Nestlé, the world's largest food and beverage company, operates in 186 countries. Their OPTIFAST program, offered through Nestlé Health Science, is a medically-supervised weight management solution. For over 45 years, OPTIFAST has helped more than a million people worldwide achieve their weight loss goals through meal replacements, lifestyle education, and medical monitoring.

Project Overview

I led the development of a comprehensive mobile application for Nestlé's Optifast weight loss program, transforming a previously unsuccessful attempt into a highly praised user-centric solution. The app aimed to support users throughout their weight loss journey, providing personalized guidance, meal planning, progress tracking, and program adherence tools.

The Challenge

The challenge was multifaceted: to create a user-friendly, engaging mobile app that simplified the complex weight loss journey while implementing a deeply personalized experience based on individual health profiles. This needed to be achieved while integrating with Nestlé's complex CIAM system and deployment processes, overcoming significant resource constraints and technical challenges. Adding to the complexity, we had to meet strict timelines and deliverables while adapting to a dramatically reduced budget, requiring innovative solutions and efficient project management throughout the development process.

My Role

As the Product Owner and UX/UI Design Lead, I was responsible for:

• Leading the UX design process; research, design & testing

• UI concept and development

• Overseeing the design team and ensuring UI design consistency

• Client liaison and stakeholder management

• Project management from initial proposal to launch

• Budget management and resource allocation

• Coordinating cross-functional teams, including offshore development resources

• Hands-on involvement in critical technical aspects, such as data structure design

• Art direction of commissioned photographic work

My role

As Product Owner and UX/UI Design Lead for the OPTIFAST mobile app project, I spearheaded the development from initial concept to successful launch. I crafted the proposal in response to Nestle's RFP and led the design process using a human-centered approach with multiple rounds of user testing. My role involved extensive client liaison, coordinating cross-functional teams both locally and offshore, and making critical technical decisions such as data structure design for multi-country rollouts.

Throughout the project, I maintained hands-on involvement in key design elements and user flows while managing the project budget and planning the phased international rollout strategy. This position required balancing strategic thinking with meticulous attention to detail to deliver a product that exceeded Nestle's expectations in the competitive health and wellness app space. My responsibilities spanned from initial proposal to launch, ensuring that the final product not only met but surpassed the client's goals for user engagement and functionality.

The process outlined below allowed us to create a deeply personalized, user-friendly app designed to effectively support OPTIFAST users throughout their weight loss journey, while meeting the complex requirements of Nestlé and overcoming significant technical and budgetary challenges.

Our approach followed a comprehensive user-centered design process, integrating industry-standard UX methodologies with innovative techniques tailored to the unique challenges of the OPTIFAST program:

Discovery and Research

•  Conducted in-depth analysis of user insights and initial requirements provided by Nestlé

•  Performed separate user interviews to gain deeper understanding of weight loss challenges and app expectations

•  Several team members, including myself, undertook the OPTIFAST program to gain first-hand experience and identify pain points

Documentation and Specification

• Produced comprehensive Functional Specification documentation

• These specs were crucial for client approvals, timeline management, testing procedures, internal sign-offs, and guiding the Technical and Engineering Leads

Ideation and Concept

• Facilitated brainstorming sessions with the client to extract their domain expertise

• Organized and ran multiple all-day "pen & paper" for the UX team to design app flows and screens, as well as refine the user-centred design based on feedback

• Utilized a variety of ideation techniques including post-it notes, printouts, and sketches

Prototyping and Testing

• Developed several prototype builds, focusing on key problem areas due to budget constraints:

  • Onboarding and program recommendation

  • Daily program management

  • Advance preparation and shopping to prevent diet lapses

• Conducted user testing with rough prototypes to validate both Nestlé's assumptions and our own insights

• Explored potential future features like automated ordering of Optifast products (later excluded due to regulatory constraints)

UI Design

• Initiated a parallel UI concept phase alongside engineering due to compressed timeframes

• Three designers, including myself, developed separate visual directions

• As Creative Director / Art Director, I both contributed a design and oversaw the entire process

• Conducted user testing on UI concepts for functional usability, aesthetic preference, and brand alignment

Implementation and Development

• Oversaw front-end implementation to ensure perfect match between final designs and built screens

• Managed simultaneous native development for both Android and iOS platforms

• Collaborated with back-end team on the unified Java solution, ensuring seamless integration of data-driven features

Iteration and Refinement

• Continuously refined the design based on ongoing user feedback and testing results

• Made real-time adjustments to accommodate technical constraints and emerging user needs

Quality Assurance and Launch Preparation

• Conducted thorough testing across all features and platforms

• Prepared launch strategy in collaboration with Nestlé's marketing team & engineering team (offshore), along with our own internal front-end and back-end engineering teams

Cross-functional Leadership

• Bridged communication gaps between technical teams and non-technical stakeholders by translating complex concepts into understandable terms for all parties.

• Implemented daily stand-ups and weekly comprehensive reviews to align offshore development teams with project goals and timelines.

• Facilitated collaborative problem-solving sessions, bringing together design, development, and client teams to address integration challenges with Nestlé's CIAM system.

Results

• Successfully delivered the project despite a 50% budget reduction mid-project, meeting all key deliverables.

• Positive user feedback, with app store reviews praising the app's concept and design (e.g., "The app is actually amazing when it works!").

95% Onboarding Rate

Achieved a 95% completion rate for the onboarding process in user testing, compared to 60% for the previous desktop-based web experience.

Challenges Overcome and Lessons Learned

• Managed the sudden departure of the backend development team, quickly adapting to work with a rotating group of offshore developers.

• Navigated complex integration challenges, balancing client expectations with technical realities.

• Delivered on original scope of work despite a dramatic mid-project budget reduction.

Key Takeaways

This experience was another opportunity to lead a complex, high-stakes project from conception to delivery, adapting to significant challenges while maintaining focus on user needs and project goals. It reinforced my skill in bridging the gap between technical requirements and user experience, preparing me for future leadership roles in product ownership and UX design where navigating complex stakeholder relationships and technical challenges is key.

• The critical importance of adaptability and problem-solving in product management.

• Strategies for effective communication and collaboration with diverse stakeholders.

• The value of hands-on technical knowledge in bridging gaps between design, development, and client expectations.