We started with a solid foundation with the name “Highnote” and Highnote.com which the founders chose because they believe if more clinicians raise their voice, more clinical problems can end on a Highnote. We developed an iconic mark to build the idea of connection into the brand as well as a simple, 3-word tagline to communicate the brand promise.

Once the brand identity was developed, we turned the graphical elements into components. Next, we created a comprehensive design system with patterns that would make the app feel cohesive while maintaining flexibility for scale and context-specific navigation. These foundational design elements are built-out in a component library in Figma, which connects to all instances of every screen, flow, and interaction in the app.

One of Highnote’s many hypotheses we validated early with data was communication on-the-go needed to be in the format that was best for the sender and recipient. Users could choose to author in video, audio or text and respond in kind or change to the format that best fit their circumstances.

We created user stories to understand how a user successfully completes specific tasks in the app. This process documents the paths a user takes screen by screen to ensure the experience is intuitive and clear.

Every feature in the Highnote app has a purpose and maps to business model drivers: distribution, acquisition, retention, or churn. Knowing this relationship helped form a hypothesis about each feature’s expected value. This mapping made prioritization more objective, less subjective.

We recommended shrinking features down to the smallest possible size to ship sooner and learn faster. Instead of one monolithic product roadmap, we built individual feature roadmaps to keep things organized and create a clear path forward.

54% of questions are video, 17% are audio, and 29% are text. For answers, 78% are video, 19% are audio, and 3% are text. Response rate metrics: Of all responses, 33% happen in less than 2 hours, 72% happen same day, and 92% happen next day.

"Defaults are powerful." remarked Taylor Gilbert, PM at Highnote. Many users switched formats to author. Just as many users switched formats to respond. Video or audio format choice was mostly driven by personal preference and circumstances, like being in an elevator. Users ask anonymous questions in text. Almost no users respond in text, possibly due to answer length. Highnote uses AI to transcribe video and audio to text to power search and make it fast to skim. Most answers are 2x longer than questions. So, we doubled the recording length which required refactoring our compression due to bandwidth constraints in hospitals.

After the website was complete, we designed screens for the App Store for the iOS app and Play Store for the Android app. All of the product marketing materials are component driven, maintaining a connection to the foundational library, so if and when design changes are made to any underlying element, the update propagates though all screens, flows, and app screen shots, so they can be easily exported and uploaded to an app store without re-work. The screens below show mid-fi designs that were shipped to users while hi-fi is in development.

Since the paying customer is distinct from the end-user, Highnote developed tiered pricing with volume-based discounts at scale. Highnote's pricing strategy starts with the value Highnote delivers for healthcare professionals, then hospital networks, organizations, and custom plans for health systems and clinics. We made the benefits clear so prospective buyers could easily compare and choose.

We started working on Highnote after their pre-seed round and helped them tell the story at the seed stage. We designed investor inquiries into the Highnote.com website and designed a new company deck to present the investment opportunity to accredited investors.

It’s one thing to toot our own horn, but it’s another when you hear the words come directly from the people we work with. Meet CEO Amy Papermaster and COO Aaron Papermaster—power couple and co-founders of Highnote. They are an impressive team, perfectly balancing visionary product leadership and domain expertise in healthcare (Amy) and operational execution of a HealthTech startup (Aaron).

We invested 50% of our revenue into Highnote’s pre-seed round. This helped Highnote be capital efficient, manage cash flow, and extend their runway to get product-led growth. Our team delivered everything shown in this case study. Together, we shipped Highnote for iPhone and Android. Within 4 months of launching, Highnote secured 2 of the largest health systems in America as paying customers. Highnote is expanding rapidly with a full pipeline of hospitals ready to join.