Building an Order Management System for a B2B Healthcare Distributor

Eleos a mental-health startup, hired me to design an iOS app for the NY Medicaid Waiver process. After two months of research, I recommended against building it.

Role: Product Designer





Team: Myself + CEO





Industry: Healthcare


Building an Order Management System for a B2B Healthcare Distributor

Eleos a mental-health startup, hired me to design an iOS app for the NY Medicaid Waiver process. After two months of research, I recommended against building it.

Role: Product Designer
Team: Myself + CEO
Industry: Healthcare

$100k

saved in costs

6

months saved in development

THE PROBLEM

Families of children with autism face a confusing path to support. The Medicaid Waiver offers free services, but the process is complex, poorly communicated, and often invisible to those who need it. Eleos’s instinct — there must be an app for this — came without a clear definition of what it should do.

THE PROBLEM

Families of children with autism face a confusing path to support. The Medicaid Waiver offers free services, but the process is complex, poorly communicated, and often invisible to those who need it. Eleos’s instinct — there must be an app for this — came without a clear definition of what it should do.

THE PROBLEM

Families of children with autism face a confusing path to support. The Medicaid Waiver offers free services, but the process is complex, poorly communicated, and often invisible to those who need it. Eleos’s instinct — there must be an app for this — came without a clear definition of what it should do.

ARCHETYPE

WHAT I FOUND

The process can’t be automated. It’s state-run and multi-agency, with steps no private party can complete for a family. Any product would have to sit alongside a fragmented public process, not replace it.

Families weren’t asking for an app. Across 50 surveys and 8 interviews, three struggles surfaced: not knowing where to start, being overwhelmed by caregiving, and navigating a lengthy waiver process. They wanted someone to help them — not a better interface.

THE RECOMMENDATION

So I asked the question the project was avoiding: do we really need an app? A TurboTax-style form tool wasn’t possible — the state owns the forms and the workflow. What families needed was guidance. I recommended Eleos lead with consulting, with any app as a supporting tool, not the core.

The Recommendation

So I asked the question the project was avoiding: do we really need an app? A TurboTax-style form tool wasn’t possible — the state owns the forms and the workflow. What families needed was guidance. I recommended Eleos lead with consulting, with any app as a supporting tool, not the core.