A researched-backed UX Playbook to help Aetna's Medicaid customers
UX Strategy
Client
Aetna, a CVS Health company
Work location
Fully remote
My roles
Design Lead
UX Strategist
Lead Workshop Creator & Facilitator
Secondary UX Researcher
Primary Presenter to wider organization
UX Strategist
Lead Workshop Creator & Facilitator
Secondary UX Researcher
Primary Presenter to wider organization
Other teammates
1 Senior Content Strategist
1 Senior UI Designer
2 Senior UX Researchers
1 Senior UI Designer
2 Senior UX Researchers
Problem statement
At the outset of the project, 2.8 million people in the U.S. received Medicaid insurance through Aetna. In every part of the Aetna Medicaid web portal and mobile app, customer satisfaction and task completion rates were much lower than the success metrics for Aetna’s 36 million commercial health insurance customers. What worked for commercial members clearly wasn’t the right approach for Medicaid members. The company decided to completely overhaul the digital Medicaid experience due to these mediocre numbers that were negatively impacting customer sign-ups and contract renewals.
Project goals
After presenting a hackathon project advocating for the earlier inclusion of design thinking and UX strategy in the SAFe Agile planning process that we used as an organization, I was approached by the Directors of Digital Experience Design and Digital Product at Aetna/CVS. They asked me to demonstrate the value of a design thinking approach for the new Medicaid initiative.
I decided the best course of action was to first conduct some preliminary user research to understand why the Medicaid customer needs were not being met by the current solution. Then, I wanted to create an easy-to-read and illustrated UX Playbook focused on the unique needs of Medicaid customers and how to better design for them. This playbook would include practical examples that every Designer, Developer, and Product Manager could use as a guiding resource for future Medicaid features.
I decided the best course of action was to first conduct some preliminary user research to understand why the Medicaid customer needs were not being met by the current solution. Then, I wanted to create an easy-to-read and illustrated UX Playbook focused on the unique needs of Medicaid customers and how to better design for them. This playbook would include practical examples that every Designer, Developer, and Product Manager could use as a guiding resource for future Medicaid features.
Design approach
I use the Double Diamond framework from the British Design Council as an overarching guide to plan and structure my projects:
For this project, I led my team through the Double Diamond's phases and following activities over 10 weeks:
1. Discovery workshop
I designed and facilitated a 3-hour remote workshop with 13 high-level internal stakeholders. During the workshop, we used the Miro board I had set up to create consensus for the project’s milestones and my team’s involvement.
Click thumbnails to expand images
2. UX research review & summary
The two UX Researchers and I reviewed more than 25 in-house UX research studies conducted on core tasks within the commercial insurance app over the previous three years. We also analyzed 20 white papers on the needs and challenges of Medicaid insurance customers. We then summarized the themes and findings.
3. Creation of Medicaid personas
Based on our UX research analysis, we also crafted two Medicaid-specific personas. These personas could be used as target design audience members for Designers, Product Managers, and Developers working on future Medicaid features.
4. Playbook asset creation
I led the team in creating an in-depth and illustrated 100-page UX Playbook with six guiding principles. All design recommendations in the Playbook were fully in accordance with current WCAG standards. And all facets of design and product development—from content strategy to UX design and image and media optimization—were accounted for. We also created a 2-page “cheat-sheet” version of the Playbook to broaden the project’s reach within the organization.
Click thumbnails to expand images
5. Presentation of the Playbook
I presented the Playbook to over 400 people at an Aetna/CVS Digital virtual All-Hands meeting, and we shared it in the internal asset management system and tagged it in Rally on all upcoming Medicaid Epics and Features.
Outcomes
The feedback on the inclusion of design thinking at the outset of the new initiative was very positive. Although I left the company shortly after sharing our Playbook, here are some of the comments I received about my involvement and the impact of the work:
"Thank you, Erin, for your diligence with the Medicaid user research and playbook. This foundational work will help future team members quickly onboard to this work better-informed, and to work more effectively and efficiently solve UX problems by understanding the Medicaid customer and their needs."
Meredith Matthews, Executive Director of Digital Experience Design at CVS Health
Meredith Matthews, Executive Director of Digital Experience Design at CVS Health
"Erin Shea led the creation of the Medicaid User Playbook, a foundational guide to designing for Medicaid users. With only a vague directive to “discover” she drove the creation of an extremely comprehensive, user-centered, actionable resource. This guide will provide value to anyone designing for Medicaid as well as help steer technologists and product leaders toward user-centered solutions. Without Erin’s strong communication skills and clarity, this project could have easily foundered in the quagmire of ambiguity. She did a beautiful job leading the team through that ambiguity, and leveraging the also important superpowers of team members."
Beth Koloski, Senior UX Researcher on the project
Beth Koloski, Senior UX Researcher on the project
"Thank you, Erin, for pushing us constantly towards solving the right problems and understanding the change we need + LEADING the change! Thank you for the thoughtfulness and energy you are putting into the Medicaid work. The sophistication of your communication and cross-functional collaboration is always top notch!"
Catherine Cartwright, Product and Portfolio Agile Coach
Catherine Cartwright, Product and Portfolio Agile Coach