In April 2022, Bodii was nothing more than a concept, a vision that rose from a personal experience. Check out my blog on that here. The initial concept was far from a sophisticated platform. I dreamt of a solution that would replicate the experience of having a personal physiotherapist at home, just like a Premier League footballer might have. It was an ambitious goal, and perhaps a touch idealistic, but it was a starting point. So here’s a story on our different stages, because, why not!?

To build something great, we had to turn a vague idea into a tangible, value-driven product.

Customer Discovery Interviews

We really started the journey following about 100+ interviews with potential users that included patients and physios. This deep dive laid the foundation to where we wanted to go. In fact, we had to scrap our initial prototype (pictured above) because we invalidated our solution approach! Our initial prototype was a device that used heat and pulse therapy to deliver pain relief outside of a clinic.

Merit? Yes. Value driven? Perhaps not as much.

The main learning was that low patient adherence and poor experience was not because someone wanted manual therapy (our initial assumption), but because they had no visibility or feedback on progress. In simple terms, they couldn’t answer the core question:

“Am I getting better because of this?”

We quickly identified key progress indicators (Range of Movement) that are meaningful to physio patients and most importantly, completely niched out which type of patient we want to solve this problem for first. Of course, it was patients recovering from acute knee injuries (typically with limited movement)

Technical Feasibility

The challenge initially was to ensure there was technical feasibility using sensors to achieve the desired results accurately. So we tried a few different sensors and mapping various results. Yep, there were wires at first! There were a number of unknowns that needed to be worked through, such as, can we achieve X result with just 1 sensor!! Inevitably, we managed and delivered our first reading in raw figures!

Rapid Prototyping

At this stage, company focus fell into two parts, validating the validity of said solution and building a product development roadmap. Focusing on the latter, our next step was to identify various methods of hardware delivery. That is, what straps, framing, designs, colours, etc. to use to house the above sensor. The above image shows our initial stab at getting something done using 3D printing! From then on, the team had to ensure that the sensor and subsequent electric board all fit comfortably inside; alas the user prototype – yes, I walked around pitching with this for a while!

Fast forward – commercial ready device 

Working with suppliers was a whole new adventure for us. With a bit of guidance from our friends in the industry, we worked with a highly efficient supplier to design and get physical products onshore, What you see above is our current wearable and strap that a customer will be able to use today!

Throughout the development cycle, the Bodii team engaged with physios and various individuals within the ecosystem to collect feedback and inform features that ultimately result in the Bodii Flex.

Today, we are confident that the Bodii Flex, as an output of various lean development is in fact, a Value-Driven product.

Stay tuned for more updates (particularly on our Bodii Mobile Application) as we work tirelessly to bring Bodii to those who need it and provide a helping hand on their path to MSK recovery

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