The Process
Designed and sold in the region’s first deal-flow style innovation hack.
To get to market faster and de-risk the build, we chose to source from the world’s best start-ups rather than build in-house, and designed an incubation model to pilot new technology.
We screened 20+ start-ups through one-to-one calls, assessing their technology and fit against the three phases of Cigna’s Stress Care Management platform.
Six were shortlisted, spanning digital health engagement, AI-enabled self-help and therapy, AR/VR and wellness monitoring.
They pitched tailored proofs of concept in a “Shark Tank”-style virtual Hack Day over three days, with Cigna’s key stakeholders as the jury, judging on both marketing and business metrics.
The top three then joined us for a 100-minute design sprint to sharpen their value proposition for Cigna, and re-pitched to the jurors.
The Challenge
84% of people around the world are feeling stressed but only 24% talk about it with their doctor. Prolonged stress manifests into chronic illnesses that can be life-threatening.
How can we help people be more aware of their stress levels, and take control of it in the palm of their hands?
The Solution
The Cigna StressWaves Test
As leaders in health innovation, Cigna set out to democratize stress detection. Through an accelerator program, we scoured the best start-ups in the health-tech space to arrive at a solution with US-based start-up Ellipsis Health.
The Cigna StresWaves Test is the world’s first voice-activated stress tool that analyses your current level of stress by simply talking into your phone.
This revolutionary new voice detection technology works on all laptops and mobile devices and serves as that vital first point of contact to detect the real severity of stress. All it takes it 90 seconds and a quiet place to talk.
The Impact
Launched in 2021 as StressWaves, billed as the world’s first voice-driven stress test.
26,000+ users took the test
338,000+ used the tool
Earned Media: Covered by Yahoo, Nasdaq, MobiHealthNews, CX Today, etc.
Bonus: Cigna was Ellipsis Health’s flagship enterprise partnership. When the company closed its $26M Series A a month later, it named Cigna as a key partner.
CASE STUDY
DESIGN SPRINT
StressWaves takes just 60 seconds to study a user’s voice against millions of pre-fed conversations – instantly mining for pitch, cadence, enunciation, acoustics and pattern.
USER JOURNEY
The A.I. then uses a combination of deep machine learning and cutting-edge transfer techniques to diagnose the user’s real-time stress data to clinical levels.
StressWaves then produces a striking and easy-to-understand visualization of current stress levels before tailoring a unique action plan to start the user on their stress care journey.