Case Study
Healthcare Planning Platform
From off track to re-funded
Turning around a regional healthcare demand-modelling platform by going back to first principles
Overview
The Healthcare Planning Platform models the healthcare demand of a region across each stage of the care pathway, so planners can see where capacity will be needed. I joined in August 2026, after several previous product managers, to get it back on track.
Role
Product Manager
Sector
Healthcare planning
Status
In delivery
The Problem
Timelines kept sliding, and reworking progress was putting strain on the team. The product wasn't delivering the scope it set out to. Over time it had drifted from its purpose. Previous direction had come from deep in the technical detail: one approach to one modelling problem had shaped the whole product, so it worked for a narrow case and not for the users it was meant to serve. Requirements kept changing, and morale was low.
My Role
Ownership & Scope
Product Manager. Responsible for resetting scope and vision, re-aligning the engineering team and funders, the roadmap and requirements, and how the team works day to day.
The Approach
I started by listening to the team, who had been living with the problems. Then I stepped back from the build and asked the first-principles questions: what context are we working in, who is this for, what value should it create, and what do users and clients expect? We paused the work in flight, set out what we knew for certain, and worked forward from there into the open questions. We then compared the new direction against what had already been built, so we kept what worked and parked what didn't.
The Solution
A clear product vision and scope that the team and funders agreed to, and a new way of working. I record walkthroughs of prototypes with developers, then use AI with the recording, prototype, business case and vision to draft user stories, and have it question me for missing edge cases before anything reaches the team. New features are prototyped with AI inside our own codebase, so developers start with front-end components they can reuse.
Results
The Outcome
Re-funded
Additional funding secured to complete delivery
One plan
Team and funders aligned behind a single product vision
Hours → ~20 min
Time to write a set of user stories, with edge cases caught earlier
Faster builds
Developers start from reusable, prototyped components
Reflection
“The hardest part wasn't technical. It was asking a team that had already been through a lot of rework to stop again. What made it work was being honest about why, listening first, and giving everyone a plan they could believe in. We're still building, and I'll add results here as they come in.”
Roly Hancock © 2026