SILVIA LASERNA
Helping solve society's most pressing needs with rigor, creativity, and passion.
Challenge:
Design a strategy for LegWorks to bring to market a lighter, shorter version of their current AT Knee for pediatric populations in the U.S. and India, expand their impact and increase their revenues.,
Outcome:
A business case for a pediatric AT knee with measurements and material specifications, a market strategy for the US and India, and a set of metrics to measure the social impact of product in the market.
Legworks is a for-profit social impact enterprise whose mission is to bring mobility to people around the world regardless of their ability to pay. Legworks was founded in 2013 based off the research into lower limb prostheses by Jan Andrysek. The company launched with a single product, the All Terrain Knee (ATKnee), which is a mechanical poly-centric knee with an innovative swing control mechanism that allows for multiple walking speeds. To increase their impact, Legworks plans to scale down their ATKnee to meet the needs of children and/or women who tend to have even less mobility options compared to adults.
Nevertheless, Legworks was unclear about the specific segment and geographical location it wanted to target with the new product, and therefore, unsure of user’s needs. Legworks approached the Berkeley team to do market sizing, define business opportunity, develop a market strategy and get a sense of users’ needs to inform the design.
Approach:
Conduct semi-structured interviews with lower limb amputees to understand their experience with prosthetics, needs, and preferences
Conduct structured interviews with experts in prosthetics manufacturing and deployment
Develop customer profile of the child in need in the U.S. and in India
Define business opportunity and market size in both the U.S. and in India
Identify and rank potential local partners in India
Assess if any changes should be made to LegWorks existing sales approach and channels in the U.S.
Define indicators to assess the impact of the introduction of a LegWorks pediatric prosthetic knee in India
Develop a technical report: recommendation on technical features and design for pediatrics.
Produce a business report: market sizing, ROI assessment, go-to-market strategy to reach pediatrics market in the U.S. and India
Complete an impact report: quantifying the impact of LegWorks pediatric knee joint on the lives of Indian children in need
“I value the function and the durability- it removes the limitations that having to wear a prosthesis can have in my life”
Findings:
Investment in children has greater impact as each year of education represents 10% higher income.
Market selection can be based on population, share in urban areas and incidence of road accidents.
Customer profile in India would be an upper-middle class that can afford private clinics but can’t afford getting medical services abroad.
The cultural perception of propylene and the use of prosthetic knees is key in achieving adoption in India.
Adoption of prosthetic devices in the US is closely tied to health insurance and family income.
Prosthetic fitting is a priority for users and the bottleneck of mass distribution; the ability to fit patients is key when finding local partners.
Fulfilling the needs of prostheticists is key to the business; the knee must be easily adjustable.
Impact should be measured in additional years of education and quality adjusted life years QALY.
“There is an incentive to put patients into the most expensive devices, whether or not those devices best serve the patients.”
My Role:
Interviewed several lower limb amputees and synthesized findings on their feelings and thoughts
Interviewed several experts on need of prosthetic legs in developing countries and barriers to scale
Defined criteria, developed market sizing, chose market country and segment based on expert interviews
Developed customer profile of children users in the U.S. and in India
Contributed to Business and Impact report
