Sound Sustainability

Context

Sound Sustainability was a Seattle Founder Institute portfolio company developing an affordable, customizable over-the-counter hearing aid — for adults with mild-to-moderate hearing loss — that users could buy online. Its mission was to improve hearing health and increase access. I worked with the company as part of an independent study during my MS in Human Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington.

My role

I joined the product team focused on conducting user and market research in the hard-of-hearing community, to understand their experiences and inform product development.

Process

I worked with the team to scope who we wanted to talk to and what we hoped to learn, then we created an initial survey. It helped us understand the diverse audience, the different levels of hearing loss, and people's backgrounds purchasing and wearing hearing aids. We selected a range of ages and hearing-loss levels for 30-minute interviews — I interviewed 6 of 25 participants — exploring goals, needs, pain points, and history to map the full arc of their experience: taking a hearing test, deciding to address hearing loss, purchasing hearing aids (or choosing not to), and using the aid.

We learned a lot about the anxieties and stigmas attached to hearing loss, how it affects personal and professional relationships, and where the market fails to help.

Outcome

The research gave the team new insight into how to design and market the hearing aid, and surfaced a bigger opportunity: it takes years for people to address hearing loss — partly stigma, partly infrequent exams or ignoring the problem until it becomes severe. The team used these insights to address hearing health through education and online tools, like an online hearing test on their website. Sound Sustainability went on to win the WRF Capital Grand Prize at the 2021 Hollomon Health Innovation Challenge for its approach to improving access for people with hearing loss.