Role
Lead Service & Interaction Designer
Timeline
01/2021 - 03/2021
Methods
Service Design
Client Discussions
Remote Interviews
Documentation Review
Tools
MS Teams
MS Excel
InVision Freehand
Background Context
Uncovering opportunities for enhancing the interagency workflow process between 2 national agencies for enrollment in and account management of a multi-year program for independent businesses.
Discovery Research
Software System Demonstrations
Subject Matter Experts (SME) in various national offices walked through the digital systems they use for processing program enrollment.
The walkthroughs showed me where employees ran into system limitations, their work-arounds, and how they coordinated with separate offices.
Documentation Review
I reviewed documentation shared by SMEs that provided detailed information on their systems and processes.
These served as reference points for me in determining where gaps could lead to opportunities for connecting the different offices based on their business needs.
Contextual Interviews
I facilitated contextual interviews with State and Local Office employees in order to understand their experience when enrolling customers into the program.
Their stories painted a full picture of how the legacy systems and current processes impacted their daily workload, affected their customer experience, and cost them precious time.
Images from Adobe Stock
Findings & Insights
Pain Points
What aspects of the process generate friction when employees try to complete tasks?
• Outdated legacy systems cause bottlenecks of applicant enrollment during peak season
• Business owners enrolled in-person at their local offices with appointments spanning between 1-3 hours
• Inefficient system review processes and communications between employees and with customers led to significant delays in account updates for time-sensitive program requirements
Needs
What areas in the workflow process require better interaction between the agencies and their customers?
• Efficient methods for employees to transfer data between their separate agency systems
• Adaptable and time-saving enrollment processes to navigate pandemic-related safety protocol
• Modernize system processes for running reports and contacting customers about updating their accounts after enrollment
Opportunities
What ideal changes or ways of working could improve the enrollment and account management process?
• Combining several of the systems into 1 system shared across both agencies for managing the program
• Sharing customer enrollment data between current systems
• Importing historic customer data collected from related programs
• Diversifying communication channels for alerting customers about time-sensitive account management requirements
“We would save hours of work”
– Local Office Employee
Outcome
I translated the complex process into a clear-cut diagram that showcased the current administrative workflow between the two agencies by creating “swim lanes” for each system being used and using lines to connect tasks completed by employees across both agencies.
Most importantly, I converted the major pain points and needs into recommended opportunities as circles for innovation that addressed gaps across each stage of the enrollment and account management process.
The common opportunity I found involved either integrating all of the separate software systems into 1 platform to seamlessly manage the program or connect each system so that they share data to reduce manual data entry by employees.
Additional recommended opportunities included personalized alerts sent to customer and allowing customers the ability to update their information via the self-service portal for easier account maintenance.
Client Discussion
I facilitated collaborative review sessions with the client to validate the workflow’s accuracy and prioritize my recommended opportunities for enhancing the program’s dual agency administration.
The client moved forward with incorporating one of the crucial short-term recommendations of data sharing between systems into a software update and took the remaining recommendations as considerations for future state enhancements for the program administration.
