How would you build a product on Facebook for blood donation?

Step1: Background and Clarifying Questions

Many folks across the globe are in need of blood due to accidents or other illnesses. I'm assuming that we want to build this as part of the facebook app. Moreover, this is across the globe.

Assuming that the goal of this launch for Facebook is to help more people in need, in turn drive more engagement on the platform and not for any monetization purpose.

Step2: User Segments

1. ill patients
2. Friends and family
3. Habitual donors
4. Blood banks (BB)
5. Hospitals

We'll choose blood banks as they are the ones which if empowered can help the most. Moreover, they can reach billions of the people through a platform like facebook

Step3: Use Cases

Let's plot BB's journey to collect blood

1. Identify where to setup blood donation drive
   1. I am running short on a blood type and don't know where to setup to maximize the collection (affects most BB)
   2. I don't know which location people are generally more enthu about blood donation (affects only new BB)
2. Market the drive to bring in more people
   1. I don't know how to market the drive to get most people (affects only new BB)
3. Manage the logistics of blood collection on the day of the drive
   1. It's a lot of effort and money cost to setup a drive (affects some BB)
4. Get the blood to the bank and store it

Clarification

This generally seems pretty straight forward. This isn't going to be a stand alone product by itself, but more of a feature or product on top of the existing FB platform (mobile & desktop). 

When we say Blood Donation this is people going to a designated blood drawing location like  a hospital, blood truck, or other spot where medical workers draw their blood, it gets stored in bags, then transported to a hospital where it will be transfused into patients who need it. 

Goal

Before we dive into this we should first take a step back and think about why are we doing this and what are we trying to accomplish. I good way of getting at that is by examining the company's mission statement, which in FB's case is to bring people closer together and give them the power to build community.

I think a Blood Donation product directly ties into the mission statement in the sense that it is a selfless act, other than a sugar cookie blood donors don't get much in return, and it is helping strengthen the community by helping local area hospitals get the blood they need to treat patients who are members of the community. At its core its community members helping out each other.

I think our overall goal should be with this feature is to increase the amount of blood donated.

User Segments

A lot of products have multiple types of users and it's hard to come up with a solution that solves everything for everyone, so let's talk through the different user segments and pick one to focus on:

1. Organizers - Either work for a hospital or a group helping organize and facilitate the collection of blood donations.
2. People who are eligible to donate - Currently able to donate blood but have not yet done so.
3. People who aren't eligible to donate - They may have already donated recently, gotten a piercing, traveled in a foreign country, or been sick.

Out of the above user segments, I'm going to suggest we focs on the people who are eligible to donate but have not yet done so. This is clearly the user segment that represents the largest opportunity for increasing the amount of blood donated.

We could even break this Eligible Donor user segment down further just to get a better understanding of our users, but I think we should still focus on the user segment group as a whole as we don't want to risk our solution becoming too granular.

1. People who have never donated before
2. People who always donate and are over due
3. People who donate occasionally when convenient
4. People who don't donate and don't plan on it in the future (Probably scared of needles)

1. They're super busy and don't have the time in their schedule to donate blood
2. They forget or don't remember to donate, its not top of mind
3. Don't know when and where to go to donate
4. Scared of needles / passing out
5. Don't know if they are qualified to donate, gave recently, just had a piercing, was sick, or left the country not too long ago

1. "I Donated" QR Code -> After giving blood while users are forced to rest for a minute or two there would be a scannable QR code on a piece of paper nearby. After they scan it a filled out FB post stating stuff about how "They've donated at so-and-so blood drive and people can click here to see other blood drives". This would help remind other users on the FB platform that they should go donate blood and it would give us data on this particular user regarding when they most recently gave so we can remind them again when the time is right.
2. "Find a Blood Drive" button -> Somewhere inside of the FB platform, potentially in the users newsfeed or as a notification, we could place a Find a Blood Drive button. Based upon the vast amount of information we have available on users, such as their daily routes, we could find the most convenient time and place for a user to give blood.
3. "Can I give questionaire" -> On existing notifications, pages, or events related to blood drives we could offer a little questionaire that users could fill out to confirm if they are eligible to give blood. There are lots of random rules on whether or not you can give blood which are always changing like have you been to so-and-so country recently, have you had a piercing done, etc. This would help demystify the process and let more users know they are in fact eligible to donate blood.

1. Are users finding and using our feature? In a product as mature as FB there are tons of features and functionality, we want to make sure that ours is not implemented in a way that users can't find it or are aware of it.
2. Is the feature working as intended? Is it having the desired effect which in our case means is it increasing the amount of blood donated by FB users?

1. Number of users who have posted through the "I Donated" QR Code more than once -> This will let us know if our donation reminder functionality is working as intended and driving repeat blood donors.
2. Number of users who have seen a "I Donated" post and then have gone on to make an "I Donated" post themselves -> This will let us measure how many additional people may have been influenced to donate blood by our feature

Just to clarify, product for blood donation means something of a platform where a requester (one who wants blood) can find a donor and donor is successfully able to find ways to donate the blood. Is that correct? (Interviewer: Yes)

Next, I would want to think how does this fit in the mission of FB? Given that FB’s vision is to socially keep people connected and bring them closer, by enabling blood donation to those in need, it is actually bringing people closer. Is that fair understanding? (Interviewer: Yes)

Next, I would like to think if there is any platform already existing. I can’t think of any and FB with the power of so many active users on daily basis, can help us in quickly solving blood needs

Is this product to be built for FB app/website? (interviewer: You can decide)

I feed the primary objective should be to measure how many users are able to successfully able to find a donor using our product. Is that ok? (Interviewer: Yes ok)

Thinking of user segments, I can think of the following:

1)      Requestors, who request blood for someone they know.

2)      Donors, who are ready to donate blood

3)      Blood banks, who collect blood and store it for future purposes.

I would like to focus on requestors, who request for blood. The reason is for this product to be successful, there shall be a trigger for the requestors to use this product. Is that ok? (Interviewer: Yes that’s fine)

Thinking of the user persona of a requestor, lets call him Andy. Andy is a worker, aged 30, is tech savvy, uses FB to browse and socialize with friends. He occasionally put post or share posts. Andys friend is injured in an accident and has lost blood. Lot of blood is needed. Andy decides to find a donor/blood bank via FB. He posts about the urgent requirement is FB. He gets a lot of replies/calls and finally he is able to find a proper donor.

I can think of couple of pain-points for Andy here

1)      Andy finds it tough to remember to add all details in the post

2)      Andy is not able to find proper leads for donors.

3)      Andy gets a lot of texts/calls asking for redundant information

4)      Andy finds it tough to go over all texts/calls

5)      Andy gets a lot of leads, but do not know which one to trust and time is crucial here

I feel 1), 2) and 4) are the most important thing over here, as time is really crucial and more the leads, more the chances of finding a donor. Are you ok with this? (Interviewer: Great, go ahead)

Below I have listed potential features to solve the above problems

For MVP, I would want the following features:-

1)      Show a reference post on how to create a post requesting for blood donation, so that Andy can ensure he fills all the details needed to get more accurate leads

2)      Algorithm that shows the post to all relevant FB users so as to indicate the chances of getting a donor

3)      Show relevant replies to the post on the top based on relevancy factors as mentioned above so that he is able to find proper leads on the top of the comments and he doesn’t have to take the struggle to go over all the comments t get a donor

Metrics I would want to evaluate are:

1)      DAU of the feature

2)      Number of posts for which the requestor could not find a donor (Negative metric)

3)      Avg Number of comments per post

4)      Avg (Number of comments / Number of audience reached) WoW

5)      Number of comments scrolled down by the requestor

To summarize, I focused on the “requestor” segment, who had some problems such as missing out posting some key details, unable to find proper leads, might ind it tough to go over all comments. To solve the above and for MVP, we shall show a reference post with all the details so as to make it easier for requestor to enter all details, an algorithm to ensure more suitable leads are reached, relevant replies based on certain relevancy factors shall be shown on top.

Clarifying questions:

What does blood donation imply? Product for people help other people by donating blood

Is it for emergency or non-emergency use? – Non-emergency

Target market? – US

Align with FB Mission:

Facebook’s motivation by building this product is of a philanthropic one, by staying true to its mission of giving the people the power to build communities while bringing the world closer.

The blood donation initiative fits into the mission driving engagement and leveraging the social platform for people to build the community for social good

Goal: To connect blood donors to their recipients.

Users:

It’s a two-sided marketplace:

• -Donors

-->First time donors (Would benefit the most + Large user base)

-->Recurring donors (Already donated blood before, so they know the process)

• Recipients

-->Blood banks (Would benefit most – no social footprint)

-->Friends of patients (Emergency need)

-->Patients (Emergency need - hospital would take care of it)

Prioritized to First time donors and blood banks because it’s a two-sided marketplace.

User needs:

Donors

-->Eligible

>Don’t know what are the eligibility requirements? (Like what are the medical conditions that I need to be aware of to donate blood, do I fit those requirements) (Requires HIPAA compliance, this can be taken care by the blood banks)

-->Research

>What is the blood drawing process? Is it safe? Or does the blood bank have the best practices? Is there someone I trust has donated blood so I can ask them about the process?

-->Where

>Where can I donate blood? (Nearest location, which blood banks are accepting blood donors)

-->Book an appointment

>How can I book the appointment?

-->Donate

>What should I know on the day of donating?

Blood banks

-->Awareness

>Need to create awareness about blood donation

-->Register donors

>Register users – like medical condition of the donors, eligibility etc.

-->Process

>Nurses available during the process, safety environment

-->Store

>Where and how to store the blood

Prioritization on user needs:

-->Donors

>Research

->What is the blood drawing process? Is it safe? Or does the blood bank have the best practices? Is there someone I trust has donated blood so I can ask them about the process?

-->Blood banks

>Awareness

->Need to create awareness about blood donation

(Criteria: Considering the product goal and leveraging FB social platform, Facebook is well positioned to serve this need)

Solutions:

-->Donors

-->Research:

-->-Section with educational videos / FAQ’s explaining the blood drawing process.

-->Posts of Friends and friends of friends who have recently donated blood.

-->Blood banks

-->Awareness:

-->Videos of blood banks nurses / doctors explaining the blood drawing process. And videos of the blood bank facilities on how safe is for the donors.

-->Notifications on fb page about the need for blood donation.

-->Testimonials by friends or friends of friends on blood banks page for blood donated.

MVP:

Phase1:

-->Create a FB feature within the FB core app and within the feature which lists the nearest blood banks on the left section and then on the main section have video on explaining about the blood drawing process and then educational videos on the importance of blood drawing.

-->On the blood banks page have the video in the below the about section by nurses / doctors explaining the blood drawing process at their facility and explaining what equipment’s used in the process.

Phase2: On the blood donation home page lists the friends or friends of friends who have recently donated blood and their testimonials. And on the blood banks page have testimonials from friends or friends of friends.

Metrics:

NSTAR - # of users donated blood through FB.

Proxy metrics:

# of users watched the videos on the blood donations page and clicked followed the blood bank pages – donor side

# of users watched the videos on the blood banks page and followed / signup / liked the page. – Blood banks side

Calrifying question:

Is this part of facebook app?

Porduct Description/Goal:

Primary Goal of this app is to facilitate facebook users to be able to esaily donate blood and for blood collection facility to collect blood. 

This goal ties into facebooks missions or building a community and bringing people closer to each other. 

This can also lead into building groups of like minding people or this data can be used as a common interest point in facebook dating app as well. 

Upstreame activities like hiring health care staff, setting up mobile blood camps, providing infrastrue to collect blood or Downstreame activites like, testing, storing and distribution of blood are not main focus of this app.

Does this goal sound right?

Segments to focus:

We can focous on two types of blood collection facilites:

Stationiary: Clinics and hospitals or Mobile: Blood collection vans or camps

For each of these segments we can future break down into two persons: Blood donor and Blood collector

For the sake of the interivew, I would focus on stationary blood banks. We can then extend solution for mobile blood banks as well. If time permits, I will highlight some distinuging pain points for both of these.  

Does this sound right?

Pain points:

Donor pain points:

Donors may not alwyas be motivated to donate blood, or at times donors show up to blood donation centers and are informed that they are not eligiblie. Also it is not easy to find blood donation centers and take apointments.

Blood collectors:

Blood collectors need to do background checks, health screen, then draw the blood and collect and save the blood. All this needs to happen in safe and trusted way. 

Solution:

Design a two sided feature/app.

 On the donor side:

1) Prompt facebook users to enter donor preference as yes/no

2) For users who enter 'no' design a education section explaining 'why should you donate blood'

3) For users who say 'yes', take then through an eligibility checklist

4) If eligible, enable users to take an apointment at nearest blood donatin center. As part of the appointment, facebook can forward the checklist to blood collection agenacy thus saving time.

For Blood collectors:

1) Have a check in form, to enable enter vitals and use info. Save this in a secure and HIPPA comliant way

2) Provide questionarie for the donor, from personal experience this is a checklist of questions like 'Have you had drugs recently?' etc

3) Provide a way to tag the blood bags with QR/Bar code and scan and save this info with personal info of the donor.

Success Metrics:

Donor side:

1) Total Number of apts complted/month

2) Number of users who signed as donor v/s number of users who donated/month

Collector side:

1) Increse in % of blood donation Month over Month

Summary: With a goal to facilitate easier blood donation and collection, I would build an inbuilt facebook app/feature. This would be a 2 sided app: Donor v/s Collector. We build this for statiaory clinics, but can also extend same to mobile camps as well. Some challenge there on Collector side, would be to help find real estate to put up mobile blood collection camp and on donor side to inform when a local blood drive is upcoming. 

Clarifications

• Why are we building this product? —> We want to gain goodwill and use our network to allow our members to build stronger bonds with the community
• Who are we building this for ? Individuals in need of blood or for institutions that want to collect blood such as blood banks? —> That is upto you to decide
• Will we be focusing on blood collection / screening or would that be done by a 3rd party vendor? —> 3P vendor

Goals

• We are building a product for blood donors
• Our goal from this product is to make it easier for donors and seekers to find each other
• Blood screening and blood draws will be managed by professional/licensed bodies equipped to do this. 
• FB role is limited to connecting demand and supply and directing users to the right institutions for next steps

Users

• Donors: People who want to donate blood and do so on a regular basis
• Seekers: Individual that need blood, typically on a short notice, for themselves or their family member / friend.
• Blood banks: These organizations collect and store blood; make it available to healthcare institutions based on needs
• Governments / Institutions: Government or hospitals requiring blood donation on a large scale to meet spikes in blood demand due to natural disaster / wars or other events

From the above users I am going to focus on donors and seekers I.e. individuals that need blood (seekers) and individuals willing to donate blood (donors). Blood banks would have functioning processes growing / maintaining their supply and the Government use case is related to infrequent events and is subject to different protocols based on state and local needs.

Use Cases 

• Emergency Need: Users requiring emergency blood of a certain type for a relative or friend due to an unplanned event (accident, emergency surgery). Time sensitivity is high. The conventional avenues (blood banks / hospitals) have typically been exhausted and they are turning to their network for help
• Donation Need: Users wanting to donate their blood to certain institutions or as a part of their social obligations. Typically folks who are blood donors and do so on a regular basis
• Privacy: I want to keep my blood donations anonymous or I want to share my blood donation activity

From the above, I am going to focus on the Emergency use case. I believe the FB network / community is well suited to solve for this use case by harnessing each user’s network and 1st or 2nd degree connections. 

Solutions

1. Awareness: Create a new post for Blood donation. Sekers can create a special type of post which contains details on blood type, RH factor and location and contact information
2. Disseminate: Share the post with network
   1. Option 1 : Post shared with users network. It is shown at top of the newsfeed takes priority over other newsfeed events and is shared with the users network in the specific geographic area. The users network can share it with others in their network again controlling for the geographic region where the blood is needed
   2. Option 2: Post is shared with all FB users within the geographic region of the demand. This doesn’t limit it to the user’s network and can get a wider audience (i.e. hin
3. Match 
   1. When the donor is found we make the donor identify and answer certain questions around their health and willingness / ability to donate blood
   2. Make the donor sign Terms and conditions and match them to the seeker by connecting the two through FB messenger
   3. Send donor instructions on the blood collection location and next steps

Tradeoffs

• Posts from Strangers: Sending a blood request to the newsfeed of all FB users within a certain geographic region might mean users can see posts from people whom they dont know. This could turn off those users from responding or lead to a low likelihood of them donating. Alternatively, not showing it to everyone could limit the size of the potential donors and prevent users from finding rare blood types. To start off I would go with limiting distribution of the post to the user’s network. 
• Legal / Privacy: Dealing with healthcare related matters brings legal and privacy concerns to the fore. We might need to incorporate HIPAA compliance or other types legal/privacy compliance. This might require a legal / privacy review of the systems/services which handle user information related to blood donation

Metrics

Key Metrics

• Number of Successful Matches (Seeker to Donor) per post

Day Metrics

• # of Blood seeker posts (usage of feature)
• # of Shares of the post (engagement)
• Avg time to get a match (effectiveness)
• Posts with zero matches (failure rate)

Summary

I would focus on the emergency use case and allow for blood seekers to reach out to donors within their FB network. This would solve the emergency use case by allowing FB users to tap into their networks.