Translate research into the strategy of an artificial intelligence product

Mila – Product development and artificial intelligence model

ÉRISA (UQAM) – Research team for social inclusion in autism; specialized research on autism

Fédération Autisme Québec – Provincial network of organizations supporting the autism community

Finautonome – Financial support organization for people with disabilities

Office des personnes handicapées du Québec (OPHQ) – Public agency providing financial assistance and support services

Videns – Data valorization, engineering, and development

après-demain studio – Product strategy and user experience (UX) design

Context

Mila and its partners identified the opportunity to develop a conversational agent (chatbot) to make it easier for autistic individuals and their families to access information and complete the forms required to obtain financial resources.

This challenge can be summarized as follows:

• Families lack clear information and struggle to navigate existing resources.

• Useful data is scattered across multiple websites and organizations.

• Rules and financial aids vary depending on region, organization, and diagnosis, making the process complex.

• The language used in forms is often too technical, and the information too buried to be truly accessible.

A significant amount of qualitative research had already been carried out by UQAM’s ÉRISA research team: numerous interviews documented the realities and needs of various stakeholders (parents, autistic adults, social workers, organizations, healthcare professionals, etc.).

The challenge entrusted to après-demain studio was to transform this rich but complex data into clear, actionable user journeys, personas, and product requirements—to serve as a foundation for the design and development teams.

Challenges

The importance of this mandate lay in the need to move from academic research to a pragmatic product vision, without losing the depth or sensitivity of the context.

From this research, the following steps were required:

• Identify user and applicant needs and expectations.

• Define the features and data sources for the AI agent.

• Prioritize these elements to establish the product scope in the short, medium, and long term.

• Define a high-level product vision, articulated through early concepts and initial design explorations.

Our approach

UX Strategy

• Preliminary analysis and participation in interviews conducted by UQAM to identify the motivations, pain points, and goals of the various stakeholders (applicants, parents, organization representatives, social workers).

• Workshop to define and validate personas (parents, applicants, organizations, social workers) and user journeys (parents and applicants) with UQAM’s research team.

• Transformation of identified needs and challenges into user scenarios.

• Collaborative workshop (Mila, UQAM, après-demain studio) to prioritize user scenarios into concrete product features.

• Documentation of the product development scope and creation of the product vision.

Results

We delivered:

• Creation of personas and user journeys to bring research findings to life and highlight key moments in the experience.

• Mapping of user scenarios and development of initial workflows describing essential tasks and product features.

• Definition of short-, medium-, and long-term scopes, organized by functionality and user profile.

• High-level visual concepts and accessibility requirements to prepare for advanced UX and UI development.

These deliverables enabled the team to move forward in developing both the business strategy and the product.

This mandate perfectly illustrates the role of après-demain studio: bridging the gap between research and product. The value lies not only in understanding user needs but in translating them into clear, actionable design decisions, while taking into account accessibility standards and social impact.