Diabetes and cardiometabolic products win through daily adherence, not first impressions. That requires designing for tired, overwhelmed patients across a range of health literacy, incorporating trust into every screen, and researching with real patients rather than making guesses. We lead the design and research so the product people continue using delivers the retention your model relies on.
The Challenge
You designed for a motivated power user, while your actual patient is exhausted and overwhelmed
A newly diagnosed diabetes patient is scared, processing a life change, and rarely the engaged optimizer your design assumes. Interfaces built around dashboards, streaks, and data density reward the small minority who love tracking and lose everyone else. In cardiometabolic care the everyone-else is the majority, and losing them means losing the outcomes and the reimbursement. Designing for the real emotional state of the patient, not the ideal one, is the difference between a product that sticks and one that gets deleted.
Your product expects a level of health literacy your users do not have
Terms like A1C, time-in-range, and LDL are second nature to your team and opaque to a large share of patients. When the interface leans on clinical language without translation, users disengage because the product makes them feel behind. Cardiometabolic conditions span every education and income level, so a product that only works for the health-literate quietly excludes the patients who need it most. Research reveals these gaps that internal review never will.
You are releasing features based on internal opinions rather than patient evidence
Without a research practice, the roadmap gets driven by the loudest executive, the most recent sales request, or a competitor's release. In a clinical category that guessing is expensive, because a wrong bet costs months of engineering and can erode the trust that keeps patients on the product. Real user research – watching patients use the thing – surfaces the friction and the unmet need that opinions miss. The roadmap should be evidence, not advocacy.
Minor trust failures in the interface silently undermine adherence
When a reading looks wrong, a notification feels judgmental, or the product asks for sensitive data without explaining why, patients lose confidence and drift away. In cardiometabolic care trust is the whole relationship, because you are asking someone to let software into a serious medical situation. These failures rarely show up in a metric until retention has already dropped. Research and careful design catch them before they compound into churn.
How We Can Help
We begin with research, not wireframes. Before touching the interface, we spend time with real patients – observing them use the product, asking about the moments when their condition disrupts their day, and identifying where the product leaves them feeling behind or judged. In cardiometabolic care, that emotional and health-literacy context is the full design brief, and overlooking it is why many well-designed products struggle to retain users.
Using that research, we create a clear picture of the real user: their emotional state at diagnosis, their literacy level, and the point when they are most likely to drop off. It becomes the reference point for every design decision, helping the team stop designing for the motivated power user who does not reflect most of your patients.
Next, we design for adherence rather than impressions. We reduce the core loop to the smallest group of actions that drive the clinical outcome, turn clinical language into plain terms, and add trust cues at critical moments – explaining why data is needed, handling anomalous readings gracefully, and making notifications supportive instead of nagging. The aim is a product a tired patient still opens on day 21, not simply a demo that impresses on day one.
For execution, we work within your existing product and engineering rhythm. We deliver research-backed design through the sprints your team already follows, prototype high-risk changes, and test them with patients before release. We prioritize the roadmap using evidence, ensuring what gets built is what research indicates will improve adherence.
For measurement, we connect design to the metrics that matter: activation, week-four and week-twelve retention, and completion of actions associated with clinical outcomes. We track where patients drop off, bring those findings back into research, and iterate. Design is not finished if it does not improve retention.
What sets us apart is that we operate product design and research as embedded partners accountable to your growth and retention goals, rather than as a studio that delivers polished comps. Beautiful is table stakes. In cardiometabolic health, retention and adherence are what count, and that is what we design for.
What we deliver
- Patient research program – moderated sessions with real users to surface emotional state, health literacy, and drop-off moments
- Grounded user model that every design decision is checked against, replacing the motivated-power-user assumption
- Adherence-first interface design – simplified core loop, plain-language translation, and trust cues at the moments that matter
- Research-backed, evidence-prioritized roadmap delivered inside your existing product and engineering sprints
- Retention instrumentation tying design changes to activation, week-four and week-twelve retention, and outcome-linked actions
In diabetes and cardiometabolic health, the product is not evaluated by the first session—it is evaluated by the twenty-first. Design for the tired, overwhelmed, newly diagnosed patient you truly have, rather than the motivated optimizer your dashboards presume, or you will win the demo while losing retention.
Our Methodology
We lead product design and research through a 90-day sprint grounded in patient evidence. The first 30 days focus on research: moderated sessions with real patients, journey mapping centered on the emotional reality of a new diagnosis, and a health-literacy audit of the existing product. Days 30 to 60 cover design and prototyping: we redesign the core loop around adherence, simplify clinical language, introduce trust cues, and test high-risk changes with patients before release. Days 60 to 90 focus on shipping and measurement: we deliver changes through your current sprints, instrument retention, and use drop-off data to inform the next research cycle.
Unlike a traditional design studio, we do not optimize for a portfolio-ready screenshot. We optimize for the patient opening the app on a difficult day three weeks in, and we judge the work by activation and retention instead of aesthetics. We integrate with your product and engineering rhythm so research becomes an ongoing practice, not a one-off project that stops when the comps arrive.
Our Way of Working
The first 30 days focus on research and grounding. We recruit real patients and conduct moderated sessions, map their journey through diagnosis and daily management, and assess the current product for literacy and trust gaps. You receive a clear, evidence-backed view of who your user actually is and where they drop off – insight that is often uncomfortable but always valuable.
Days 30 to 60 center on design and validation. We rework the core adherence loop, prototype higher-risk changes, and test them with patients before any production code is written. We operate within your current product and engineering cadence, preventing design from becoming a separate track that stalls during handoff. From your team, we need product and engineering partners plus access to recruit from your patient population.
Days 60 to 90 cover shipping and instrumentation. We deliver the changes within your sprints, set up retention and adherence measurement, and begin the next research cycle based on what the data reveals. Most engagements last three to six months, and many evolve into a standing research practice because improving adherence is never complete.
Our cadence includes a weekly working session with your product lead, along with participation in your current sprint rituals. We remain embedded instead of delivering from the outside, allowing research to continuously guide the roadmap rather than merely decorate it.
- Activation rate
- Week-four and week-twelve retention
- Completion of outcome-linked actions
- Reduced drop-off at known friction points
If your diabetes & cardiometabolic health company needs product design & research leadership, we should talk.
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Frequently asked questions
What does a product design and research engagement cost for diabetes and cardiometabolic health companies?
We structure these engagements as a fixed monthly fee across a three-to-six-month sprint, with pricing determined by the depth of research and whether we are redesigning or refining the product. Patient recruitment and incentives are billed separately because the cost varies based on how difficult your population is to reach.
How soon will we see results from a product design and research engagement?
Within the first 30 days, you will have real patient evidence and a grounded user model, with the first redesigned flows typically shipping within 60 to 90 days. Retention impact takes longer to assess because it unfolds across weeks of use, so we first monitor leading indicators such as activation and early-week retention.
How does the product design and research team work with our existing staff?
Rather than operating as an outside studio, we embed within your product and engineering rhythm. We require product and engineering partners, access to recruit patients from your base, and participation in your current sprint rituals.
How is Winston Francois different from a conventional design agency?
A conventional agency optimizes for a portfolio-ready screenshot, then hands off comps that frequently never ship. We design for the patient who opens the product on a difficult day three weeks after diagnosis, and we hold the work accountable to activation and retention. By embedding in your sprints, we ensure research continues guiding the roadmap instead of becoming a one-time exercise. In cardiometabolic health, adherence is the product, and that is our design priority.
How is ROI measured for a product design and research engagement?
We track activation, week-four and week-twelve retention, and completion of actions connected to clinical outcomes. Results are measured against your pre-engagement baseline, making the improvement tangible. Since retention drives reimbursement and lifetime value in this category, even a modest increase in adherence often justifies the engagement. We also measure reduced drop-off at the specific friction points uncovered through research.
Which type of diabetes and cardiometabolic health company is best suited to this service?
This service is designed for companies with roughly 5M to 100M in ARR, a live product, and real patients available for research. It is most effective when retention or adherence is an established weakness and leadership is prepared to let patient evidence guide the roadmap. If you are pre-launch and do not yet have users, a lighter discovery research engagement is a better place to begin. Our first step is a strategy call to understand where patients are currently dropping off.
