BrainsFirst is an Amsterdam-based company that brings insights into the relationship between the brain and work-related performance. The company was founded in 2012 as a scientific research project and is now active in human capital management (HCM) and elite sports all over the world. Their main product is NeurOlympics, a game-based assessment tool that helps determine cognitive abilities of employees, such as working memory, anticipation, control and attention.
Together with Amsterdam UMC, the company is currently involved in a very ambitious project where they generate neurocognitive ‘fingerprints’ of AIOS, doctors-in-training, followed by 1-on-1 coaching sessions that aim to change stress-inducing habits linked to specific cognitive abilities. AIOS get personalized advice on how their brain works best and report more productivity and less work-related stress after coaching. Due to positive outcomes of the study, the company wants to scale-up the implementation of this tool and bring its value to as many stressed out employees and students. Since the current approach to tailor-made behavioural change is labour intensive (i.e., requires 1-on-1 coaching), the company approached us, consultants, to design a NeurOlympics-based behavioural change experience that is science-based, personalised and scalable.
To help our client’s needs, we divided the approach to product development into 3 main phases. Firstly, we will analyse the client’s existing product and perform a thorough literature research on work-related stress and behavioral change interventions. Secondly, we will conduct an extensive market research, analysing potential competitors and assessing our customers’ needs and desires. Here we will conduct a market survey, create buyer personas, and perform a SWOT analysis. Finally, we will delve into the product development process following well-established design thinking principles. In essence, we will ideate, prototype and test in cycles until we build a product that fits the target market. Our deliverables will include the product with accompanying business model and a report that explains our methodology.
