The Challenge
In early 2022, as the issue of COVID-19 vaccine supply became less prominent and low- and middle-income countries moved towards planning their vaccination campaigns, the client called on BCG Platinion to develop a user-centric tool that allows countries to plan and accelerate their COVID-19 vaccination campaigns. While global models existed to estimate global vaccine delivery costs, there was a need for a customizable bottom-up tool for countries to accurately size the level of effort required and then mobilize resources.
They were in need for accurate projections of expected vaccine supply to be able to plan and implement their vaccine delivery strategy. They also needed accurate estimates of the level of resources required to deliver against expected vaccine supply.
Therefore, we developed a realistic operational planning tool that provides low to mid-income countries (LMICs) with expected vaccine supply and high-level estimates on major costs (e.g., vaccinators, cold chain, personal protective equipment) and gaps for national level planning.
Working closely with the client engineering team, our experts facilitated the setup of the infrastructure with front and back-end components, before integrating the existing platform to ensure a consistent user experience.
The next step was the development of a cloud-based application to deliver the solution, using Azure infrastructure to host it.
At this point we were ready to outline the new solution’s capabilities and a vision for what it could achieve, before modelling user experiences and user flows based on four personas. To reach this point, we conducted four sprints, 30+ ideation workshops, six user testing sessions, and 10+ weekly client meetings.
The Approach
We embarked on a mission to apply Human-centered Design to develop the vaccine costing tool and deliver a web application.
To do this, our expert team defined key personas to understand user needs and designed and tested a dynamic, web-based front end.
Then they built a design system that made it easy to create new features and unify the design of all tools.
A Diverse Team of Experts
Our team included a dynamic range of talent and topic experts, providing end-to-end leadership for the project. Many in the group had deep healthcare sector experience, while others offered backgrounds in digital transformation and the development of digital products. We also brought design strategy experts to the table, as well as user-facing system and frontend professionals.
The Expected Impact
BCG Platinion delivered a fully operational MVP ready for pilot rollout and user testing. The tool caters to four different user personas and provides a personalized experience to plan the COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
Looking Into the Future
The enhanced version of the provided tool is more responsive to national requirements and access gaps, enabling countries to address technical, operational, and financial challenges with a demand-driven approach.
It will also provide valuable, actionable data down to the local level via a real-time tracker and offer guidance on maintaining essential health services. Greater visibility will also be achieved in future thanks to the updated version of the tool, with improved links between regions and nations that will allow them to share specific learnings.
Looking further ahead, through iterative product enhancement the costing tool will be applicable to any disease, not just COVID-19. Once the tool is integrated into the marketplace, central access to all apps can be achieved, facilitating easy product development for partners.
Discover More of our Case Work
BCG Platinion is at the forefront of technology. Our teams solve for the most challenging and impactful problems posed by digital acceleration. View all case studies here and find two selected cases below. Read more about “Social Impact” here.
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