Giving customers a great health insurance experience from day one.
Who: Health insurance company
What: Concept ideation and journey definition
Role: Experience Design Lead
Part I: The situation
Standing out in a shifting industry
Healthcare is changing fast. Big healthcare players are pivoting to meet patients where they are. Tech brands like Google and Apple are disrupting the healthcare space. And startups are re-envisioning the healthcare experience.
Amidst all this, a leading health insurance company asked us to reimagine the way people engaged with their brand across the member experience.
My role
Experience Design Lead
Managed the creative team with oversight and day-to-day direction
Conducted stakeholder interviews, including preparation of interview guide and synthesis of findings
Brainstormed and created concept ideas, and refined based on client feedback
Created and ran a collaborative workshop with the client to ideate and refine concepts for testing
Supported research team with user testing—defining objectives, moderating test sessions, and debriefing on findings
Defined the touchpoints of, and developed the story for, the onboarding journey based on key research themes
Our mission
We honed in on the “onboarding” phase—the time between enrolling in an insurance plan and waiting for the plan to begin—as an area rich with possibility.
When a person buys a policy, it’s the perfect time to start creating a strong relationship right out of the gate. Yet, the current experience didn’t have basic touches like welcome or confirmation emails.
So, we set out to define all the potential ways we could improve members’ onboarding experience.
Early concept sketches
Part II: The approach
Finding the opportunities and testing ideas
We did a lot of work to find the strongest areas of opportunity. We mined existing insights, conducted research, interviewed stakeholders, and held a collaborative client workshop. That gave us a solid picture of the key member needs and experience gaps in the onboarding period.
From there, we developed four different concepts to test. Concept testing showed us the key frustrations and unmet needs consumers had during onboarding—as well as about health insurance in general.
A collaborative client workshop allowed us to validate and refine our concept directions.
Four concept ideas to test
Confirmation
What if we communicated with members immediately after enrollment, during onboarding, and right before their plan officially starts?
» Give an easy-to-understand plan summary
» Show clear progress between enrollment and plan start date
» Provide a digital ID card that the member can add to a digital wallet
Welcome kit
What if we welcomed members to the brand beyond just envelopes and a physical member ID card?
» Mail a physical box with member ID inside
» Include a physical version of the currently-digital plan summary
» Promote the ability to connect with an expert for one-on-one advice
» Provide a shortcut to create a profile
Plan 101
What if we clearly showed members all the benefits they get with their plan?
» Clearly outline plan benefits
» Provide motivation to create a profile
» Select health topics of interest
» Give local suggestions for health-related services
Coverage check
What if we could prevent members from unexpected plan surprises?
» Alert of plan start date with next steps
» Clearly show if any current doctors will be out of network, and provide alternate recommendations if so
» Provide ability to book appointments
Illustrator: Jorge Viera
A pivotal research finding
We uncovered something unexpected in our user research. Amidst our intent to focus on the onboarding period, we discovered that members don’t think to engage with the brand then, and they actually define onboarding differently than we had.
That didn’t mean that all of our concepts weren’t viable, but that many were better suited to help consumers make decisions during enrollment (before onboarding), or as resources once a plan became active (after onboarding).
The final onboarding journey reflected this, eliminating what consumers found to be irrelevant for that period, and meeting their table-stakes expectations that didn’t exist in the current experience.
__
Our research showed that members aren’t actually looking to engage during the onboarding period.
Our onboarding vision
The final onboarding journey outlined multiple ways for the brand to cultivate a sincere, reliable relationship with members.
Designer: Laura Skaggs
Part III: The result
The power of small touchpoints
Our final onboarding journey proved the power of small touchpoints that supported members’ needs—providing confirmation, communicating plan value, and preparing them for their plan’s start.
And we came to that conclusion after our pivotal research finding showed where NOT to spend the client’s time and money.
The strength of our work, and our willingness to embrace the finding that many of our concepts weren’t relevant to onboarding, convinced the client to hire us for a full site redesign.
My takeaway
It’s always worth exploring and ideating within an unknown space, but sometimes the best solution is as simple as sending a confirmation email and providing members with digital ID cards. And that is a beautiful thing.
It’s important for us to remember—and to remind our clients—that a touchpoint for the sake of a touchpoint is meaningless. Every feature should be tailor-made to the needs of users, and the only way to tap into that is by asking them.