Zocdoc pilots online appointment booking MVP

Before Zocdoc, patients often endured lengthy phone hold times and unclear appointment availability. CEO Oliver Kharraz saw an opportunity to digitize the scheduling process by aggregating provider calendars into a searchable platform.

The team partnered with five NYC clinics for the MVP, gaining access to live availability data via CSV exports. This manual feed allowed rapid testing without building full EHR integrations.

Sprout encourages MVP clients to use manual data feeds or simple imports when immediate integrations are cost-prohibitive, ensuring user flows remain realistic.

Zocdoc’s MVP was a website with a search bar, a calendar widget, and a “book now” button. Provider details—name, specialty, insurance accepted—were displayed, and patients could confirm slots with a quick form.

Initial appointments were confirmed via email and phone calls from Zocdoc staff, preserving a human-in-the-loop to verify no-shows and manage reschedules.

They A/B tested calendar layouts, confirmation copy, and email subject lines, iterating until booking conversion rates exceeded 40%.

Sprout integrates human workflows into MVPs—frontline support, email confirmations, dashboard reports—before automating them in subsequent releases.

Once booking rates stabilized, Zocdoc built direct API connections with clinic practice management systems. They developed standardized adapters for all major EHR vendors, reducing update cycles from weeks to hours.

A secure authentication layer—using OAuth and HIPAA-compliant hosting—ensured patient data privacy. Real-time slot availability leveraged websocket connections, cutting double-booking errors by 80%.

Support chatbots were introduced to handle common patient questions, freeing staff to focus on complex scheduling issues.

Sprout adopts a layered approach: validate core use cases manually, then build integration adapters and compliance controls as usage scales.

Within two years, Zocdoc expanded to 2 000 cities and processed 6 M monthly bookings. Patients reported 50% shorter wait times, and providers saw a 20% reduction in no-shows.

The platform raised $225 M in funding, reaching a $1.8 B valuation. It also launched telehealth scheduling in 2015, leveraging the same booking MVP for virtual visits.

For Sprout’s healthcare clients, Zocdoc’s journey illustrates the value of phased integration, compliance-first design, and data-driven UX iteration.