Sleek, Streamlined, & Actionable
We created a modern, highly usable tool. In doing so, we removed redundant questions and reduced the required meetings. Our internal colleagues lent support by gathering former benefit selections to prepopulate fields.
Audit forms, remove redundancy, and pre-populate entries
Respect Clients' Time
Create a modern aesthetic and simple, guided workflows
Experience First
Show clients what they need, remove jargon and triggers
Necessary Info
User Access Unlocked...Finally
Onboarding Checklist Simplifies Tasks
Clients needed help completing their action items, so I designed a simple guided task flow to streamline tasks. My manager originally created this concept, but I added enhancements to improve usability, including a more intuitive design pattern, UX copywriting, and a more aesthetic style. Our consultant partner created the puzzle illustrations. The illustration below is my unique recreation.
Plan Approval Manages Documentation
myPBM provides value by enabling clients to digitally approve or reject plan documents, saving time and reducing email risk. For this feature, I collaborated with my CVS teammate, who worked on the internal myPBM application where this functionality originated. I applied my knowledge of data visualization component best practices to select a pie chart against differing opinions.
Reporting Makes Meetings Better
Once the client's service went live, they needed metrics on claims, support calls, and outcomes. myPBM added value by showing clients how CVS performed as their service provider. This feature streamlined monthly client meetings by providing all critical information at a glance.
96% Client Satisfaction Rate
I designed a post-onboarding client survey to initiate a feedback loop. Our work yielded great results, and the general client consensus was positive.
See the survey video below.
50% Improvement in Onboarding Time
Cool Concept but TMI
Our consultant partners created a guided workflow similar to the onboarding checklist, but in the form of a vertical scroll pattern. I argued that it contained too much internal CVS information irrelevant to the client, and that the small number of client tasks would result in an unbalanced scrolling experience. Stakeholder agreed and we moved forward with the onboarding checklist.
Once the client's service goes live, they need metrics about claims, support calls, and their outcomes. myPBM provides value by showing clients how CVS is performing as their service provider.
Once clients were fully onboarded, we administered a survey inquiring about their onboarding experiences. The results were great. Click the video below to see the survey.
CVS SQM
CVS SQM
A Complicated &
Clunky Experience
On the surface, the client journey seemed simple: approve a few documents and await the go-live date. However, completing each document required multiple meetings and redundant questions, which increased client frustration. Eventually, the business audited all the forms to remove redundancies and make the client journey more pleasant, thankfully.
Respect Clients' Time
Audit forms, remove redundancy, and pre-populate entries
We created a modern, simple, usable tool, while the business removed redundancies, and the account team gathered previous benefit selections to prepopulate fields.
Something Sleek, Streamlined, & Actionable
Create a modern aesthetic and simple, guided task flows
Experience First
Show clients what they need, remove jargon and triggers
Necessary Info
Each Step was a Cluster...
Up until this point, all design efforts on the myPBM side of the business were product-led. I gained stakeholder buy-in for direct user access and research hours to drive better outcomes. By utilizing my expertise in user research methodologies and managing operations, I created team-wide research and stakeholder protocols for CVS myPBM designers and our consultant partners. Also, I owned stakeholder delivery to ensure deadlines and gain buy-in.
The team was torn on language and information architecture. For example, I advocated for client-facing language, such as calling "Drug Coverage" just that, rather than the internal term "Clinical Plans". Regarding the information architecture, I recommended placing "Company Info" in the top navigation rather than under the profile icon.
Mental Models & UX Laws
PBM Industry Fallout
In the summer of 2024, not long after shipping the new myPBM app, the Federal Trade Commission released a report warning all PBMs of a major lawsuit filed two months later. After the report, my team's budget was cut by 80%, most of my team was let go, and my contract wasn't renewed. The FTC views PBMs as unethical entities that manipulate drug costs for profit. I won't agree or disagree with that, but I will say CVS added genuine value by navigating the complex pharmacy benefits landscape for its clients.
Delivered Big Yet Still Impacted
My performance assessment from leadership was that I did everything right. I helped lead others to deliver a high-visibility product under intense pressure and tight deadlines. I transformed business processes and simplified a complex client-facing process in a critical $190B segment of a Fortune 4 company. I aligned executive stakeholders by leading meetings to gain buy-in for our designs and the value they would deliver, which would otherwise have been missed. However, I underestimated the industry's volatility.
Our work would optimize speed, ease, and efficiency during onboarding which led to a 50% improvement in client onboarding cycles.
Since completing company information was a key onboarding step and involved substantial data entry, it aligned better with other primary actions in the top navigation (Law of Proximity). Some team members preferred placing it under the profile button as most applications store profile information there (Jakob’s Law). However, I had to make a necessary distinction that this was company, not user, profile information.
Since we were moving so quickly, we had to reach consensus on a stakeholder call, where I used UX Laws to make my case and secure buy-in for my user-centric and detail-oriented recommendations.
One thing I'll do differently next time is push for more clarity on resources. We were shuffled between design systems a few times during the initial design phase, which led to discrepancies in the team's work during our first design presentation meetings. Next time, I'll be more diligent in aligning on resources before we start designing.
I executed really well on a previous clinical application with the PO, Monica, so she recruited me to lead the design of a new prescription safety application to replace legacy systems. It was a critical product with a very serious stakeholder group, so I needed to exhibit complete competency and ownership. My experience facilitating design workshops and a strong understanding of the double diamond design process made this project a good fit.
CVS pharmacists review prescriptions to prevent dangerous drug interactions, "doctor-shopping" for narcotics, and potential overdoses. They depended on two old and slow applications with subpar UX, which throttled their productivity, so CVS invested in a new tool to improve job performance and support member safety. Also, those old applications cost over $10M a year to support, so CVS would see a substantial upside if our solution was effective.
Requested by the PO To Lead
I executed really well on a previous clinical application with the PO, Monica, so she recruited me to lead the design of a new prescription safety application to replace legacy systems. It was a critical product with a very serious stakeholder group, so I needed to exhibit complete competency and ownership. My experience facilitating design workshops and a strong understanding of the double diamond design process made this project a good fit.
CVS pharmacists review prescriptions to prevent dangerous drug interactions, "doctor-shopping" for narcotics, and potential overdoses. They depended on two old and slow applications with subpar UX, which throttled their productivity, so CVS invested in a new tool to improve job performance and support member safety. Also, those old applications cost over $10M a year to support, so CVS would see a substantial upside if our solution was effective.
Requested by the PO To Lead
Simplicity for CVS Clients
Revolutionizing CVS's Client-Onboarding Experience by Streamlining Tasks and Providing Appropriate Visibility into the Process
Led Standardization Effort
& New App Design
myPBM was a suite of uncohesive, internal applications that powered CVS’s Pharmacy Benefits Management client onboarding process. The process was inefficient, with lots of redundant conversations and unnecessary meetings. Also, unlike its competitors, CVS did not offer clients a digital tool to manage onboarding or their services. Everything was done via their CVS points of contact.
Initially, CVS sought to standardize the internal suite and improve UX for colleagues as an attempt to improve the onboarding process for clients, but eventually realized that they needed a more drastic solution that completely transformed the onboarding process internally while providing clients with a digital tool to streamline tasks and gain visibility into the process and their service. All of CVS's competitors offered self-service tools to clients, so CVS, as the market share leader, decided to follow suit to maintain credibility and strong client relationships.
I led that group of designers in the initial standardization effort and gained deep, domain-wide expertise. I was also responsible for delivering progress updates during weekly standups. When the new myPBM project kicked off, I was asked to serve as the lead designer and manage a group of designers and consultants who would contribute at different stages of the project.
Drove Back-end Discovery, Mapping,
& Executive Alignment
A difficult but essential challenge, I led tens of hours of technical discovery sessions on roles, apps, forms, and dataflows. Then, I synthesized the information using systems thinking into a comprehensive service blueprint that served as a source of truth for executive stakeholders, to align on a feature set for the new application. My manager and I co-facilitated a 3-day executive offsite to align on goals, features, resources, and deadlines. The image below shows our output: the functionalities from the different applications that would roll up into our MVP.
