Streamlining consults for efficient, high-quality therapy recommendations

Two Chairs is a fast-growing mental health company based in San Francisco, known for its personalized matching process that pairs clients with the right therapist based on their symptoms, availability, and preferences.

While effective, the initial consult appointment—where this information is assessed—is highly manual and inefficient. As the client population tripled, it has become a bottleneck, delaying timely access to care. I was a part of this ambitious project to streamline and scale the consult experience to increase clinical consistency and reduce wait time to care.

2-3 year vision
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MVP
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Timeline
8 months
2025 launch
Collaborators
Clinical Innovation Lead
Product Manager
Data Science Lead
Engineering
Design
MY ROLE
Research synthesis
Cross-functional vision workshopping
‍User test and iterate on near-term designs
Communicate progress and engage feedback

Impact

71 successful consults during beta, proven readiness for full launch in January 2025

The primary goal of the initial release was to systemize the consult experience, allowing us to define success for future iterations based on real-world data.
Real-time consult data captured, so we can now learn to improve from real client data
Better care recommendations based on different level of client need
Pending quality assessment as it takes time to accurately measure the accuracy of diagnoses.

CHALLENGE

An unobservable service is not scalable

The consult appointment—where clinicians assess clients for appropriate care—was delivering strong clinical outcomes and high client satisfaction. However, with minimal oversight, each clinician approached assessments differently. As the company grew, this critical part of our business became increasingly unstable and unsustainable.

GOAL

Create a repeatable consult process that provides high-quality, same-day care recommendations for every client

Discovery

Align people needs with business goals

Shadowed and interviewed clinicians

We collaborated with our clinical leads to audit over 20 consult appointments, where a supervising clinician observed real sessions. We then conducted targeted user interviews to gain deeper insights into clinicians' mindsets and workflows, uncovering how they approach client assessments most effectively.

Analyzed current tools and processes

We took stock of the various tools and services clinicians used during consult appointments, identifying pain points as well as the aspects of their current system that worked effectively.

Mapped service blueprint and workshopped opportunities

I hosted cross-functional workshops, bringing together subject matter experts to map the consult service ecosystem and identify key opportunities for improvement.

Expert clinical research on best-in-class assessment tools

Our Clinical Innovations Lead conducted industry and academic research to identify evidence-based tools that could help standardize and elevate how Two Chairs assesses clinical needs during consult appointments.

Takeaway

Through our discovery process, we broke down our problem space into these specific areas to solve for
Error-prone tools & processes
Consult clinicians used 4 different systems to complete each consult. They often have to input repetitive information into multiple tools without consistent system guidance to help them along the way. The interfaces weren't intuitive and had false information that were outdated.
Clinicians varied in skills, experiences, and training
Accurately diagnosing mental health issues is hard. Our clinicians had varying levels of skills and training, and without standardized procedures, each consult was conducted differently, leading to inconsistent and inaccurate results.
Lack of clinical support for different levels of client needs
The system didn’t effectively understand and account for the diverse client population seeking care, and funneled everyone down a single pathway to care that didn’t fit all
Inadequate risk assessment
The absence of clear standards and expectations meant many clinicians fell short in following proper safety protocols when assessing clients' risk of self-harm or harm to others.
Gaps in client experience and information
There was no warm handoff between the consult clinician and the treatment clinician, resulting in lost information and a fragmented, negative experience for clients.

APPROACHING SOLUTION

Align on what we don't know and where we want to go

Make visions specific

Building on the 5-year vision we established for the entire Care Platform, I used the consult discovery insights and jobs-to-be-done to collaboratively shape the near-term vision for the holistic consult experience with my cross-functional partners.

Design, test, and iterate with stakeholder and user feedback

In the early stages, I worked closely with our clinical experts to de-risk new clinical concepts and policy changes that consult clinicians (end-users) were unfamiliar with. Once training and policy updates were implemented, we tested the designs with consult clinicians and conducted small group beta tests to gather feedback.

DELIVERABLE

Evidence-based, semi-structured clinical assessment tool with decision support

Adaptive clinical assessment

Offers recommendations based on client responses, providing therapists with best-in-class clinical guidance while allowing them the flexibility to override and adjust as needed

Data-informed risk alerts

Leverages client intake information to help clinicians triage clients based on varying levels of acuity.

Clear actionable insights

Informs clinicians when the match criteria is highly restrictive, so they can use their clinical judgement to assess whether the criteria is required, flexible, or not necessary. This way we can optimize time to care based on each client's needs.

All-in-one Tool

Manages the entire consult process from start to finish, streamlining workflows and boosting overall efficiency. This new tool consolidates three separate products that clinicians previously had to juggle to complete each consult.

Product strategy
research
design.
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