KAISER PERMANENTE

Role & Timeline

Role:
Service Design Strategy Lead
Timeline:
Aug 2022 – Jan 2023
Responsibilities:
Client communication, team leadership, journey mapping, creative direction, prototyping, user testing, and design delivery
Key Skills:
Creative strategy, research, UX, service design, visual design

Kaiser Permanente is one of the largest health insurers in the industry and the inventor of the modern HMO. The enterprise remains focused on delivering exceptional care to its large member base in California and eight other states. As part of a new Healthy Profiles initiative, Kaiser sought to rethink critical customer experiences — from onboarding to maintenance — alongside marketing tools, service design, and digital flows. These touchpoints are essential to retention, as they shape the most meaningful moments for both members and corporate sponsors.

One early effort involved using gamification to drive completion of an online self-assessment for customers and prospects, with data capture at the conclusion. The assessment provided personalized content based on industry and company attributes, rewarding users with a profile score, benchmark data, and curated resources. This turned what might have felt like a form-fill exercise into a motivating experience that delivered immediate, tangible value.

The success of this pilot sparked a broader during plan rollout, enrollment, and renewal. By surfacing timely, relevant information at pivotal moments, Kaiser strengthened perceived value for both employers and members. Results in the first year showed measurable gains in retention and site performance. While external business factors may have contributed, the initiative clearly demonstrated impact — and ultimately led to a broader reconsideration of service blueprints across the organization.

This work focused on improving conversion across key member journeys within Kaiser Permanente, a large and complex organization with many interconnected systems, products, and business units. Because of this scale, the challenge was not just improving individual touchpoints, but synthesizing a unified strategy from a wide range of business signals, performance metrics, and operational constraints.

Team Contributions

The team began by reviewing existing experiences, user feedback, and system limitations, alongside business data and KPIs collected across the organization. These included enrollment completion rates, drop-off points, engagement metrics, and operational performance indicators. By combining these inputs, we identified where friction was impacting conversion and where improvements would have the greatest impact.

We mapped end-to-end patient journeys and developed a service blueprint to connect frontstage interactions with backstage processes. This helped reveal gaps between user expectations and system capabilities, as well as inconsistencies across products that affected conversion.

Using this foundation, the team created journey maps, user flows, and wireframes focused on reducing friction and improving task completion. We simplified navigation, clarified decision points, and streamlined key flows such as enrollment and account management. Interaction patterns were standardized across products to create a more predictable and cohesive experience.

Design improvements also focused on content clarity, form usability, and accessibility to reduce cognitive load and support faster completion of tasks. Shared design systems were used to maintain consistency while allowing flexibility for different product needs.

Cross-functional collaboration was critical. Product, engineering, research, and business teams worked together to align on priorities, using the service blueprint and KPI insights to guide decisions and measure impact.

My Contributions

I drafted the overall approach, defining how we would synthesize business signals, user insights, and performance metrics into a cohesive experience strategy focused on improving conversion.

I led the development of the service blueprint, translating complex organizational inputs into a clear framework that connected user journeys with underlying systems and KPIs. This allowed teams to see how design decisions could directly influence measurable outcomes.

I created and refined user flows, wireframes, and interaction patterns that addressed key friction points identified through both research and data analysis. I also documented design decisions and requirements to ensure alignment across teams and support implementation.

Throughout the process, I helped bridge experience design with business and operational goals, ensuring that solutions were both user-centered and aligned with conversion objectives.

Outcome

The outcome was a set of targeted improvements that increased clarity, reduced friction, and supported higher conversion across key member journeys. By synthesizing diverse business signals and aligning them with user experience design, the team created a more cohesive and effective experience.

Rather than relying on large visual changes, the work focused on practical, measurable improvements that made it easier for members to complete tasks while helping the organization better align design decisions with performance goals.

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