Visualizing (and building) Complex Healthcare Technology Systems
As visual creatures, we are innately drawn to images that encapsulate layered meanings, making abstract concepts more accessible and memorable. One compelling example is the evocative frontispiece of Hobbes’ Leviathan. This artwork visually expresses the intricate relationship between authority and the collective will of the people. The sword and crosier, representing civil and religious power, communicate the union of spiritual and temporal control more effectively than words alone can. Through this visual metaphor, Hobbes’ theory of the social contract becomes not only intellectually graspable but also emotionally impactful, demonstrating how powerful imagery can bridge the gap between complex theory and human understanding.
Over the years, I have adopted the Lego blocks metaphor as an effective tool to visually represent product roadmaps for complex systems that empower healthcare organizations by helping make abstract concepts and multifaceted interdependencies more concrete. A Lego block diagram is a high-level visual representation of a system, breaking down complex workflows and dependencies into modular, distinct, understandable units.
Consider the simple illustrative example below (to keep me out of trouble!) for data and analytics pipelines for a value-based care organization managing multiple contracts across Commercial and Medicare Advantage populations. This is neither a formal system diagram nor a formal process diagram but rather an intuitive depiction that captures the bigger picture and makes it accessible to a diverse audience. Even though each contract may look different, they will all require the identification of the eligible population and its segmentation for enrollment and activation. Besides the overlapping components, we can also see the pieces that are unique to the Medicare populations. Your overall reaction may be, “This is simple!” Well, that is great! Writing down and defining the pieces is the hard part. Communicating what they are should be easy and intuitive. That is the goal.
Why Legos?
My choice of the Lego block metaphor ties back to the initial design goals of Lego’s creators:
Compatibility: Blocks were designed to have a universal connection mechanism, ensuring that any Lego piece could interlock securely with others.
Versatility and modularity: The bricks were designed to allow for maximum flexibility and versatility in building. They can be combined in countless ways, enabling children (and adults) to create anything from simple structures to highly complex models.
Simplicity: The original design philosophy emphasized simplicity. Lego bricks are basic geometric shapes, making them intuitive for children to handle and build with. The clean, minimalistic design also supports endless creativity, as builders are not constrained by complex or overly specific parts.
Stimulating imagination, learning, and problem solving: The primary objective of Lego was to stimulate creativity and learning through play. The blocks were intended to encourage problem-solving, fine motor skills, and spatial awareness.
These are the goals I wanted to achieve in design and planning conversations while building systems and technology behind health tech companies.
What makes health tech organizations unique?
Unlike many other industries, where a Minimum Viable Product (or Minimum Desirable Product) can often be created with limited core functionality, healthcare systems demand comprehensive solutions that address multiple layers of compliance, safety, and end-to-end workflow requirements. Often, this can lead to an overwhelming feeling of not knowing where to start. The Lego blocks diagrams can help you identify where to start laying your bricks. (🥁) Moreover, as the complexity continues to grow, the Lego blocks approach provides a visual vocabulary that you can reference as you operate and maintain your systems.
The Lego block metaphor initially served as a personal tool for me to understand the complex systems being built by the teams I was leading. Over time, it evolved into a powerful means to facilitate a deeper understanding and alignment across the broader organization. Especially for tech enabled healthcare service organizations, the core leadership team may include folks who have never worked within a technology organization and did not have to make longer term tech investment decisions. Hence, visual representations of your systems and roadmap help engage them as customers of the products and systems you will be building as well as key stakeholders who hold the money purse to get the budget for the investments you may want to make.
Why use Lego blocks over more traditional tools?
Deliberate and Explicit Decision-Making on Resource Allocation and Investments
The Lego blocks approach begins by defining each piece of the system, thereby enforcing a deeper understanding and establishing a common language among cross-functional teams. Yes, this can be achieved in spreadsheets, but I strongly believe that the visual representation provides a significantly more tangible view and better understanding of interdependencies and nuanced layers.
Moreover, Lego blocks also clearly and explicitly indicate what blocks have active versus deferred investments. Spreadsheets and product management tools often focus on what is “in scope” but do a poor job of showing what has been deliberately and intentionally deferred. Keeping all blocks on the page helps avoid the classic "Have we considered XYZ?" confusion while allowing us to re-visit and reconsider prioritizations. Your team maintains its overall blueprint to ensure continuity in thinking and decision-making.
Zoom In and Out: A Macro-Micro Lens for Complex Systems
In the process of building complex systems, it’s easy to lose sight of the broader landscape. The Lego blocks approach allows the team to zoom in and out seamlessly. Traditional roadmap planning approaches often do not allow for top-down or bottom-up traversing of your roadmap and systems in an intuitive way.
Each block can be broken down into smaller units that fit together to form a larger structure. This flexibility enables stakeholders to gain a detailed understanding of specific components while preserving the context of the broader system. Let’s assume your Chief Medical Officer wants to examine the Utilization box from above. You can illustrate the building blocks of this particular box with finer granularity and allow an executive domain expert to traverse the Lego blocks top-down (macro to micro).
The Lego block diagram can be used to establish ownership and accountability areas for individual pods within your tech team. Each pod can be mandated to draw the zoomed-in breakdown for its ownership block to manage resourcing and prioritization discussions. This will foster autonomy, and each team can then traverse the Lego blocks bottom-up (micro to macro) to maintain alignment across the broader tech organization and a cohesive system architecture.
There is an added benefit specific to data teams. As data analysis begets more questions and further analysis, it’s common for teams to lose track of the lineage of data questions and their connection to business goals. The Lego block diagram provides a mechanism for re-orientation, allowing you to start by answering foundational questions and identifying gaps in your knowledge graph.
Modularity and Abstraction: Building for Long-Term Scalability
Components of your systems will need to be changed, upgraded, or replaced as competitors emerge, regulations change, and new technologies are introduced. Having a visual representation of your system as individual building blocks encourages modular design to achieve adaptability and long-term scalability. Note that we have already mentioned the clear ownership and autonomy in the previous section, which ties modular design to the scalability of your organizational design as well.
Postlude
The Lego blocks approach has been a valuable tool for me to build my mental models and help communicate them to my teams and stakeholders. Hopefully, it will help you construct your mental models and think about the foundational pieces. Ultimately, I hope it will help build better products and more robust systems to bring innovation to the healthcare tech space.
