Before our team got started on the project, leading up to the discovery phase, we had a "week zero" to fully immerse into research to understand the company and their customers. The partner on our team had previously worked with the client on CX strategy work, so there were plenty of materials to read and learn from. It was my first time working in the healthcare space, so I did additional research to get a better grasp of the industry and get familiar.

Once we officially kicked off the case with the clients, it was go-time. There was no time to waste. Thankfully, with the knowledge I gained from the initial research and after speaking with individuals on the team, I was able to quickly put together a design workplan. I produced a design workplan with clear goals and expectations for each week, with clear deadlines for important meetings and deliverables.

The first deliverable was the "as-is journey," which is a document that maps the current state of a customer's experience, identifying their key needs, pain points, and touch points. To do this, we needed to talk to customers. With the help of a third party recruiting service (we could not directly recruit as we had to keep anonymity), our team was able to recruit and schedule one-on-one user interviews with over 40 customers.

As the design lead, I put together a detailed screener to help recruit the right participants, as well as write the official user interview script/guide. I wrote both very intentionally, so that we do not reveal the private health information of customers, but still get helpful insights for the as-is journey.

I led almost all of the user interviews. While I was interviewing, my team members took detailed notes for us to review later on, as we were unable to record the hour-long sessions due to privacy concerns. After each interview, we gathered together as a group to synthesize learnings and discuss key takeaways. We did this collaboratively on Miro, where we used virtual sticky notes to highlight themes and gather insights. We synthesized and synthesized again and again to gain deeper insights and understanding.

Then, I created the as-is journey, documenting user needs, pain points, and touch points from the current customer experience, highlighting relevant quotes and potential opportunities for the company. This was an important document we would continue to reference throughout the project to understand current customer sentiment and identify areas of improvement.

The "shape" phase is my personal favorite, mostly because I love generating new ideas and the creative energy during ideation. It is when people are generally open to any and all possibilities and try to think outside-the-box, out of their normal comfort zone. With my excitement and enthusiasm for ideation, I designed and led the ideation workshop. It was a TON of work to put together, but very worth it.

I prepared all the necessary materials and resources required for the workshop, including diverse brainstorming techniques like 'how might we' questions and an inspiration gallery. I also took the initiative to tackle workshops logistics - I planned a structured agenda with roles and time stamps for each activity, and drafted a facilitator guide to help small group leaders during the ideation sessions. The ideation workshop was an ultimate success thanks to careful preparation! [See below to see what my team had to say!]

At the end of the three-hour ideation session, the participants came up with tons of great ideas - which were further synthesized to create concept cards. These concept cards (or 'opportunity canvases') were thoughtfully developed to use for user testing and expert interviews. We launched a quantitative survey as well as conduct one-on-one user interviews to see if the opportunities were desirable to customers. Then we spoke with subject matter experts to see if the opportunities were feasible, from a technical and operational lens.

With all the new data from user testing and interviews, I was able to construct an initial version of the service blueprint; however I needed help filling in the gaps. A service blueprint brings to life the building blocks required to enable a future omni-channel customer journey by combining the frontstage (what the customers see and experience) with the backstage (the people, processes and infrastructure required to deliver).

To construct the service blueprint, I invited team members from across the company organization - from marketing, legal, engineering, etc - to map out the frontstage and backstage elements of the future-state blueprint. Similar to how I approached the ideation workshop, I prepared all the necessary materials for the blueprinting sessions. This included presenting the insights gathered from the research conducted from user testing and interviews, as well as creating the agenda and assigning team roles/responsibilities.

It was a huge team effort to run the blueprinting sessions, as it was an in-person event, requiring logistical challenges like traveling, printing, and physical materials. I presented our research findings, explained the blueprinting process, and facilitated thoughtful discussions during the blueprinting sessions. It was a stressful yet eventful week of blueprinting, as 50+ participants from across the organization gathered together to shape the service blueprint with their unique expertise. [See below to see what the clients thought!]

Even after the blueprinting sessions, we continued to refine and validate the frontstage and backstage feasibility with expert calls. The initial version with stickies soon turned into a structured digital visual: I designed the final blueprints - which identified key member actions, touch points, company actions, third party actions, support processes, and technology that would enable the ideal future-state journey.

Once the blueprint was finalized, it was time to create a backlog of CX initiatives that would need to be implemented. The CX initiatives were actionable steps to transform the current-state journey into the future-state journey based on the blueprint that was created. I broke down the service blueprint into parts, identifying the specific changes that needed to be made or capabilities that needed to be developed to deliver the desired customer journey over incremental periods of time. This approach ensured that the user experience is improved in a targeted and measurable way.

Next, we prioritized the CX initiative backlog by determining which ones would be addressed in the near vs long term. It was important to consider (1) interdependencies between activities, as some activities may need to be executed before others can be addressed, (2) the time required to implement each activity , and (3) the anticipated impact of each activity on the user experience.

In the end, after twelve long weeks, we delivered (1) a voice of the customer with an as-is journey map uncovering relevant needs and pain points, (2) future state redesign that was created through collaborative ideation workshops and blueprinting sessions, (3) CX organization and resourcing framework that provided clear models on team alignment, and (4) journey playbook outlining activities and process changes for success.