Bringing AI to Behavioral Health

Helping a new leader in behavioral health technology tell their story
"The investor pitch that iF created was instrumental in helping us to meet our initial fundraise targets." –Johan Bjorklund, Co-Founder

Overview

Screening for and identifying behavioral health issues is a process burdened by strained resources and limited reliable insights. Despite strides in research and clinical practice, the screening process for behavioral illness is often riddled with inconsistent signals and can be vulnerable to unconscious biases. The COVID-19 pandemic compounded these strains: cases of depression and anxiety rose drastically while clinicians were forced to adapt to new norms and challenges to deliver care. Enter aiberry: a mental health screening platform based on over 15 years of research that delivers evidence-based insights virtually (in telehealth scenarios) and at the point of care, offering unique outreach and scale opportunities. The result is a more equitable mental health screening, leveraging the power of AI to combat unconscious biases and stigmas to improve the screening process for all patients, while increasing the capacity of health providers to do their job.

Despite their vision, technological innovation, and potential impact, aiberry recognized they needed to communicate their complex product in a crisp and compelling story, and determine their best target audience: were their main clients medical professionals and clinics, or every-day consumers looking to have better access to more accurate mental health screenings? They still weren’t sure, but suspected the implications could be significant for their messaging. As a relatively new company, they knew the next few years would be critical to establishing their story and their market. That’s when they contacted iF-- past collaboration had attracted them to our UX work, our expertise in product strategy and design, our unique approach to market landscaping, and our storytelling.

What we made

As we saw it, aiberry didn’t have an innovation problem, or an impact problem: they had a storytelling problem-- how to translate details about highly technical and complex AI platform into a consistent and tangible narrative. We wanted to help aiberry think critically not just about the technology they had built, but to reflect on the kind of future they wanted to build, and their beliefs and values around mental health. The tech was impressive, but as we got further into the process, we realized AI was just a means to an end, and the real story was really about helping connect people with the resources they need, regardless of identity.

To help aiberry establish themselves an emerging leader in the AI healthcare space and gather the resources necessary to achieve their goals, we created a set of assets for them that would make it easy for the aiberry team to share their product with their audiences, and communicate their unique value proposition to Investors and potential customers alike while also maintaining a consistent brand image across platforms. While the tangible, end-deliverable was important, the journey was just as valuable to the aiberry team, as we provided them with the resources, the guidance, and the space to sharpen their purpose and clarify their brand.

In developing the pitch, the iF team and aiberry considered key components of the platform's value proposition: audience, need, offering, differentiation, and promise. To get crisp on an image and story that was both unique and true to aiberry, we followed a tried-and-true iF process:

  1. We workshopped the value proposition. Because aiberry is a small and relatively new company, we created a more intimate, casual forum where aiberry leadership could feel comfortable thinking aloud, asking critical questions and negotiating moments of misalignment along the way. This step was key as aiberry exists in an emerging industry that itself is not always well-defined. In this session the team decided on the path forward to presenting their product and arriving successfully to market.
  2. We researched the competitive landscape to gut check that workshop with a data-driven analysis of how aiberry fit into the market. The iF team drew on insights from years of intentional learning in the digital health sector, canvassed the market and interviewed providers. Because the niche aiberry fills is so unique, this step helped differentiate their story from other peers in the mental health technology space.
  3. We uncovered supporting data, to connect aiberry’s story to larger pain points and needs in society at large. Through rapid desk research and interviews, we found additional ways to communicate the very real needs and problems that their product was addressing.
  4. We envisioned together. At iF, we believe strongly in the power of written and visual storytelling and wanted to take aiberry’s brand beyond a few pithy phrases and key stats. A key piece of this step is to imagine compelling and viable future states and then construct evidence-based narratives to get there. In this case the iF team took some of the key attributes of aiberry’s value prop: democracy, human-centered, health, data-driven, and iterated several different brand options, and iterated based on aiberry’s feedback and the work coming out of our workshops. By the end, we had a design palette that elevated the human-centered design of the product, foregrounding that over overly technical imagery and language.
  5. We synthesized the design, the research, and the stories into a concise, purpose-driven presentation deck, ready for aiberry to share with stakeholders. The deck also had go-to images, descriptions, impact-statements and information that could be incorporated into future aiberry materials for customers and shareholders alike.

By the end of our process, the aiberry team was equipped with the resources and framework necessary to engage the market, tell their story and launch consistent visual branding. Throughout this process we focused on communicating the aiberry product with integrity and clarity, while emphasizing their central story of increasing access to unbiased mental wellbeing for the people who really need it.

Impact

Like so many great start-ups, aiberry’s mission of transforming behavioral healthcare will only be realized with the assistance of investors and thought partnership. Through our presentation and thought collaboration, the team at aiberry was able to orient their product and goals to a consistent and actionable message that could be communicated via multiple platforms. The aiberry team left their partnership with iF prepared to reach their investment goal designated for research, infrastructure, SG&A and product R&D. Assets from our collaboration are being used on aiberry’s website and as pitch materials for investors. Not only is our work highlighting the innovative and groundbreaking work aiberry is doing in the mental well-being space, but there are positive impacts from the process alone of research/clinical trials (ASU, Georgetown) that will stand to benefit those suffering from depression and anxiety for years to come. aiberry plans to use the investments they raise primarily to fund depression clinical trials, develop their platform, and build out their team-- we’re excited and humbled that our work is being used to advance the future of mental wellbeing and making it available and equitable for all. We took aiberry’s messaging from a complicated, tech-heavy narrative to a people-centered story about supporting everyone in their journey to mental health and wellness.

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