Willow Innovations

Pump Case

Within 2 weeks of joining Willow, our Product Marketing Manager requested my feedback on an upcoming pump case design. It was a fantastic opportunity to get to know the pump more, meet the team and empathize with our moms.

To learn more about the pump experiences, I gathered insights from our moms via social media and Willow customer care cases. I found numerous reports of moms feeling challenged by the flip to finish motion. Flip to finish is a series of motions that moms must perform with the pump to ensure all expressed milk is captured in the container or bag and not stuck in the FlexTube™. (Learn how Flip to Finish via YouTube). Inability to perform this motion successfully resulted in pump errors and moms losing precious drops of milk. As I learned Flip to Finish, I realized that some motions required were also required when placing a pump down on a surface before removing the milk from the pump.

How might we increase mom’s ability to successfully perform flip to finish with our pump case?

I repurposed my Gen 3 pump packaging and added a makeshift handle for my paper prototyping and came up with 2 quick layout options to test.

Getting the pump(s) into Layout A’s case with one hand, may require increased grip strength and wrist dexterity, but closely mimicked the first phase of motion for flip to finish - rotate and tilt the pump. The second phase of motion - flipping the pump so the container/bag is facing down - may feel more natural when retrieving the pump from the case. The third phase of motion - flipping the pump again so the container/bag is facing up - could perhaps feel like the only motion mom may need to actively remember to perform.

Layout B could require an uncomfortable extension of mom’s arm but removed need for increased grip strength and wrist dexterity. Similar to Layout A, moms could mentally offload the first and second phase motions of flip to finish to the case, leaving phase three of motion to be something mom would need to remember to perform.

While we did not have resources to implement these considerations into our v1 pump case, this exploration reinvigorated our roots to think differently when solving mom’s challenges; an effort unanimously supported by our C-suite.

Apple Watch

Increasing mom’s mobility while pumping is a core proposition we deliver with our product - we had a huge opportunity to give moms even more freedom and discretion in her pumping journey with our Apple Watch app.

A significant number of moms who use Willow pumps are medical professionals (who own Apple Watches and) who are not given the time or space to pump at work. While pumping, they’re multi-tasking (as most moms do) and do not have a free hand to use their phone. With a flick of a wrist, Willow Gen 3 pump moms can see how long they’ve pumped for on each side, then tap into the app to start/stop their pump or change the suction level independently on each pump.

Moms have a lot on their minds and a lot to do - remembering how long it’s been since they last pumped isn’t one of them on the Willow Apple Watch app. When not in an active pumping session, moms are able to see how long it’s been since their last pumping session from the Willow app complication - down to the minute.

Feature on The Verge