During the pandemic in 2020, it was near impossible to see anyone face-to-face. Rightly so, urgent care was prioritised, the aftermath of this red herring event left many essential healthcare treatments on the wayside. This included dermatology, a branch of medicine that may be seen as aesthetic but is actually mainly used to identify, diagnose and treat diseases related to skin, hair and nails.

skindoc, a telehealth web app for dermatology consultations was born from a clear need for patients to be able to access services without being able to see specialists in-person throughout the pandemic. It provides a digital space for patients and dermatologists to meet remotely, ensuring safer and more convenient consultations.

Back in 2019, skindoc approached Skillwork to build smoke tests with landing pages. This allowed skindoc to test product viability in a market that is yearning for innovation. Skillwork then supported the team with building a solution that, based on customer feedback, would target the pain-points identified.

A little more about the task at hand: 

Use Case: There is an increasing shortage of dermatologists in the UK. This problem has drastically increased in the wake of the 2020 pandemic, where health care institutions were pushed to their limits. This then had a knock-on effect for healthcare providers who did not have the time to dedicate to skin-related issues.

Challenge for skindoc: skindoc. did not want to build an unnecessary, useless product that did not meet market demand, therefore testing with the target audience was essential. They did not want to rush the job, they wanted proper resources to be put into finding the pain points of their audience and then creating a solution that would alleviate these challenges

The Solution:

Understanding the business: As a very mission-led business, it was fundamental to Skillwork to understand the founders' vision and why the problems they wanted to solve was so important to society today. Skillwork identified and conducted validation activities, putting together communication channels so feedback can be efficiently managed and flow into Jira. This created a seamless communication chain between stakeholders, strategy and engineers.

Fast execution: Recognizing the importance of speed to market, we used user stories prepared by Makette to divide the work into sprints. This approach allowed the team to begin testing the platform by the end of the second sprint. Throughout the sprints, we anticipated and accommodated changes to the initial scope, addressing the complexities of the CQC and NHS requirements and incorporating feedback from early customer testing.

Our technical approach: By the end of the third sprint, we had developed a testing framework to quickly update the skindoc platform and eliminate any bugs. We also ensured resources were in place to rapidly introduce new features and modifications based on data gathered from early users. 

Ongoing support: Aftering launching the prototype, and using insights from testing, Skillwork continues to build skindoc’s fully fledged telemedicine platform that will be integrated with NHS services. After launching the MVP, skindoc was acquired by Dr Dropin, the largest telemedicine startup in Norway and have since then opened a physical clinic in London.