Should I Build It Should I Build It
22 Jul 2025
Calendar

Appointment booking system between doctor, patient and Mr which lead ...

...to time saver for everyone

Confidence
Engagement
Net use signal
Net buy signal

Idea type: Swamp

The market has seen several mediocre solutions that nobody loves. Unless you can offer something fundamentally different, you’ll likely struggle to stand out or make money.

Should You Build It?

Don't build it.

Your are here

Appointment booking systems have been tried many times before, as evidenced by the 17 similar products we found. This puts your idea firmly in the "Swamp" category, meaning the market is full of mediocre solutions that haven't captured users' hearts. The engagement with these existing solutions is quite low, averaging only 3 comments per product launch, suggesting a lack of enthusiasm. While the absence of use and buy signals could be interpreted as neutral, the presence of so many competitors indicates it will be tough to stand out and acquire customers. Given this landscape, success hinges on identifying a unique angle or serving an underserved niche within the healthcare or scheduling space.

Recommendations

  1. Given the crowded market, your first step should be to deeply research why existing appointment booking systems haven't achieved widespread adoption. Analyze their shortcomings in terms of user experience, features, and target audience. Focus on identifying unmet needs and pain points that your system can uniquely address.
  2. If you're set on proceeding, resist the urge to build a general-purpose solution. Instead, identify a very specific group of doctors, patients, or even a specific medical field that is poorly served by current systems. Tailor your system to their unique needs and workflows. For example, you could focus on specialized medical practices that have very particular scheduling needs.
  3. Consider focusing on tools for existing providers rather than trying to build your own full system. Perhaps you could make a plug-in for existing EMR (Electronic Medical Record) systems that makes appointment booking better through patient communication. This will be much easier than trying to displace existing solutions.
  4. Explore adjacent problems that might be more promising. Could you build a tool that automates insurance pre-authorization? Or a system for managing patient referrals? These areas might have less competition and more potential for impact.
  5. Based on the success of CatchApp, focus on simplicity, speed, and ease of use in your product. Users praised these aspects, highlighting the importance of an intuitive design and time-saving capabilities. Consider integrations with popular calendar and communication tools to further enhance user experience and productivity.
  6. Given the comments and criticism, try to focus on confirming bookings and sending reminders for your specific platform. If users specifically ask for these features, it's a clear sign that these features matter a lot.

Questions

  1. What are the most common complaints doctors and patients have about existing appointment booking systems in your target niche, and how does your solution directly address these?
  2. How will you differentiate your system from the many existing solutions in terms of user experience, features, and pricing, and how will you effectively communicate this differentiation to potential users?
  3. Considering the low engagement with existing appointment booking systems, what innovative marketing and user acquisition strategies will you employ to generate initial traction and build a loyal user base?

Your are here

Appointment booking systems have been tried many times before, as evidenced by the 17 similar products we found. This puts your idea firmly in the "Swamp" category, meaning the market is full of mediocre solutions that haven't captured users' hearts. The engagement with these existing solutions is quite low, averaging only 3 comments per product launch, suggesting a lack of enthusiasm. While the absence of use and buy signals could be interpreted as neutral, the presence of so many competitors indicates it will be tough to stand out and acquire customers. Given this landscape, success hinges on identifying a unique angle or serving an underserved niche within the healthcare or scheduling space.

Recommendations

  1. Given the crowded market, your first step should be to deeply research why existing appointment booking systems haven't achieved widespread adoption. Analyze their shortcomings in terms of user experience, features, and target audience. Focus on identifying unmet needs and pain points that your system can uniquely address.
  2. If you're set on proceeding, resist the urge to build a general-purpose solution. Instead, identify a very specific group of doctors, patients, or even a specific medical field that is poorly served by current systems. Tailor your system to their unique needs and workflows. For example, you could focus on specialized medical practices that have very particular scheduling needs.
  3. Consider focusing on tools for existing providers rather than trying to build your own full system. Perhaps you could make a plug-in for existing EMR (Electronic Medical Record) systems that makes appointment booking better through patient communication. This will be much easier than trying to displace existing solutions.
  4. Explore adjacent problems that might be more promising. Could you build a tool that automates insurance pre-authorization? Or a system for managing patient referrals? These areas might have less competition and more potential for impact.
  5. Based on the success of CatchApp, focus on simplicity, speed, and ease of use in your product. Users praised these aspects, highlighting the importance of an intuitive design and time-saving capabilities. Consider integrations with popular calendar and communication tools to further enhance user experience and productivity.
  6. Given the comments and criticism, try to focus on confirming bookings and sending reminders for your specific platform. If users specifically ask for these features, it's a clear sign that these features matter a lot.

Questions

  1. What are the most common complaints doctors and patients have about existing appointment booking systems in your target niche, and how does your solution directly address these?
  2. How will you differentiate your system from the many existing solutions in terms of user experience, features, and pricing, and how will you effectively communicate this differentiation to potential users?
  3. Considering the low engagement with existing appointment booking systems, what innovative marketing and user acquisition strategies will you employ to generate initial traction and build a loyal user base?

  • Confidence: High
    • Number of similar products: 17
  • Engagement: Low
    • Average number of comments: 3
  • Net use signal: 15.5%
    • Positive use signal: 15.5%
    • Negative use signal: 0.0%
  • Net buy signal: 3.4%
    • Positive buy signal: 3.4%
    • Negative buy signal: 0.0%

This chart summarizes all the similar products we found for your idea in a single plot.

The x-axis represents the overall feedback each product received. This is calculated from the net use and buy signals that were expressed in the comments. The maximum is +1, which means all comments (across all similar products) were positive, expressed a willingness to use & buy said product. The minimum is -1 and it means the exact opposite.

The y-axis captures the strength of the signal, i.e. how many people commented and how does this rank against other products in this category. The maximum is +1, which means these products were the most liked, upvoted and talked about launches recently. The minimum is 0, meaning zero engagement or feedback was received.

The sizes of the product dots are determined by the relevance to your idea, where 10 is the maximum.

Your idea is the big blueish dot, which should lie somewhere in the polygon defined by these products. It can be off-center because we use custom weighting to summarize these metrics.

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