What’s Your Goal Mama?
A Co-Creation Story to Help Increase Program Impact
Fred Dillon, Senior Director, Strategy & Design
@FredDillon
@hopelab

Hopelab is a social innovation lab focused on
designing science-based technologies to improve the
health and well-being of teens and young adults. We
are a nonprofit funded by the Omidyar family.
2

Nurse-Family Partnership is a
national nonprofit organization
that pairs a low income first-time
mother with a home visiting nurse.

In 2016 Hopelab teamed up with NFP to
answer this question:
How can we use technology to increase
NFP mom engagement and retention?

55
Through a combination of in home interviews, focus
groups, and home visit shadows at several sites around
the country we had inspiring conversations with:
Gathering Insights
65MOMS
55NURSES
+
We also gathered insights from:
1,000
moms in an anonymous
survey conducted by the
NFP National Service
Office
1,500
nurses in a web-based
survey conducted by the
University of Colorado
Prevention Research
Center
800
nurses through qualitative
interviews conducted by
the University of Colorado
Prevention Research
Center

6
After synthesizing this research data and running the
top ideas through feedback cycles with nurses,
moms, and leaders, the winning concept emerged:
A mobile app and companion nurse
dashboard that moms and nurses
use together to set, track, and reach
moms’ goals
The Winning Idea

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01 Improve mom retention.
PRC research suggests NFP sites that focus on
moms’ goals may have higher retention rates.
02 Increase mom self-sufficiency.
A focus of goals can help moms achieve better life
course outcomes, a key NFP objective.
03 Broadly relevant.
Every mom, no matter her circumstances, has
things she wants to change and accomplish.
Why Goal Setting?

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01 Meet moms where they are.
The vast majority of NFP moms are already
using mobile devices.
02 Tech keeps you on track.
We can leverage reminders and communication tools
to keep moms and nurses on track with the moms’
goals.
03 Go paperless.
Tracking goals and tasks on paper is cumbersome,
and papers can get lost in the shuffle.
Why an App?

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01 Nurses are key.
In a sea of parenting and pregnancy tech,
moms said nurses make all the difference.
02 Serve up useful information.
Access info on moms’ goals to keep them moving
towards the things that matter most to them.
03 Lighten the load.
Additional features like mom visit reminders, visit
topics lists, and digital articles can potentially help
reduce work.
Why a Nurse Dashboard?

HopeLab — Confidential 10

Ayogo is an award-winning software development
company that creates HIPAA compliant custom
applications to improve patient engagement and
empowerment and help clinicians better meet the needs
of their patients.
You can learn more at ayogo.com
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Building the App and Nurse Dashboard

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Key Features for Moms:
Goal Mama helps moms to:
● Set and track their most important goals and share them
with their nurse
● Build better habits with daily nudges
● Explore informational articles about pregnancy and early
motherhood
● Keep track of tasks with a to-do list and reminders
● Connect with other NFP moms through the in-app
community

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Key Features for Nurses:
Nurses can use the Goal Mama Nurse Dashboard to:
● View mom’s goals and track how their confidence
and prioritization of each goal shifts over time
● Send encouraging “shout outs” to cheer on moms
● See the topics that are top of mind for each mom,
to make the most of each visit
● See which clients have downloaded the app and
view their recent activity

Testing the waters
1
SITE
40
MOMS
APP CONTROL
Starting late 2017, we ran a small usability study with NFP
Contra Costa in California. Our findings helped us improve
the app, training, and study design.

Early Usability Learnings
• Nurse involvement is key
• Nurse supervisors have their own role to play
• Wide range of tech savviness among moms
and nurses
• Reminders make the world go round
• Hard to predict which moms will take to the app
• Goal setting is top used feature, along with
mom community, and visit topics
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Amplifying the signal
For the rest of 2018, we’ll be conducting a full scale pilot with 5
NFP sites across the country to test the apps efficacy and use.
Half of the moms enrolled at each site will be randomized to
receive the Goal Mama App and half will not.
5
SITES
250
MOMS
APP
CONTROL

Pilot Study Design
• Six-month randomized control trial
• Launching June 2018
• 5 NFP sites across the country
• 250 moms to be enrolled
• Assess efficacy
• Explore factors affecting implementation & adoption

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5 sites
Recruit ~250 Moms
~37 Nurse Home Visitors
Study Sites

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What are we trying to learn by conducting studies on the Goal Mama App?
01
Are moms and
nurses using
the app?
02
Is it helping
moms achieve
their goals?
03
Is it improving
moms’
experience with
the program?
04
Is it helping retain
moms in the
program?

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How will we answer our research questions?
FOUR SURVEYS
conducted over the course of 12 weeks to
look at:
• Goal setting and achievement
• Goal specific self efficacy and
generalized mastery
• Satisfaction with NFP and nurse-client
relationship
NFP DATABASE
queries to look at:
• Visit attendance
• Engagement during visit
APP USAGE
to look at:
• Frequency and duration of logins
• Frequency of specific feature use

What’s next?
● Conduct Study and Analyze Data
● Share Learnings with NFP and Ayogo
● Optimize / Improve Product and Nurse Training
● Develop Roll-out Plan

Q & A

Thank you.
www.hopelab.org
@FredDillon
@hopelab