on Figma, rebuilt components with autolayout, variants, tokens, and variables, and contributed to the design system with new features from my own project. I loved the challenge of organizing components to balance efficiency and sustainability.
Engagement isn’t always the goal.
I learned that increased engagement doesn’t always mean a better experience. During A/B testing users opted for designs didn’t require them to constantly check MyCarelink Heart. They don’t like to be reminded of their illness. Instead, prioritizing specific actions became essential to measuring success. I was only able to learn this from research!
Product Design in Healthtech
Healthtech is so complex! On my first day, I felt like a med student learning about all the chambers of the heart and the different ways that implantable heart devices could work. Although I had worked with engineers and product in the past, at Medtronic I also learned how to collaborate with the FDA, systems engineering, manufacturing, and clinicians. I loved working with all of these different peices and the interesting problem spaces they put me in.