Alma · Strategy · Senior · 45 to 60 minutes

What should Alma bet on after the pandemic shock?

Alma is a membership network that helps independent mental health providers build private practices and helps people access therapy. Answer this product management case and get it graded line by line against a weighted rubric.

Strategy
Prioritization
Jobs to be Done
Crisis leadership
Metric design

The situation

Assume it is early 2020. The CEO has asked you, a senior PM, to recommend Alma's next company bet. Alma has built early traction in New York by helping independent therapists run private practices through shared practice space, peer community, a provider directory, client matching, and early billing support. Its Midtown location is full, a second space in Brooklyn is gaining traction, and Alma has recently signed its first insurance contract. Then, over one weekend, providers decide on their own to stop coming in because of the spreading pandemic, and about 70% of revenue disappears. Demand for mental health support may rise, but therapist workflows, client expectations, and payer behavior are all shifting at once. Leadership must decide whether to defend the original model, shift resources into digital infrastructure, lean harder into insurance, or choose some hybrid path. Your task is to define the real job to be done now and propose where Alma should place its limited bets for the next year.

What to produce

Write a 2 page strategy memo, about 900 to 1200 words, to the CEO and leadership team.

Your answer must

Define the top 2 or 3 provider jobs to be done after the shock, and explain how they differ from pre-pandemic needs.
Recommend a 12 month strategy with clear sequencing across immediate stabilization, near-term product bets, and longer-term positioning.
Prioritize no more than 3 bets, and for each include target user, why now, expected value, and what you would explicitly not do.
Address the role of the physical spaces, the existing digital tools, and the first insurance contract in your plan.
Specify success metrics, leading indicators, and a customer learning plan for the first 90 days.

Constraints

Work from Alma's current assets, two New York community spaces, early directory and billing tools, existing provider relationships, and one signed insurance contract.
Do not assume in-person therapy resumes quickly or that pandemic conditions are short-lived.
Keep the focus on independent therapists and therapy access, not a broader healthcare expansion.
The company has just lost most of its revenue, so your plan should concentrate resources rather than launch many parallel initiatives.

Format

Use 5 headings: problem reframing, recommendation, roadmap, metrics, and risks.

How Alma actually played it

Founder explains a pandemic pivot that reversed the initial idea and found fit for therapists with shared space and tools. Shows how to read jobs to be done after a shock.

A pivot should follow a clearer job to be done
Stay close to customers when conditions change

Built from Alma's Path to Product-Market Fit: Pivoting as a Solo Non-Technical Founder by First Round Review.