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Redefining Key Member Experiences

Redefining Key Member Experiences

Mapping Experiences That Matter

Mapping Experiences That Matter

The largest and most successful health insurance company in Michigan had begun to see gaps in their understanding of member experience, especially outside of the role of a traditional payor.

The largest and most successful health insurance company in Michigan had begun to see gaps in their understanding of member experience, especially outside of the role of a traditional payor.

Client

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Customer Experience department

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Customer Experience department

Role

Service Designer & Researcher

Service Designer & Researcher

Team

6 member team of service and visual designers

6 member team of service and visual designers

Scope

6 months using Mural, Teams, and UserTesting

6 months using Mural, Teams, and UserTesting

The Problem

The Problem

BCBSM was out of touch with members and wasn't equipped with the tools to understand shifting experience needs

BCBSM was out of touch with members and wasn't equipped with the tools to understand shifting experience needs

Organization

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) is the largest healthcare insurer in Michigan. With an annual revenue close to $36 billion and a history spanning nearly 100 years, BCBSM is a healthcare giant that serves every variety of human under the sun. With this, however, comes plenty of challenges - particularly in staying up-to-date and agile.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) is the largest healthcare insurer in Michigan. With an annual revenue close to $36 billion and a history spanning nearly 100 years, BCBSM is a healthcare giant that serves every variety of human under the sun. With this, however, comes plenty of challenges - particularly in staying up-to-date and agile.

Known Issues

Lack of understanding of certain user groups

Lack of understanding of certain user groups

Underutilized internal data and no way to capitalize on it

Underutilized internal data and no way to capitalize on it

Rigidity in thinking and a difficulty thinking outside the box

Rigidity in thinking and a difficulty thinking outside the box

Lack of reframing tools to prevent this in the future

Lack of reframing tools to prevent this in the future

The Solution

We created revolutionary deliverables that completely changed the way BCBSM understood customer experience

The Solution

We delivered an improved final prototype and thorough handoff documents addressing implementation & strategy.

Experience Database

A synthesized, searchable spreadsheet that combined qualitative and quantitative insights regarding member experience from 70+ sources, projects, and initiatives.

A synthesized, searchable spreadsheet that combined qualitative and quantitative insights regarding member experience from 70+ sources, projects, and initiatives.

Key Strengths & Enablers

  • Sortable by several key internal needs such as experience type, pain points, member segment, and more

  • Easy for AI to parse and understand

  • Living, breathing document designed to be updated with future work

  • Enables cross-functional insights between different teams

Strategic Experience Maps & Tools

Visual frameworks designed to help in critical product management and planning, putting what we know about the member first and foremost. Thousands of hours of research and communications, distilled.

Visual frameworks designed to help in critical product management and planning, putting what we know about the member first and foremost. Thousands of hours of research and communications, distilled.

Key Strengths & Enablers

  • Succinct, highly visual, and easily actionable for strategic product decisions

  • Provides both concrete high-impact experiences and how to understand if an experience is one that matters

  • Generates a conceptual framework for understanding member experience needs and the complex relationship with health

Socialization Decks & Stakeholder Workshops

Lastly, we ensured that our findings and tools were able to be taught to others both synchronously and asynchronously.

Lastly, we ensured that our findings and tools were able to be taught to others both synchronously and asynchronously.

Key Strengths & Enablers

  • Workshops enabled our team to further iterate on our communication strategy

  • Application of principles to your own life helped foster understanding and buy-in

  • Deck content helps teams refresh themselves or onboard other CXers

Key Learnings

Unlocking the power of what we already know was nearly as important as finding new knowledge

Knowledge management is power. Through this project, we came to realize the breadth and depth of knowledge that we had already collected as a larger department. It was lying dormant because we had no easy way to operationalize most of it.

Knowledge management is power. Through this project, we came to realize the breadth and depth of knowledge that we had already collected as a larger department. It was lying dormant because we had no easy way to operationalize most of it.

Effectively communicating knowledge is just as important as the knowledge itself

User-friendly innovation starts with a spin on something people love and use often

Our insights, while revolutionary, were incredibly diverse and, at times, abstract. This lack of tangible impact or call to action made it difficult to get stakeholder buy-in. It took several iterations of refinement to create a method of communication that got attention.

Our insights, while revolutionary, were incredibly diverse and, at times, abstract. This lack of tangible impact or call to action made it difficult to get stakeholder buy-in. It took several iterations of refinement to create a method of communication that got attention.

Know when to just throw something out and start fresh from zero

Translating our findings into something actionable was a long, arduous process. Same with designing our protocols - in order to ensure we found information that mattered, we went through several cycles of ideation. Our ability to throw things away entirely and start from scratch greatly improved our results.

Translating our findings into something actionable was a long, arduous process. Same with designing our protocols - in order to ensure we found information that mattered, we went through several cycles of ideation. Our ability to throw things away entirely and start from scratch greatly improved our results.

The Process

We utilized a four stage approach to adequately address the research question and stakeholder needs

The Process

We utilized a four stage approach to adequately address the research question and stakeholder needs

1

Existing Data Analysis

… to understand what we already know

… to understand what we already know

Analyzed internal CX & design projects

Analyzed internal CX & design projects

Healthcare market & external trends analysis

Healthcare market & external trends analysis

Internal SME interviews

Internal SME interviews

Meta-synthesis of findings across all workstreams

Meta-synthesis of findings across all workstreams

2

Consumer Research

… to explore a variety of consumer perspectives

… to explore a variety of consumer perspectives

BCBSM member interviews & synthesis

BCBSM member interviews & synthesis

General consumer interviews & synthesis

General consumer interviews & synthesis

Meta-synthesis and comparative analysis

Meta-synthesis and comparative analysis

3

Framework Development

… to visualize and effectively communicate our work

… to visualize and effectively communicate our work

Framework design experimentation

Framework design experimentation

Framework testing with internal SMEs

Framework testing with internal SMEs

Transformed learnings into improvement

Refinement and workshop development

Refinement and workshop development

4

Socialization & Education

… to ensure our findings have lasting impact on BCBSM

… to ensure our findings have lasting impact on BCBSM

Dissemination of findings deck across CX

Dissemination of findings deck across CX

Handed off detailed documents and specs

Workshop facilitations

Workshop facilitations

Set-up of continual refinement protocols

Set-up of continual refinement protocols

The Research Question

"When and how can BCBSM best guide our members through experiences that impact their wellbeing?"

The Research Question

"When and how can BCBSM best guide our members through experiences that impact their wellbeing?"

How did we develop this question?

How did we develop this question?

Internal & External Needs

Known gaps in member knowledge

BCBSM has robust feedback channels and dedicated data analysts that deliver astounding quantitative insights about members. Qualitative information tended to be much more sparsely found and had less of an effect on strategic planning.

BCBSM has robust feedback channels and dedicated data analysts that deliver astounding quantitative insights about members. Qualitative information tended to be much more sparsely found and had less of an effect on strategic planning.

Inconsistent or non-existent knowledge management

While some data sources were shared across all departments, each team had their own repository of knowledge for their specific jobs. The way this is stored and shared was inconsistent across departments, making potentially advantageous insights unavailable to other teams.

While some data sources were shared across all departments, each team had their own repository of knowledge for their specific jobs. The way this is stored and shared was inconsistent across departments, making potentially advantageous insights unavailable to other teams.

Changing member needs and industry offerings

Advances in technology and the changing sociotechnical landscape of health put a highly traditional organization like BCBSM at risk of obsolescence. To stay relevant, BCBSM recognized it needed to know how to go beyond.

Advances in technology and the changing sociotechnical landscape of health put a highly traditional organization like BCBSM at risk of obsolescence. To stay relevant, BCBSM recognized it needed to know how to go beyond.

Key Internal Enablement Points

Key Internal Enablement Points

Strategic experience improvement planning

There are always too many projects to take on at once. A key area for improvement would be in helping CX decision makers prioritize projects based on member impact and relevancy to the strategic CX goals of BCBSM.

There are always too many projects to take on at once. A key area for improvement would be in helping CX decision makers prioritize projects based on member impact and relevancy to the strategic CX goals of BCBSM.

Generating understanding and empathy

By effectively merging quantitative and qualitative data and using storytelling, we can create a stronger understanding of member experiences that drives the development of more member-centric projects and uplifts vulnerable member populations.

By effectively merging quantitative and qualitative data and using storytelling, we can create a stronger understanding of member experiences that drives the development of more member-centric projects and uplifts vulnerable member populations.

Actionability & transferability of experience knowledge

Creating a more standardized set of knowledge-sharing tools would enable access to universal experience knowledge between teams. Similarly to direct collaboration, this would effectively cross-pollinate knowledge to drive better member outcomes and avoid duplication of work and reduce resource waste.

Creating a more standardized set of knowledge-sharing tools would enable access to universal experience knowledge between teams. Similarly to direct collaboration, this would effectively cross-pollinate knowledge to drive better member outcomes and avoid duplication of work and reduce resource waste.

Want to learn more?

Want to learn more?

Reach out to me directly on LinkedIn to schedule time to talk through this work.

Go to LinkedIn

Go to LinkedIn

Contact

rebarber@umich.edu

Socials

LinkedIn

Location

Ann Arbor, MI & Greater Detroit Area

Remote & hybrid work available worldwide

© 2025 Roger Barber