[Applied Theory Series] Building Digital Platforms Designed for Growth

Introducing Kyle Numann

Jessica Head:

All right. Well, welcome back to another episode from Ratio’s Applied Theory series. This is a video podcast providing practical insights and strategies tailored for SaaS sales and marketing teams. Through these conversations, we bridge the gap between marketing theories and real world applications, to hopefully equip you with the tools to thrive in today’s extremely competitive landscape, especially within the health tech sphere.

Today, I am joined by our incredibly talented design and development director, Kyle Numann. Thanks for joining us on the show.

Kyle Numann:

Happy to be here.

Jessica Head:

Awesome. Today, I know we want to talk about how marketers and their teams can really build digital platforms designed for growth and really scale. There’s a lot to consider as tech digital stories unfold, much of which relies on flexibility and modification over time. Before we do that, Kyle, take a moment to share a bit about your background, what led you into the world of development and design, and ultimately your career at Ratio?

Kyle Numann:

All right. In the 20th century, the computer was developed.

Jessica Head:

Start way back.

Kyle Numann:

Yeah. We got a computer in my child household when I was maybe 10 years old, and I was just kind of fascinated by it. In addition to running around outside, I would come in and just play around on the computer, sometimes all night long. Taught myself basic graphic design and web development back when it was still carried out in a text editor.

Jessica Head:

Okay.

Kyle Numann:

I’ve sort of been following that path ever since.

Jessica Head:

That’s amazing, and also not surprising at all that you would start that early on in your computer venturing.

Kyle Numann:

Oh, yeah. It was just like another world, where different things were possible.

Making Data-Driven Solutions When Introducing a Brand Digitally

Jessica Head:

Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I love that. Okay. Much of customer success relies heavily on adapting to changing landscapes of marketing. Talk to us a little bit about how teams can ensure data-driven decisions are being made when introducing their brand digitally. I think this could apply to website and SaaS platform development, but talk to us about maybe just how you think about that when launching sites for our clients.

Kyle Numann:

Yeah. I think it’s kind of a mixture of user experience, best principles, which are certainly constantly evolving, but those are anchored in human experience, so those stay a little more stable, and combining that with the foundational work of research that sometimes gets overlooked in the process of creating a brand or creating a website.

That foundational work is really important to discover who it is you’re trying to target, who you want to be seeing and using your product, whether it’s the brand impressions or the website, and really having a good understanding of who it is that you’re making this for.

Jessica Head:

Yeah, for sure. I think oftentimes, I feel like I see, especially in early stage companies, they get the bones of their product together, and they just immediately go to, “Okay, I’m going to go to a Squarespace site, and just launch this up, throw it up there,” without really being intentional, like you said, about more of the market research component of that from a marketing perspective.

It’s one thing to do product research and market research in the realms of the experience and tool you’re building in the space, but then to do that from a marketing perspective is a whole different ball game. I know at Ratio, we talk a lot about building with experience in mind, and I think often, when partnering with scaling teams who have hired their product team, their sales team, and marketing team, shifting priorities in these silos can often cause experience disconnects, if you will, when it comes to developing a buyer journey from prospect to customer.

What are some of those sticky points? I know we see it with our clients, but what are some of those sticky points in the consumer experience that are considered when you’re building web platforms that are designed for that type of growth?

Kyle Numann:

For sure. Yeah. You mentioned people working in an organization that are kind of siloed in their place. You always feel like the thing that you are most connected with is the most important. It can be really hard. I think it can be really hard for anybody to break out of that mindset and break out of that subjective experience, which is why it’s just really helpful to have a objective view from someone outside your organization to take a look at everything, and pull out the most important pieces for the target audience.

That can be really hard to do when you’re in the weeds of creating a product, or pulling teams together and organizing different departments.

The Buyer Matrix

Jessica Head:

Yeah. Just like the whole idea of being more buyer-centric in your processes would require you to do kind of that deep research, and what are the problems and challenges that we’re trying to solve for? I know we do that kind of in a more first person narrative when we are building out our buyer matrix for clients, but that effectively sets the tone for all web development, all UX approach, and messaging, that, of course, ties into that.

Kyle Numann:

Sure, yeah. The buyer matrix is kind of the cornerstone. We have to dig in and get an idea of what the buyers are looking for, where they’re coming from, what their problems are, so that we can not only speak to that, but we can kind of guide them towards solutions that will actually help, instead of just…

Sometimes, you get caught up in wanting to flaunt the features of a product, because you’re very proud that you created those features. They might be really helpful, but if you don’t frame them in a pragmatic sense, then you’re not going to get people to understand the value that they have for them.

Jessica Head:

Yeah. I’ve even noticed in conferences that our team or even our advisory board team has attended, there’s a lot of conversation right now that no one really cares about point solutions right now. People are very interested in the connected story of what this platform can enable from an overarching perspective of healthcare system structuring. I think this reinforces the need to do that work early on, and not gravitate more towards the featured approach, as you’re sharing.

Yeah. Do you have any good examples of maybe when we’ve kind of been through the Biomatrix process with teams, how that structure has been manifested or potentially reprioritized how they’re crafting their messaging, from even just a site map perspective?

Kyle Numann:

Yeah. Actually, let me think about that.

Jessica Head:

Yeah. I feel like it probably happens every time where we see the manifestation of how we are structuring user experience to not go towards like, “Oh, here’s a series of different tools, and I don’t know… Diversified.”

Kyle Numann:

It’s always a struggle. I think the use case that we often see is clients that really want to champion all of their point solutions in the top navigation of a website. We might be trying to guide them to more of a conceptual set of buckets, problems that need solving, as opposed to, like you say, point solutions and features that they really want to call out, that they’re very proud of, that they’ve worked a long time for.

If you take a step back from that product engineer mindset, the objective path towards getting buyers to understand their solution is to resonate with the buyer’s problem in the first place.

Designing for Diverse Populations

Jessica Head:

Yeah, very well said. I want to talk a little bit about in this process of operating, as you’re mentioning in more of that agile framework, how do we consider design for diverse populations when marketing health tech solutions? We have several companies that we’ve worked with that are very focused on population health. That’s certainly something top of mind for a lot of the CIOs that we’ve even had on the Healthcare Market Matrix Show.

I do think that design certainly can enable inclusivity, and I’ve certainly seen us in various projects that we’ve taken on, take that approach, to not only the messaging of the story of what this tech solution is solving for, but also just in the actual conceptual design process. Any thoughts or comments on that?

Kyle Numann:

Sure. It kind of starts from the top, and it goes all the way down to the roots. Everything from the structure of the site and the layout of the sections on the page can kind of support that multifaceted approach, that different people will be coming here with different expectations, different needs. The sooner we can give them some taste of what they’re looking for and send them in the right direction, the better positioned our clients will be to actually serve up their solution to the people that need it.

Then it goes down to the smaller things, like selecting imagery and layouts to make sure that we are representing the variety of people that might be interacting with that website or that brand.

Jessica Head:

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I know we kind of touched a little bit on that in the applied theory series with Bennett, just the whole notion of not gravitating towards your traditional photography that you see in the healthcare realm. It doesn’t have to be that way.

The story can actually be more rich if it’s simplified, in some capacities, or more conceptualized, versus quite literal photography of a hospital room. I know that’s something that you’re heavily involved with as well and that we’ve seen you champion.

Kyle Numann:

Absolutely, yeah. Sometimes, we need to advocate with our clients that we want to take a more conceptual approach. We want to be illustrating a feeling more than a concrete concept, because some of the concepts that we work with are really hard to visualize, or if you visualize them, you kind of get into the trite imagery that’s been played over and over, especially in the healthcare space. Finding ways to break out of that box and to show something in a more exciting light is one of the big challenges that we work with every day.

Closing Thoughts

Jessica Head:

Yeah, for sure. All right. Well, to wrap things up a little bit, I know you and the team leverage, obviously, a variety of tools and resources to formulate creative strategy for our clients. Any worth noting to teams in the midst of considering their design strategy, or things that you’re favoring these days? I know there’s so many AI solutions out there that we leverage, but…

Kyle Numann:

Certainly, yeah, we’ve got our tried and true tools, such as WordPress, which we use to build all of our websites. It’s such a flexible platform that you can really put a lot of planning into how you want to structure the data on the site to support an ongoing effort, to support new content being added, new content being featured in different places on the site.

We have been incorporating some AI tools to give us a boost, to cut down on the kind of redundant work that isn’t providing value from our standpoint as someone who is bringing our expertise. Try to cut down on the busy work, so we can really provide value where we’re doing the work that we do.

Jessica Head:

Yeah, and just being more strategic. We are, I would say, more strategic-led. We’re a more strategic-led organization, so naturally, freeing up that time to automate what we can, but also focusing on more of the strategic approach. That’s great.

Kyle Numann:

Absolutely.

Jessica Head:

Awesome. Then also, just more generically, I guess, any predictions you have on just the state of UX and how this might evolve over the coming years? I know that’s very broad. You can take it wherever you’d like, Kyle.

Kyle Numann:

Yeah. There are so many angles to it. There’s the proliferation of new devices and new hardware means for us to interact with information, and we’re always playing catch up with the different formats that people are able to consume information. We stay on top of that. There is certainly the wave of artificial intelligence tools that are coming our way, and we’ve always got to learn where they provide value, and where they might get in the way, or where they might lead us down the wrong trail.

We just want to position ourselves to be that human translation layer that takes the meaning, uses the right kind of tools, and provides a pragmatic solution.

Jessica Head:

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Awesome. Well, sounds great. I know for any of the tools that we do use, we can drop links in the comments below as well as we’re sharing this video. Thank you again, Kyle, for joining us on the show. If you like this chat, be sure to rate and subscribe, and feel free to add, again, comments below on ongoing topics we should consider for upcoming shows.

We’re always eager to hear from you and what you are theorizing about as you craft messaging and marketing in the health tech landscape. Also, be sure to check out our monthly newsletter, Insight Squared, where we share recaps of these episodes, along with our Healthcare Market Matrix podcast hosted by Ratio’s CEO, John Farkas, and we will see you next time.

Kyle Numann:

Thanks, Jess.

Jessica Head:

Thank you.

Intro :

Healthcare Market Matrix is a Ratio original podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, then jump over to HealthcareMarketMatrix.com and subscribe. We’d really appreciate your support in the form of a five star rating on your favorite podcast platform. It does make a difference. Also, while you’re there, you can become a part of the Healthcare Market Matrix community, and get access to courses and content that’s created just for you by signing up for Insight Squared, a monthly newsletter dedicated to bringing you the latest health tech marketing insights right to your inbox.

Ratio is an award-winning marketing agency headquartered in the Nashville, Tennessee. We operate at the intersection of brand and growth marketing, to equip companies with strategies to create meaningful connections with the healthcare market, and ultimately drive growth. Want to know more? Go to GoRatio.com. That’s GoRatio.com, and we’ll see you at noon central next week for an all new episode from our team at Ratio Studios. Stay healthy.

 

Introducing Kyle Numann

Jessica Head:

All right. Well, welcome back to another episode from Ratio’s Applied Theory series. This is a video podcast providing practical insights and strategies tailored for SaaS sales and marketing teams. Through these conversations, we bridge the gap between marketing theories and real world applications, to hopefully equip you with the tools to thrive in today’s extremely competitive landscape, especially within the health tech sphere.

Today, I am joined by our incredibly talented design and development director, Kyle Numann. Thanks for joining us on the show.

Kyle Numann:

Happy to be here.

Jessica Head:

Awesome. Today, I know we want to talk about how marketers and their teams can really build digital platforms designed for growth and really scale. There’s a lot to consider as tech digital stories unfold, much of which relies on flexibility and modification over time. Before we do that, Kyle, take a moment to share a bit about your background, what led you into the world of development and design, and ultimately your career at Ratio?

Kyle Numann:

All right. In the 20th century, the computer was developed.

Jessica Head:

Start way back.

Kyle Numann:

Yeah. We got a computer in my child household when I was maybe 10 years old, and I was just kind of fascinated by it. In addition to running around outside, I would come in and just play around on the computer, sometimes all night long. Taught myself basic graphic design and web development back when it was still carried out in a text editor.

Jessica Head:

Okay.

Kyle Numann:

I’ve sort of been following that path ever since.

Jessica Head:

That’s amazing, and also not surprising at all that you would start that early on in your computer venturing.

Kyle Numann:

Oh, yeah. It was just like another world, where different things were possible.

Making Data-Driven Solutions When Introducing a Brand Digitally

Jessica Head:

Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I love that. Okay. Much of customer success relies heavily on adapting to changing landscapes of marketing. Talk to us a little bit about how teams can ensure data-driven decisions are being made when introducing their brand digitally. I think this could apply to website and SaaS platform development, but talk to us about maybe just how you think about that when launching sites for our clients.

Kyle Numann:

Yeah. I think it’s kind of a mixture of user experience, best principles, which are certainly constantly evolving, but those are anchored in human experience, so those stay a little more stable, and combining that with the foundational work of research that sometimes gets overlooked in the process of creating a brand or creating a website.

That foundational work is really important to discover who it is you’re trying to target, who you want to be seeing and using your product, whether it’s the brand impressions or the website, and really having a good understanding of who it is that you’re making this for.

Jessica Head:

Yeah, for sure. I think oftentimes, I feel like I see, especially in early stage companies, they get the bones of their product together, and they just immediately go to, “Okay, I’m going to go to a Squarespace site, and just launch this up, throw it up there,” without really being intentional, like you said, about more of the market research component of that from a marketing perspective.

It’s one thing to do product research and market research in the realms of the experience and tool you’re building in the space, but then to do that from a marketing perspective is a whole different ball game. I know at Ratio, we talk a lot about building with experience in mind, and I think often, when partnering with scaling teams who have hired their product team, their sales team, and marketing team, shifting priorities in these silos can often cause experience disconnects, if you will, when it comes to developing a buyer journey from prospect to customer.

What are some of those sticky points? I know we see it with our clients, but what are some of those sticky points in the consumer experience that are considered when you’re building web platforms that are designed for that type of growth?

Kyle Numann:

For sure. Yeah. You mentioned people working in an organization that are kind of siloed in their place. You always feel like the thing that you are most connected with is the most important. It can be really hard. I think it can be really hard for anybody to break out of that mindset and break out of that subjective experience, which is why it’s just really helpful to have a objective view from someone outside your organization to take a look at everything, and pull out the most important pieces for the target audience.

That can be really hard to do when you’re in the weeds of creating a product, or pulling teams together and organizing different departments.

The Buyer Matrix

Jessica Head:

Yeah. Just like the whole idea of being more buyer-centric in your processes would require you to do kind of that deep research, and what are the problems and challenges that we’re trying to solve for? I know we do that kind of in a more first person narrative when we are building out our buyer matrix for clients, but that effectively sets the tone for all web development, all UX approach, and messaging, that, of course, ties into that.

Kyle Numann:

Sure, yeah. The buyer matrix is kind of the cornerstone. We have to dig in and get an idea of what the buyers are looking for, where they’re coming from, what their problems are, so that we can not only speak to that, but we can kind of guide them towards solutions that will actually help, instead of just…

Sometimes, you get caught up in wanting to flaunt the features of a product, because you’re very proud that you created those features. They might be really helpful, but if you don’t frame them in a pragmatic sense, then you’re not going to get people to understand the value that they have for them.

Jessica Head:

Yeah. I’ve even noticed in conferences that our team or even our advisory board team has attended, there’s a lot of conversation right now that no one really cares about point solutions right now. People are very interested in the connected story of what this platform can enable from an overarching perspective of healthcare system structuring. I think this reinforces the need to do that work early on, and not gravitate more towards the featured approach, as you’re sharing.

Yeah. Do you have any good examples of maybe when we’ve kind of been through the Biomatrix process with teams, how that structure has been manifested or potentially reprioritized how they’re crafting their messaging, from even just a site map perspective?

Kyle Numann:

Yeah. Actually, let me think about that.

Jessica Head:

Yeah. I feel like it probably happens every time where we see the manifestation of how we are structuring user experience to not go towards like, “Oh, here’s a series of different tools, and I don’t know… Diversified.”

Kyle Numann:

It’s always a struggle. I think the use case that we often see is clients that really want to champion all of their point solutions in the top navigation of a website. We might be trying to guide them to more of a conceptual set of buckets, problems that need solving, as opposed to, like you say, point solutions and features that they really want to call out, that they’re very proud of, that they’ve worked a long time for.

If you take a step back from that product engineer mindset, the objective path towards getting buyers to understand their solution is to resonate with the buyer’s problem in the first place.

Designing for Diverse Populations

Jessica Head:

Yeah, very well said. I want to talk a little bit about in this process of operating, as you’re mentioning in more of that agile framework, how do we consider design for diverse populations when marketing health tech solutions? We have several companies that we’ve worked with that are very focused on population health. That’s certainly something top of mind for a lot of the CIOs that we’ve even had on the Healthcare Market Matrix Show.

I do think that design certainly can enable inclusivity, and I’ve certainly seen us in various projects that we’ve taken on, take that approach, to not only the messaging of the story of what this tech solution is solving for, but also just in the actual conceptual design process. Any thoughts or comments on that?

Kyle Numann:

Sure. It kind of starts from the top, and it goes all the way down to the roots. Everything from the structure of the site and the layout of the sections on the page can kind of support that multifaceted approach, that different people will be coming here with different expectations, different needs. The sooner we can give them some taste of what they’re looking for and send them in the right direction, the better positioned our clients will be to actually serve up their solution to the people that need it.

Then it goes down to the smaller things, like selecting imagery and layouts to make sure that we are representing the variety of people that might be interacting with that website or that brand.

Jessica Head:

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I know we kind of touched a little bit on that in the applied theory series with Bennett, just the whole notion of not gravitating towards your traditional photography that you see in the healthcare realm. It doesn’t have to be that way.

The story can actually be more rich if it’s simplified, in some capacities, or more conceptualized, versus quite literal photography of a hospital room. I know that’s something that you’re heavily involved with as well and that we’ve seen you champion.

Kyle Numann:

Absolutely, yeah. Sometimes, we need to advocate with our clients that we want to take a more conceptual approach. We want to be illustrating a feeling more than a concrete concept, because some of the concepts that we work with are really hard to visualize, or if you visualize them, you kind of get into the trite imagery that’s been played over and over, especially in the healthcare space. Finding ways to break out of that box and to show something in a more exciting light is one of the big challenges that we work with every day.

Closing Thoughts

Jessica Head:

Yeah, for sure. All right. Well, to wrap things up a little bit, I know you and the team leverage, obviously, a variety of tools and resources to formulate creative strategy for our clients. Any worth noting to teams in the midst of considering their design strategy, or things that you’re favoring these days? I know there’s so many AI solutions out there that we leverage, but…

Kyle Numann:

Certainly, yeah, we’ve got our tried and true tools, such as WordPress, which we use to build all of our websites. It’s such a flexible platform that you can really put a lot of planning into how you want to structure the data on the site to support an ongoing effort, to support new content being added, new content being featured in different places on the site.

We have been incorporating some AI tools to give us a boost, to cut down on the kind of redundant work that isn’t providing value from our standpoint as someone who is bringing our expertise. Try to cut down on the busy work, so we can really provide value where we’re doing the work that we do.

Jessica Head:

Yeah, and just being more strategic. We are, I would say, more strategic-led. We’re a more strategic-led organization, so naturally, freeing up that time to automate what we can, but also focusing on more of the strategic approach. That’s great.

Kyle Numann:

Absolutely.

Jessica Head:

Awesome. Then also, just more generically, I guess, any predictions you have on just the state of UX and how this might evolve over the coming years? I know that’s very broad. You can take it wherever you’d like, Kyle.

Kyle Numann:

Yeah. There are so many angles to it. There’s the proliferation of new devices and new hardware means for us to interact with information, and we’re always playing catch up with the different formats that people are able to consume information. We stay on top of that. There is certainly the wave of artificial intelligence tools that are coming our way, and we’ve always got to learn where they provide value, and where they might get in the way, or where they might lead us down the wrong trail.

We just want to position ourselves to be that human translation layer that takes the meaning, uses the right kind of tools, and provides a pragmatic solution.

Jessica Head:

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Awesome. Well, sounds great. I know for any of the tools that we do use, we can drop links in the comments below as well as we’re sharing this video. Thank you again, Kyle, for joining us on the show. If you like this chat, be sure to rate and subscribe, and feel free to add, again, comments below on ongoing topics we should consider for upcoming shows.

We’re always eager to hear from you and what you are theorizing about as you craft messaging and marketing in the health tech landscape. Also, be sure to check out our monthly newsletter, Insight Squared, where we share recaps of these episodes, along with our Healthcare Market Matrix podcast hosted by Ratio’s CEO, John Farkas, and we will see you next time.

Kyle Numann:

Thanks, Jess.

Jessica Head:

Thank you.

Intro :

Healthcare Market Matrix is a Ratio original podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, then jump over to HealthcareMarketMatrix.com and subscribe. We’d really appreciate your support in the form of a five star rating on your favorite podcast platform. It does make a difference. Also, while you’re there, you can become a part of the Healthcare Market Matrix community, and get access to courses and content that’s created just for you by signing up for Insight Squared, a monthly newsletter dedicated to bringing you the latest health tech marketing insights right to your inbox.

Ratio is an award-winning marketing agency headquartered in the Nashville, Tennessee. We operate at the intersection of brand and growth marketing, to equip companies with strategies to create meaningful connections with the healthcare market, and ultimately drive growth. Want to know more? Go to GoRatio.com. That’s GoRatio.com, and we’ll see you at noon central next week for an all new episode from our team at Ratio Studios. Stay healthy.