Situation
A Fortune 100 health insurer wanted to improve satisfaction among Medicaid members—and influence plan choice in a highly competitive market.
 
Approach
I led my team through a company-wide, human-centered redesign of the Medicaid member experience.
 
We began by building a shared understanding of members through secondary research, segmentation, and personas. In parallel, we interviewed staff across nearly every department to surface operational pain points and frontline hypotheses about member frustrations.
 
We synthesized both perspectives into an end-to-end journey map and user stories, identifying moments of truth that most strongly shaped member trust, perception, and choice.
 
We validated the journey through focus groups and surveys with members and non-members.

At the same time, we designed a change-management plan and worked with department leaders to build awareness, ownership, and readiness for change.
 
Using the validated insights, we facilitated a cross-functional design workshop to prioritize the most critical pain points and co-create solutions.

Opportunities clustered into four experience themes:

• Clearer, more relevant communications

• Better education on benefits and how to navigate care

• Easier digital access to services

• More empathetic, informed human support
   

Ideas were grouped into workstreams, each with an executive sponsor and cross-functional team. I led the action-planning process, defined success measures, and managed implementation across the organization over a three-year roadmap.
 
Outcomes
Eighty-two corporate and plan leaders aligned on ten priority experience pain points and defined 29 feasible solutions targeted for near- and mid-term implementation.
 
The most important insight from the research was that members fundamentally felt "misunderstood" by the health plan.
 
As a result, the organization made "empathy" its top experience priority. My team designed a national employee education campaign reaching 60,000 staff, including:
 

• A traveling, immersive “day-in-the-life” member exhibit deployed in 38 locations

• Persona-based videos and segment playbooks for frontline teams

• For onboarding, a “Get to Know Our Members” onboarding module with role-play exercises

 
The success of the Medicaid initiative led the client to expand my engagement to their Marketplace and Medicare lines. I transitioned one team to continue Medicaid execution and led a second team to design experiences for additional member and provider segments.