For Later.
Overview
For Later is a digital advance care planning tool that helps people document their end-of-life wishes before a crisis forces the conversation. Most people put this off, not because they don't care, but because there's no easy entry point, no clear format, and no one prompting them to start. For Later gives people a guided, low-friction way to record their medical, legal, and personal wishes, so their loved ones are never left guessing during the hardest moment of their lives.
Categories
Lean Startup | End of life
Healthcare
Client
Go to market
Duration
4 months
Problem
Roughly 80 % of people never document their end-of-life wishes. When a medical crisis hits, families and doctors are left making decisions blind, often under emotional and time pressure.
Advance care planning exists as a concept, but almost nowhere does it exist as an accessible product. It's buried in legal paperwork, hospital intake forms, or one-off conversations that never get written down.
Research & Discovery
The "Why" behind the problem
We began with a broad exploration of end-of-life planning, mapping the ecosystem of existing services, interviewing people about how they think about death and loss, and researching legal frameworks for advance directives across countries. We also spoke directly with founders working in adjacent parts of the death space to understand how they navigated the emotional and business sides of this problem.
What we found was that people actually wanted to plan ahead and spare their families the burden. They were avoiding a system that was disjointed, analogue, and offered no one to actually talk to about it. The core obstacles were unexpected financial shock, the instinct to avoid planning until forced into it, and the sheer emotional overload dropped on whoever is left behind.
Research Methods
01
Business model canvas
02
Go to market strategies
03
Ecosystem mapping
04
Qualitative interviews
Key Insights
Avoidance is the strongest predictor of non-completion, not indifference.
Only around a quarter of older adults in high-income countries complete a full advance care plan. People are not choosing to ignore the topic. They are choosing to postpone the only version of it they have seen, which is a one-time legal document with no room for change.
Format, not awareness, is the real barrier.
Even in countries with established legal recognition, adoption stays low, most people who understand advance care planning still never complete it because the process feels like paperwork for their own death, not a personal decision.
Legal rigidity treats a personal process like a static form, not a living decision.
Advance directive requirements vary significantly from country to country, and most tools hardcode a single legal template. We treated that variability as the design opportunity, building a flexible core that adapts rather than a form that locks people in.
How Might We
How might we make documenting end-of-life wishes feel as approachable and habitual as any other life admin task, rather than a one-time legal burden?
Solution
For Later combines two layers. A one-time qualified electronic signature process, using eIDAS-compliant digital signing, to make the documentation legally valid. And an NFC keychain paired with an annual review service, so the plan stays current and is physically accessible in an emergency, not buried in a drawer or a forgotten login. The product is designed around a Duolingo-style logic: short, low-pressure prompts that build a complete plan over time instead of demanding it all at once.
Key Outcomes
30/50
concierge test score, proving that for people who wanted to act, we could remove the barriers stopping them from getting it done
20+
people spoken to directly about a topic most people actively avoid
✓
Jury and an insurance industry expert responded positively to the direction
People don't prepare for death even when they're aware they should. The barrier isn't awareness, it's avoidance.
What stayed with us was pivoting is perfectly fine when it is required by the customers, it was watching someone go from silence to answering "who is your in-case-of-emergency person" over WhatsApp, seven days later, unprompted. Framing is what makes a sensitive topic approachable. We designed For Later around that and putting it out in the world solidified the problem is real and the for later works.
For Later.
Overview
For Later is a digital advance care planning tool that helps people document their end-of-life wishes before a crisis forces the conversation. Most people put this off, not because they don't care, but because there's no easy entry point, no clear format, and no one prompting them to start. For Later gives people a guided, low-friction way to record their medical, legal, and personal wishes, so their loved ones are never left guessing during the hardest moment of their lives.
Categories
Lean Startup | End of life
Healthcare
Client
Go to market
Duration
4 months
Problem
Roughly 80 % of people never document their end-of-life wishes. When a medical crisis hits, families and doctors are left making decisions blind, often under emotional and time pressure.
Advance care planning exists as a concept, but almost nowhere does it exist as an accessible product. It's buried in legal paperwork, hospital intake forms, or one-off conversations that never get written down.
Research & Discovery
The "Why" behind the problem
We began with a broad exploration of end-of-life planning, mapping the ecosystem of existing services, interviewing people about how they think about death and loss, and researching legal frameworks for advance directives across countries. We also spoke directly with founders working in adjacent parts of the death space to understand how they navigated the emotional and business sides of this problem.
What we found was that people actually wanted to plan ahead and spare their families the burden. They were avoiding a system that was disjointed, analogue, and offered no one to actually talk to about it. The core obstacles were unexpected financial shock, the instinct to avoid planning until forced into it, and the sheer emotional overload dropped on whoever is left behind.
Research Methods
01
Business model canvas
02
Go to market strategies
03
Ecosystem mapping
04
Qualitative interviews
Key Insights
Avoidance is the strongest predictor of non-completion, not indifference.
Only around a quarter of older adults in high-income countries complete a full advance care plan. People are not choosing to ignore the topic. They are choosing to postpone the only version of it they have seen, which is a one-time legal document with no room for change.
Format, not awareness, is the real barrier.
Even in countries with established legal recognition, adoption stays low, most people who understand advance care planning still never complete it because the process feels like paperwork for their own death, not a personal decision.
Legal rigidity treats a personal process like a static form, not a living decision.
Advance directive requirements vary significantly from country to country, and most tools hardcode a single legal template. We treated that variability as the design opportunity, building a flexible core that adapts rather than a form that locks people in.
How Might We
How might we make documenting end-of-life wishes feel as approachable and habitual as any other life admin task, rather than a one-time legal burden?
Solution
For Later combines two layers. A one-time qualified electronic signature process, using eIDAS-compliant digital signing, to make the documentation legally valid. And an NFC keychain paired with an annual review service, so the plan stays current and is physically accessible in an emergency, not buried in a drawer or a forgotten login. The product is designed around a Duolingo-style logic: short, low-pressure prompts that build a complete plan over time instead of demanding it all at once.
Key Outcomes
30/50
concierge test score, proving that for people who wanted to act, we could remove the barriers stopping them from getting it done
20+
people spoken to directly about a topic most people actively avoid
✓
Jury and an insurance industry expert responded positively to the direction
People don't prepare for death even when they're aware they should. The barrier isn't awareness, it's avoidance.
What stayed with us was pivoting is perfectly fine when it is required by the customers, it was watching someone go from silence to answering "who is your in-case-of-emergency person" over WhatsApp, seven days later, unprompted. Framing is what makes a sensitive topic approachable. We designed For Later around that and putting it out in the world solidified the problem is real and the for later works.
For Later.
Overview
For Later is a digital advance care planning tool that helps people document their end-of-life wishes before a crisis forces the conversation. Most people put this off, not because they don't care, but because there's no easy entry point, no clear format, and no one prompting them to start. For Later gives people a guided, low-friction way to record their medical, legal, and personal wishes, so their loved ones are never left guessing during the hardest moment of their lives.
Categories
Lean Startup | End of life
Healthcare
Client
Go to market
Duration
4 months
Problem
Roughly 80 % of people never document their end-of-life wishes. When a medical crisis hits, families and doctors are left making decisions blind, often under emotional and time pressure.
Advance care planning exists as a concept, but almost nowhere does it exist as an accessible product. It's buried in legal paperwork, hospital intake forms, or one-off conversations that never get written down.
Research & Discovery
The "Why" behind the problem
We began with a broad exploration of end-of-life planning, mapping the ecosystem of existing services, interviewing people about how they think about death and loss, and researching legal frameworks for advance directives across countries. We also spoke directly with founders working in adjacent parts of the death space to understand how they navigated the emotional and business sides of this problem.
What we found was that people actually wanted to plan ahead and spare their families the burden. They were avoiding a system that was disjointed, analogue, and offered no one to actually talk to about it. The core obstacles were unexpected financial shock, the instinct to avoid planning until forced into it, and the sheer emotional overload dropped on whoever is left behind.
Research Methods
01
Business model canvas
02
Go to market strategies
03
Ecosystem mapping
04
Qualitative interviews
Key Insights
Avoidance is the strongest predictor of non-completion, not indifference.
Only around a quarter of older adults in high-income countries complete a full advance care plan. People are not choosing to ignore the topic. They are choosing to postpone the only version of it they have seen, which is a one-time legal document with no room for change.
Format, not awareness, is the real barrier.
Even in countries with established legal recognition, adoption stays low, most people who understand advance care planning still never complete it because the process feels like paperwork for their own death, not a personal decision.
Legal rigidity treats a personal process like a static form, not a living decision.
Advance directive requirements vary significantly from country to country, and most tools hardcode a single legal template. We treated that variability as the design opportunity, building a flexible core that adapts rather than a form that locks people in.
How Might We
How might we make documenting end-of-life wishes feel as approachable and habitual as any other life admin task, rather than a one-time legal burden?
Solution
For Later combines two layers. A one-time qualified electronic signature process, using eIDAS-compliant digital signing, to make the documentation legally valid. And an NFC keychain paired with an annual review service, so the plan stays current and is physically accessible in an emergency, not buried in a drawer or a forgotten login. The product is designed around a Duolingo-style logic: short, low-pressure prompts that build a complete plan over time instead of demanding it all at once.
Key Outcomes
30/50
concierge test score, proving that for people who wanted to act, we could remove the barriers stopping them from getting it done
20+
people spoken to directly about a topic most people actively avoid
✓
Jury and an insurance industry expert responded positively to the direction
People don't prepare for death even when they're aware they should. The barrier isn't awareness, it's avoidance.
What stayed with us was pivoting is perfectly fine when it is required by the customers, it was watching someone go from silence to answering "who is your in-case-of-emergency person" over WhatsApp, seven days later, unprompted. Framing is what makes a sensitive topic approachable. We designed For Later around that and putting it out in the world solidified the problem is real and the for later works.
Project
©Vishvak Rajendran 2026. All rights reserved.
Created by Vishvak Rajendran
Project
©Vishvak Rajendran 2026. All rights reserved.
Created by Vishvak Rajendran
Project
©Vishvak Rajendran 2026. All rights reserved.
Created by Vishvak Rajendran