POSITION
Lead UX Designer
Highmark Health • 2017–2018
We helped patients navigate the world of health insurance using human-centered design.
The challenge
The Digital team was responsible for ensuring members could get the most out of their insurance plans. These plans are complicated and difficult to understand, so we sought to make the path toward health as simple and easy as possible.
My role
As Lead UX Designer I led project work and mentored team members during a period of transition in leadership and department structure.
Together, we raced against the clock to provide stability for our members in the face of pending legislation that could prohibit access to health care providers and negatively impact customer experience and health outcomes.
The results
Ensure members could easily access quality care
In Western PA, a dispute between major insurance providers resulted in members having less access to care, or facing unexpected additional costs if they chose an out-of-plan provider.
We worked to increase value to members by making it easy to locate an in-plan provider that would be a good fit, while ensuring the insurance plan would cover the maximum amount of medical charges.
PROJECT: DOCTOR MATCH SURVEY
The Doctor Match Survey connects individuals to like-minded doctors. A fun twist on online dating, the survey uses a highly predictive algorithm to connect patients and doctors on multiple compatibility factors.
This helps build long-term relationships, leading to better health and wellbeing.
The app won the 2018 Platinum Best Interactive from an HMO, PPO, or Other Insurer at the eHealthcare Leadership Awards.
Doctor Match Survey on desktop (2018)
Doctor Match Survey on mobile (2018)
Build relationships across a changing team
Through a combination of hiring and consolidating several teams into one, the newly integrated digital team grew from 22 to 43 members in 3 months, making communication and collaboration critical.
We needed a shared mental model, language, and process to work together.
PROJECT: TEAM COLLABORATION & DESIGNOPS
I helped the team define working processes, documentation standards, and communication channels to support better collaboration.
Map of process and responsibilities (2018)
Confluence documentation (2018)
Chart a course through evolving requirements
A rapidly evolving set of project requirements meant that work done yesterday could be obsolete today. This resulted in confusion and frustration with both team members and management, as we sought to meet the needs of our customers.
PROJECT: MEMBER PLAN MANAGEMENT MOBILE APP
Access to information about cost and quality of health care helps members make better decisions about their care.
We built a single point of access for information related to health costs so a user can take a more active role in their health care management.
Along the way, I mapped processes and guided conversations toward short- and long-term future release plans. This brought together a wide range of stakeholders into a rich, collaborative, and more productive conversation.
Member health plan applications (2018)
Mobile app wireframe sketches (2017)
Service blueprinting (2018)
Member mobile app (2018)
Research report (2018)
Project roadmap (2018)
Lessons learned
Involve key stakeholders early and often
The key to a successful app that matches patients and doctors was having enough doctors participate, so there would be a wide selection for patients to be matched against.
The moment we revealed the project and requested doctor involvement was unexpectedly tricky, since the value proposition wasn’t clear to the doctors at first glance. It could have been more successful by involving a few key doctors sooner.
Math doesn’t equal marketing
The Doctor Match Survey matching algorithm had been cleverly crafted by expert mathematicians to measure the distance between individual responses. This distance on multiple factors would determine whether or not there was a “match.”
Because the algorithm had been designed long before marketing was involved, there was tension around how to tell the story of the quiz. By the time we clearly understood the benefits to and expectations of users, it was too late and too expensive to re-engineer the algorithm.
New software doesn’t equal collaboration
Although nearly everyone on the team talked about wanting better communication and collaboration, we quickly found that simply introducing a new piece of software didn’t bring clarity. Or even excitement.
It became critical to understand how groups worked together, what information they needed, and invite participation into the process. By listening and asking questions, we started to see adoption of the new processes as individuals recognized their voices were being heard.
ABOUT HIGHMARK HEALTH
Highmark Health is a national Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) health insurance provider based in Pittsburgh, PA. Combined with Allegheny Health Network (AHN), they form an Integrated Health and Delivery Financial System (IDFS).