CASE STUDY
Director of
User Experience
Blue Shield of California
CASE STUDY
Director of UX Blue Shield of California
I was the Director of User Experience at Blue Shield of California from 2022-2023. Any experience through one of our 5 portals (customer, employer, prospect, provider, and broker) as well as our Apps was my responsibility.
I was charged with leading a design team of 25 to transform the experiences on our portals and the way the design team was running.
My Role
Vision Setting
Oversight
Capacity Planning
Direct Management of UX Research
Rebuilding UX Strategy
Cross Department Relationships
Ideation
I was the Director of User Experience at Blue Shield of California from 2022-2023. Any experience through one of our 5 portals (customer, employer, prospect, provider, and broker) as well as our Apps was my responsibility. I was charged with leading a design team of 25 to transform the experiences on our portals and the way the design team was running.
My Role
Vision Setting
Oversight
Capacity Planning
Direct Management of UX Research
Rebuilding UX Strategy
Cross Department Relationships
Ideation
I was the Director of User Experience at Blue Shield of California from 2022-2023. Any experience through one of our 5 portals (customer, employer, prospect, provider, and broker) as well as our Apps was my responsibility. I was charged with leading a design team of 25 to transform the experiences on our portals and the way the design team was running.
My Role
Vision Setting
Oversight
Capacity Planning
Direct Management of UX Research
Rebuilding UX Strategy
Cross Department Relationships
Ideation
Objectives
Success in this role meant a variety of different things. I was charged with rebuilding the culture of the design team and also raising the “Great Place to Work” scores. I was also charged with looking at the way 4 product teams worked with our design team and push for more user-friendly experiences to be added to roadmaps. I also was on the hook for being hands on and helping the team with great design work.
Key Areas of Focus
- Increasing Great Place to Work Scores
- Rebuilding Culture
- Data Driven Design
- Redefining how product & design teams work together
- Hands on assistance & mentorship
Revamp Culture
First I focused on fixing the team culture. I was walking into a team that was afraid to voice opinions or give any design feedback. I started to fix this by empowering managers to encourage more frank discussions with their teams. I also by developed relationships with individual designers positioning myself as an encouraging coach.
Throughout my leadership tenure, the following activities helped build an encouraging, experimental culture:
- Monthly meetings designed to have team members share and talk
- Frequent 1:1’s with individual contributors on the team
- Peer design reviews in small IC groups
- Modeling behavior and mentoring though example
- Introducing Radical Candor and teaching the team about constructive criticism
- Focusing designs on user needs and data, then telling a story about it
Capacity Planning
The team showed me that they were overstaffed and committed to more than possible (some people were on 5-15 projects at once). This was impacting quality of work as well as morale.
I worked with the managers to devise an intake process and sizing activity. Since we were a shared service between 3 product teams, requests were to come into a PM who would work with managers to size and staff projects.
Key Projects
We had a mix of projects, from enhancements to total redesigns. I drove for the team to use data driven design no matter the challenge and to also fulfill requirements while advocating for user needs aligned our UX vision.
We started working with multiple product directors on overall strategies for their roadmaps, encouraging multiyear roadmaps and strategic exercises to look at their user needs. Our goal was to promote better care by providing consistent, reliable, modern digital experiences.
Care Gaps
A project to promote preventative care and transparency through alerts and reminders. Case Study
Virtual Blue
Work with Product and External Vendor to integrate a new virtual health plan into the Member portal.
Simplify Provider Connection
We redrew the product development process to include more collaboration, shorten formal business cases, and increase the idea of getting customer feedback into the process. We also helped the team understand it was ok to experiment and kill ideas early that were not working.
Design System In AEM
Blended 3 design systems into 1 that was the base of Adobe Experience Manager elements being built in the new CMS. Cerulean Case Study
Create Customer Centricity
Help the business understand the importance of designing for a customer’s needs through empathy and customer feedback. Focused on innovation, design thinking techniques, as well as explaining how to use design research and data to make decisions.
Employer Redesign
Redesigning the Employer portal using elements from the new design system and audited content.
Key Projects
We had a mix of projects on deck, from enhancements to total redesigns. I drove for the team to use data driven design no matter the challenge and to also fulfill requirements while often advocating for user needs that would enhance our vision and the projects.
We started working with multiple product directors on overall strategies for their roadmaps, encouraging multiyear roadmaps and strategic exercises to look at their user needs and landscapes. Our goal was to bring users closer to getting better care by providing consistent, reliable, modern experiences.
The following are a few examples of initiatives:
Care Gaps
A project to promote preventative care and transparency through alerts and reminders.
Virtual Blue
Work with Product and External Vendor to integrate a new virtual health plan into the Member portal.
Employer Redesign
Redesigning the Employer portal using elements from the new design system and audited content.
Simplify Provider Connection
We redrew the product development process to include more collaboration, shorten formal business cases, and increase the idea of getting customer feedback into the process. We also helped the team understand it was ok to experiment and kill ideas early that were not working.
Design System in AEM
Blend 3 design systems into 1 that was the base of Adobe Experience Manager elements being built in the new CMS.
Delivery & Strategy
We also set out to make the organization more familiar with our UX vision, design system, and personas. We also started highlighting user research in all design conversations and stressed design decisions being made based on data.
The Results
Great Place To Work Scores
Member Self Service
Member Satisfaction
Team Morale
The Results
Great Place To Work Scores
Member Self Service
Member Satisfaction
Team Morale
Team became more outspoken and retention increased.