PillEd
A user-friendly mobile platform tackling polypharmacy, medication nonadherence, and poor health literacy, making medication management safer, smarter, and simpler.
Role
Product Manager
Context
Anderson Product Innovation Challenge
Year
November 2022
Team
5 Members (MD/MBA + MBA)
01 — My Contribution
What I Did as Product Manager
As Product Manager and Strategist, I owned problem framing, product vision, and cross-functional coordination across a 5-person team of MD/MBA and MBA candidates.
Product Strategy
Defined product vision, roadmap, and phased go-to-market strategy. Led competitive analysis that identified the unique OCR + DI + health literacy combination as the primary differentiator.
Market Analysis
Conducted TAM/SAM/SOM sizing across the Caregiver and Mother segments. Validated market opportunity through demographic trends and telemedicine growth data.
User Research & Segmentation
Developed three core personas through pain-point analysis. Mapped the end-to-end user journey from onboarding through daily medication management and price comparison.
Financial Modeling
Built 5-year revenue projection across three monetization streams (subscription, advertising, transaction fees). Structured cost analysis at $1.2M/year operating budget.
02 — Problem
Pharmaceuticals & the American Consumer
Millions of Americans face serious health risks from medication mismanagement. The data reveals a systemic crisis at the intersection of polypharmacy, nonadherence, and low health literacy.
50%
Adults nonadherent to medications as prescribed
30%
Adults 60+ report polypharmacy (5+ medications)
12%
Adults considered proficient in health literacy
$50B
Annual healthcare cost attributed to medication misuse
5th
Leading cause of death in the US from adverse drug interactions
30%
Of all hospital admissions linked to drug interactions
03 — Target Users
Who We're Building For
Three distinct user segments with a shared need: reliable, understandable medication guidance.
"Mother"
Pregnant · Seeking medication safety
“Will my baby be ok if I take Advil?”
"Caregiver"
Adult · No medical training · Managing elderly parent
“My dad is on 9 medications. Is it safe for him to take Benadryl?”
"Healthcare Provider"
Physicians · Hospital staff
“Why do I spend so much time reviewing meds with my patients?”
04: Solution
Core Features
PillEd integrates six critical capabilities into a single app, a combination no competitor currently offers.
Click a button below to see each feature in action & tap inside the app to explore interactively. -->
Home
Adherence Dashboard
A personal home screen that surfaces today's medications, recent adherence history, and one-tap access to scanning and scheduling.
05 — User Journey
End-to-End Experience Flow
From onboarding to daily medication management, a seamless, guided experience designed for users with low health literacy.
Onboard
Create health profile with medications, conditions, and allergies
Scan Meds
Camera OCR to add medications
Interaction Check
Auto-screen full medication list for drug-drug conflicts
Review Drug Info
Digestible drug details, dosage, and side effects
Set Schedule
Set dosing times & alarms
Receive Reminders
Push notifications at dose time
Track & Shop
History, compare prices, buy
06 — Technical Architecture
System Overview
Modular architecture designed for scalability, with dedicated processing modules for OCR, drug interaction analysis, and notification delivery, fed by a multi-source external data layer.
Data Sources
Data Ingestion
Processing Engine
Data Storage
Presentation Layer
Tech Stack
07 — Competitive Landscape
Feature Comparison Matrix
Existing solutions address fragments of the problem. PillEd is the only platform covering all critical capabilities.
| Feature | PillEd | MediSafe / Dosecast | UpToDate / Medscape | Drugs.com / Epocrates |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drug-Drug Interaction Checker | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Contraindication Alerts | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Automation of Alerts | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Drug Scheduling | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Camera Identification (OCR) | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Understandable Drug Info | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
08 — Market Opportunity
Market Sizing
Targeting the “Mother” (4.0M) and “Caregiver” (7.3M) segments with a $50/year freemium subscription model.
Growth Drivers
90M
Projected adults 65+ by 2050 (up from 46M today)
4,000%
Telemedicine visit growth from 2018 to 2019
$219B
Preventative health market size (2022 projection)
09 — Go-to-Market Strategy
Phased Market Entry
A B2B-first approach to build medical credibility before scaling to consumers, reducing CAC by leveraging distribution channels that already have patient trust.
Q1 2023
Hospital Partnerships
Partner with hospitals to optimize medication reconciliation and build legitimacy within the medical community before consumer launch.
Q2 2023
Clinical Channel Expansion
Partner with skilled nursing facilities, obstetricians, and geriatricians to promote app downloads, targeting under-resourced settings with high polypharmacy prevalence.
Q4 2023
B2B Healthcare Retail
Partner with healthcare retail chains to distribute pharmaceutical promotion coupons, attracting price-sensitive new users at scale.
Q1 2025
Product Launch
Full public launch with established medical community trust, validated retail partnerships, and confirmed product-market fit across both primary personas.