The Problem
Even when clinical care is strong, women are often left managing the gaps between visits themselves.
Together we asked: how might we reimagine the health experience to seamlessly integrate care across touchpoints, systems, and the lived experience of women?
As part of the IDEO team, I worked on a project that moved from research and journeys into experience visioning and concept development, helping shape a future-state ecosystem called Cottage Garden: a model for women’s health rooted in lived experience, coordinated support, and care that extends beyond the visit.
The Process
You can’t design for women’s health by only looking at service lines and clinical workflows. You have to start with women’s actual lives.
Our team grounded this work in stories from women across life stages — from adolescence to pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause, older adulthood, and breast cancer. We spoke with patients, caregivers, providers, and Cottage staff, and paired interviews with diary work, analogous research, and journey mapping to understand what care feels like not just in the room, but before, between, and after visits.
Women’s Stories
And while many women described their in-clinic care at Cottage as warm, thoughtful, and high quality, we kept hearing that the hardest moments happened in the transitions — where systems broke down, referrals disappeared, women had to explain themselves all over again, or support simply stopped once they left the building.
To map that gap, we developed six end-to-end journeys that made visible both the strengths and the seams in Cottage’s current system: establishing care, pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause, breast cancer, and older adulthood. These journeys helped us distinguish table-stakes fixes from more transformational opportunities. The biggest needs weren’t tied to one condition — they repeated across life stages: clearer guidance, better handoffs, more continuity, and more holistic support.
The Solution
That gap between excellent care and a fragmented overall experience became the core design opportunity. We translated it into Cottage Garden — a future-state ecosystem — and a set of signature concepts that addressed the patterns we saw in research.
Signature Concepts
True North — helping women see the long view
Women told us they want continuous guidance and foresight across life’s transitions — rather than having insurance dictate which tests and screenings they receive, or discovering life stages only once they’re already in them.
True North is a patient-facing tool that helps women see the long view of their health journey by bringing together their data, priorities, and reflections into a dynamic timeline they can share with their providers. It offers stage-smart guidance with clinically backed themes for each life stage, integrates personal data by linking MyChart and wearable devices, and includes an AI-powered voice diary that weaves women’s reflections into tailored recommendations — highlighting topics to prioritize at their next appointment.
Wellness Commons — a front door to holistic support
Women told us they want access to holistic care and trusted answers to their health questions — instead of turning to social media, Google, or ChatGPT.
Wellness Commons is a curated, personalized library of resources for a woman’s health needs or life stage — vetted by Cottage and delivered in a variety of formats including articles, classes, and podcasts. It connects women in Santa Barbara to trusted referrals for acupuncture and other holistic care Cottage may not offer in-house. And by leveraging the scale of Cottage as a health system, it can offer subsidized access to things like meditation apps or strength training memberships — making wellbeing accessible to everyone, not just those who can afford concierge medicine.
Care Circle — right-sized support around the woman
Women told us they want right-sized support for different life stages and phases of their health journey. Investing in 1:1 nurse navigation is critical, but also expensive — and we wanted to make sure support is accessed equitably, by those who need it most, without leaving anyone without an option.
Care Circle assembles an extended support network, connecting women to a care support team and a navigator when needed — delivering tailored support that meets each woman’s specific needs. Anyone who needs help navigating their care has an option that best suits them.