Digital Design Center for 5-Million-Member Health Plan Increases Member Engagement and Satisfaction

OUR SOLUTION

Design center, Agile methodologies build best-in-class digital experience

Optimity was engaged to help launch and operationalize a new digital experience program to make it easier for members to manage their healthcare needs across the spectrum of benefits and services that the plan provides. The goals of the initiative were to help the plan’s 5 million members achieve self-service on key administrative tasks, help members receive care at the appropriate sites of service, save money for members and the plan, and increase members’ engagement in their health and wellness in meaningful and impactful ways. To make this possible, we provided a full design center team, complete with analysts, technologists and creative resources. Our team identified multiple areas of improvement for the program function based on Lean startup, Design Thinking and Agile principles.

We worked with the program to transform the development of new digital services from traditional waterfall processes to an Agile methodology with a regular cadence of releases per year. The new methodology leveraged a cycle of continuous member UX testing and measurement to create new digital channels, capabilities and best-in-breed vendor products that were more targeted and personalized for members. Achieving these goals would require organizational, culture, and process changes at the most fundamental levels of how the program, both business and IT, operated.

Optimity also worked with the plan to successfully orchestrate the implementation of a major new incentive program that involved multiple vendors, development and testing teams that needed to work together to achieve a consistent design and technical architecture.

 We conducted multiple member focus groups to test receptiveness to new digital engagement concepts and features, built and tested interactive prototypes as part of comprehensive design artifacts that guide new development efforts for web and mobile platforms, and embarked on a major initiative to improve the overall user experience for members. This included consistent, right-sized electronic communications, a redesigned homepage, and a new mobile application. Optimity provided mobile-responsive front-end development services, as well as key web usage metrics and reports to measure the effectiveness of digital experiences to support continuous improvement efforts.

 After extensive member research, Optimity developed a roadmap of “on the go” capabilities that leverage existing vendor capabilities, services and data. This roadmap was used to envision, design, build and launch an MVP mobile app in just a few months. Optimity developed a strategic web and mobile capabilities roadmap that aligned to organizational KPIs, mandates and organizational objectives. Mobile app updates included sophisticated features that increase member engagement and drive greater conversion rates on key member and business tasks. The mobile app, which was released on both the iOS and Android platforms, has exceeded expectations for member adoption, with more than 1 million downloads and an 80% increase in downloads both of the last two years.

 As a strategic partner for the health plan, we were able to help the program establish a digital design center that currently works within the client’s Agile framework to define business priorities and develop product roadmaps; select and integrate best-in-class product and service vendors; rapidly design, prototype and test product ideas and solutions; and align IT investments and enablers to product strategies and business objectives. The roadmaps that Optimity developed guided the work efforts of multiple IT organizations and product vendors under the umbrella of a common UX vision. The project was and continues to be a success.

TOOLKIT

Member UX Research

Personas and Journey Mapping

Usability Testing

Business Architecture

Epic and Story Definition

Web and Mobile Development

UX Measurement and Reporting

Information Architecture

Real-time Prototyping and Visualization

Creative Design

Implementation and Testing

Analytics and Reporting