Connected Scales for Data-Driven Weight Loss
At a glance
CLIENT
A digital health platform provider expanding into connected devices
SERVICE
- Physical product engineering, custom healthcare software development services, iot software development services, cloud devops, data analytics consulting services
INDUSTRY
- Digital Health / Wellness
A European digital health platform ran subscription-based weight management programs for 120,000+ members. Users manually logged their weight in the app, often skipping entries and dropping out of programs after 8–10 weeks. Clinicians and coaches had incomplete data, making it hard to intervene early or prove outcomes to insurers and employers.
LeanCoded was engaged to design and industrialize a connected smart scale — from load-cell selection and enclosure design to firmware, connectivity, and cloud integration. In under 10 months, the joint team delivered a cellular- and Bluetooth-enabled scale, deeply integrated with the existing platform through custom software development services and secure APIs, enabling automated daily weigh-ins and real-time monitoring at scale.
Making Weight Logging Effortless, Not Aspirational
Before the project, only 27% of active users logged their weight at least once per week, and fewer than 9% maintained consistent logs over three months. Engagement workshops and push notifications had already been tried with limited impact. The client realized they needed a hardware extension of their service: a smart scale that users simply step on, while data flows automatically into the program. LeanCoded combined device engineering with healthcare software development to define requirements around accuracy, stability, connectivity options, and total device cost that would still fit into the economics of reimbursed digital programs.
At the same time, the platform team wanted to introduce outcome-based pricing models for insurers and employers. That required reliable longitudinal data and audit-ready reporting. LeanCoded designed a data pipeline and event model that aligned the scale with the client’s existing enterprise software solution, so that each measurement could be tied to cohorts, care plans, and contracts. This architecture, built using digital transformation services and custom software development solutions, enabled transparent dashboards for medical directors and payers without duplicating data silos.
From Industrial Design to Secure Connectivity
LeanCoded started with a focused discovery phase: user research, clinician interviews, and cost modeling. Three design directions were explored — ultra-slim bathroom scale, medical-looking clinic device, and a “furniture-like” scale intended to stay visible in the home. Through rapid prototyping and testing with 30 patients, the team validated that a low-profile, glass-top scale with a 180 kg capacity and ±0.1 kg accuracy balanced usability and perceived quality. Mechanical engineers optimized the chassis and load-cell mounting to reach target accuracy without resorting to overly expensive components.
On the electronics and software side, LeanCoded engineered a mixed connectivity stack: Bluetooth Low Energy for pairing with the existing mobile app, and an optional LTE-M module for patients without smartphones. Firmware was built as modular C code on top of a lightweight RTOS, with secure boot and encrypted storage. The team used devops services and cloud devops practices to integrate device provisioning, certificate management, and telemetry into the existing backend, while cloud security assessment and threat modeling ensured compliance with the client’s privacy and security policies.
Business objectives and KPIs
Device engineering and calibration
Platform and app integration
Data, analytics, and alerts
Testing, compliance, and manufacturing
How LeanCoded De-Risked Connected Scale Launch
Instead of treating the smart scale as a side gadget, LeanCoded treated it as a core extension of the client’s service model. The project combined device engineering, outsourcing software development, and platform modernization so that hardware, firmware, app, and analytics evolved as one product, not four separate initiatives.
One team for hardware and software
Cross-functional squads blended mechanical, embedded, and backend engineers with clinicians and product owners, following agile software development services and clinical governance in parallel.
Built for regulated environments
Architectural decisions assumed future clinical validation. Encryption, audit logs, and regional data residency controls were designed up front, enabling faster progression into clinical pilots and insurer contracts.
Scalable by design
From the start, the device identity model, provisioning flows, and telemetry pipelines were sized for hundreds of thousands of devices, reusing components from prior custom software development services and IoT programs.
Clear path to new devices
The same blueprint can now support future connected devices — blood pressure cuffs, glucometers, or wearables — with an estimated 60–70% reuse of existing custom software development services and infrastructure.
What Changed in the First Year
Within 12 months of the smart scale launch, adherence to weekly weigh-ins in the connected cohort reached 64%, more than doubling the baseline. Program completion rates increased by 19 percentage points, and average weight loss at 6 months improved by 1.8 kg compared to app-only participants. For clinicians, the number of manual outreach calls triggered purely by missing data dropped by 35%, as alerts increasingly relied on real trends rather than guesswork.
On the business side, the connected offering enabled new value-based contracts with two major insurers. The client could now document outcome improvements using reliable longitudinal data processed through the new analytics pipeline. Annual revenue from enterprise customers grew by 22%, while device costs stayed within the planned payback window thanks to careful BOM optimization and collaboration with manufacturers. Because the device stack was tightly integrated yet modular, the client can now roll out a second-generation scale and additional devices with minimal changes to their custom software development services foundation.