Designing the next-gen Medicare experience for the largest US health insurer
DESIGNING THE FUTURE PRODUCT, EMPLOYEE, AND SERVICE EXPERIENCE FOR A LEGACY BRAND
Re-thinking and challenging business-as-usual is central to this project. The core question is: “how might we meet the needs of UHC’s next-generation consumers in a way that engages, extends, and excites?” I was engaged to develop a holistic employee, service, and product experience across a complex and omnichannel journey. The needs of the next-gen consumer base were uncovered and an innovative service and employee experience was conceptualized and specified.
INTENSELY CROSS-COLLABORATIVE
These initiatives are highly collaborative and cross-functional and include: service design, UX design, research, analytics, engineering, strategic insights, business leaders, and product and program managers.
PHYSICAL <> DIGITAL <> EMPLOYEE TOUCHPOINT DESIGN
The customer and employee journeys in this project frequently move between physical and digital touchpoints, in addition to a wide variety of channels. Designing across multiple categories of touchpoints required the use of a broad toolset and the ability to move quickly between high level thinking and granular execution.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
The project seeks to exponentially improve consumers’ understanding of their insurance plan and re-imagine why - and how - UHC delivers a next-gen plan education experience. In addition, the project encompassed the design of key elements of the employee experience that supported the broader service experience. A key outcome includes the development of a human-centered story that is compelling, elicits emotion, and drives engagement from the ecosystem of project stakeholders.
TOOLS & METHODS
Service design
Design workshops
Employee experience design
Collaborative design workshops
Customer archetypes
Employee archetypes
Storytelling / Storyboards
Prioritization
Key scenarios
Product strategy
Mockups / wireframes
Concept testing
Journey maps
Service blueprints
Ecosystem maps
User research
Business requirements
Empathy maps
Experience maps (current, future)
Stakeholder maps
Organizational change
Process design
DESIGNING FOR OMNICHANNEL
DIGITAL EXPERIENCE <-> EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE <-> PHYSICAL EXPERIENCE
A key consideration in this project was to help stakeholders shift their mindset from a unidimensional focus on service design or product design or even employee experience design to a holistic systems-based perspective of the total experience. Below is a framework and document used to help train and align functions and roles to a connected view of an experience that encompasses multiple experience dimensions simultaneously.
This is a human-centered design point-of-view piece I created as an primer for cross-disciplinary teams designing omnichannel experiences.
THE PROJECT
FIRST STAGE
Challenge: What are the fundamental factors driving the expectations of the new consumer related to understanding their plan? What are the key employee experience challenges and opportunities?
Methods: Collaborative workshops; uncover customer and employee jobs, pains, and gains, analyzed for themes, and prioritized
Artifacts: Project plan, Jobs-Pains-Gains with prioritized themes
Template used as a starting point.
SECOND STAGE
Challenge: What is the current consumer and employee experience? How do they think, feel, and act across multiple touchpoints? Where are the key physical touchpoints? Where and what are the most important moments that impact the outcomes?
Methods: Workshops, Key Scenarios, Experience Graphs, Service Blueprints, Experience Map, Moments That Matter
Artifacts: Experience map including summary experience graphs and prioritized moments that matter
THIRD STAGE
Challenge: What are the key ideas that reflect the new consumers’ needs and wants as they learn about their plan?
Methods: Workshops, Desk research, Secondary research, Co-ideation, Prioritization
Artifacts: Research Wall, Value <> Execution matrix
FOURTH STAGE
Challenge: What should the future state plan education experience look like for customers and employees?
Methods: Workshops, Storyboarding, Key Scenarios, User Stories
Artifacts: Storyboard and Key Scenarios that include the high-impact jobs, gains, pains, and prioritized moments that matter.
FIFTH STAGE
Challenge: What could the new experience look like and how should it function?
Methods: Workshops, Key scenarios, Wireframes, Prototypes, User Testing
Artifacts: Wireframes, Prototypes, User Testing Plan
Relevant project from a different project for a pharmaceutical company:
