THE CHALLENGE
The brief for this project was to help Care Connect understand the current service ecosystem for a core part of their service offering – the hospital discharge and Care Connect intake experience. The service facilitates the transition from hospital to home for patients over a 6-week period and involves patients, social workers, and multiple Care Connect business units out on the road meeting patients and back in the office.
Our client wanted to understand the current experience, both from a business and customer perspective to better understand problem areas and deficiencies, with a look to identify business opportunities across the service continuum. Over the course of a month, I led design thinking workshops, patient and staff research, journey mapping, and value proposition activities in collaboration with the client. I was the lead consultant and key point of contact for the project.
We provided direction on key strategic initiatives by illustrating problems across the current service and articulated how solutions will not only solve customer problems but improve the employee experience provide significant business value.
To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted confidential information in this case study. The information in this case study is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of the client.
UNDERSTANDING THE BUSINESS ECOSYSTEM
Like any new project, it was important for myself and the project team to understand the current business model and how the service is delivered to customers. I kicked off by running stakeholder workshops to better understand the problem space and to map out the current journey across all touchpoints, and hear from the business about known gaps, pain points, opportunities, and assumptions.
This provided the project team with a holistic view of business operations and how the service is delivered to patients. Transitioning patients from hospital to home involves many services outside of the control of our client, so mapping this out helped to understand what can and can’t be done or what ‘levers’ could be pulled when thinking about the future experience for end customers and the business.
CURRENT STATE CUSTOMER JOURNEY
To get a better understanding of the current experience, we spent time with all the key people from the business that played an integral role in delivering the service. Activities included;
Interviewing patients both at home and in the hospital to understand the experience from their perspective across key stages of the service
Phone interviews with local and interstate client staff
Face to face interviews with staff across different business units
Stakeholder interviews (SME’s)
Observation/Shadowing staff carrying out day to day duties
Interviews with Social Workers working across hospitals
DEFINING THE PROBLEM & WHO WE’RE DESIGNING FOR
Following the research and armed with insights from the field, we ran internal workshops using the customer value proposition (CVP) canvas to define who we were defining for and articulate the value proposition for key customer types.
It became clear that customers were treated with the same level of service regardless of their condition e.g. minor operation vs triple heart bypass surgery patients. The level of service required in the transition home and the settling-in period needed to be flexible and accommodate the varying health and home situation of patients.
EVOLVING JOURNEY MAP
Because there was an emphasis on mapping out the current journey, the map evolved as service functions and research insights crystalized. The map started out as post-its on the wall which were then digitized and refined over time in order to provide a higher fidelity deliverable.
The below example, showing how the map included typical journey map assets overlaid with research insights and business opportunities.
SOLUTION SPACE
With a solid understanding of the problem space, we transitioned into ideation and solution mode. I gathered the project team together for a workshop and played back research learnings and talked through some key insights. I then ran creative problem-solving activities which focussed on the future experience of the service. Activities included future state service models, rapid ideation (diverge/converge) and future state scenarios and storyboards.
Above: Workshop output showing future state service model
QUICK WINS & ROADMAP DEFINITION
The outputs have provided a clear articulation of key personas, their challenges, and insight into improving the current experience and beyond for the client and their 3rd party business partners.
The business is now positioned strongly for upcoming strategic initiatives, with many quick wins and longer-term business opportunities for patients, employees, and the business objectives.
