How we helped understand the customer journey and buying process in the neurodegenerative space

The challenge

Our client was in the process of beginning a pivotal trial for a new anti-sense therapy designed to specifically bind to the mRNA of a gene that, when mutated, can cause inherited forms of a particular neurodegenerative disorder. The commercial team needed to fully understand the customer journey for patients, caregivers and HCP stakeholders.

The solution

A 360-degree approach was taken by including a range of stakeholders and a mix of methodologies and research techniques were utilized to provide a comprehensive understanding of the customer journey. We conducted 147 qualitative interviews with patients, caregivers, centre specialists, neuromuscular specialists, and general neurologists in order to:

• Determine the stakeholders that our client needed to understand and activate for launch
• Ascertain the current behaviors, and associated pains and gains
• Identify future challenges in patient identification and stakeholder activation where our client needed to find solutions and take preparatory steps to facilitate launch and uptake
• Understand the challenges that are unique to genetic testing and genetic counselling availability as well as logistics around treatment centers
• Map the overall buying process

The outputs

Recruiting a mix of respondent types enabled us to understand the market from a number of different perspectives and build a complete picture of the customer journey and buying process. This helped to identify the potential disconnects between stakeholders in terms of beliefs and needs. In addition, by using mixed methodologies, we were able to uncover key rational and emotional moments along the customer journey in a manner that befitted the need of each stakeholder type. Key insights included:

• Transactional and emotional patient journey
• Roles and responsibilities of HCPs
• Level of current genetic testing
• Treatment satisfaction and unmet needs
• Leverage points for improving patient journey
• Product profile feedback
• Evolution of the future market landscape
• Perceptions of biomarkers and potential usage

In addition to our story-lined report, our in-house creative design team, The Studio, designed a range of data-visualized outputs and deliverables. These included a buying process map, an interactive infographic as well as a short animated video summarizing key insights of the current customer journey from diagnosis to treatment and the anticipated changes to the journey as our client’s product entered the market.