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Key tables were dificult to scan and slowed task times
Information Overload
KEYS
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WORKSHOP FACILITATION
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USER INTERVIEWS
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NEW PRODUCT DESIGN
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PRODUCT STRATEGY
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DOUBLE DIAMOND
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USABILITY TESTING
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RAN OFFICE HOURS
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AGILE DEVELOPMENT
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LARGE USER GROUPS
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LEGACY SYSTEMS REFRESH
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UX DESIGN
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WIREFRAMING
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PROTOTYPING
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DESIGN SYSTEMS
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CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTS
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PHARMA/HEALTHCARE
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STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT
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UI DESIGN
Replacing Legacy Systems to Boost Pharmacist Productivity
and Morale While Facilitating Safe Prescription Access for Members
CVS Drug Safety
Replacing Legacy Systems to Boost Pharmacist Productivity and Morale while Facilitating Safe Prescription Access
CVS Drug Safety
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
25 Interviews Then 1 Design Studio
We had a large user group of pharmacists with different specialties. This required a lot of discovery to understand the nuances of everyone's roles so we could prioritize whom to solve for first. It was imperative to manage these groups effectively by knowing the intricacies of our participants' roles so we could prepare for conversations correctly and organize group discussions appropriately. We strove to avoid having users on calls that didn't apply to them.
Once we formed assumptions on the problem space, we secured alignment from our large user group during a several-hour design studio, which I facilitated by presenting on design thinking and the double diamond approach, and by leading pharmacists through sketching exercises.
Tech Crashes
Frequent performance issues negatively impacted job performance and reviews
Missed Quota Blues
Ambiguous performance reviews lacked positive reinforcement hurting morale
Too Many Clicks
Creating case queues was constant, tedious, and it haulted momentum
Information Overload
Key tables were difficult to scan due to unnecessary data slowing task times
Key tables were difficult
to scan due to unnecessary data slowing task times
So Many Clicks and Rebooting
Although our user group was large and specialized, they were in consensus about unnecessary clicks and frustrating tech failures. The missed quotas that resulted were ultimately a business problem, but any resulting drug safety issues for members were a more severe human problem.
I wondered if the subpar UX here ever resulted in real harm, and realized pharmaceutical safety
is truly a wicked problem.
Streamlining Queue Creation
To Save Clicks
We solved for clicks by automating as much of the manual case queue creation as possible. "Opportunity Queues" are preloaded, eliminating the need to create those queues manually. For instances where manual queue creation was necessary, we let users select multiple queues to be delivered in a continuous stream, where previously, once a queue finished, users had to click back to home and create a brand new queue.
Streamlining Queue Creation Saving Clicks
Better Scanability and Task Time
We audited the tables and removed unactionable data. Additionally, we added a numbered indicator to provide pharmacists with more context on the member's claim history. These improvements made the tables more scannable and made it quicker to decide on claims.
Alleviating Quota Anxiety
CVS had strict case review quotas for pharmacists, and tech failures and clunky systems hindered their performance. This created frustration and led to ambiguous performance reviews, which caused a dip in morale. Previously, pharmacists had to manually run reports on the number of reviewed cases multiple times a day to make sure they were on track. We saved pharmacists time by eliminating the need to run reports to track progress toward their daily quotas. The opportunity counter sits in their header, tracking their case count throughout the day.
Better Performance and Savings
Once the new SQM app was live, average case review time decreased from 4.3 minutes to 2.8 minutes within the first 6 months. User feedback attributed this improvement to better claims tables and visual cues that helped them decide on claims more quickly. By the third month, overall quota attainment had increased to 4%. Management attributed this success to preloaded queues and high-performing systems, which decreased pharmacist downtime and increased management's ability to allocate caseloads more efficiently. Finally, executive leadership projected maintenance costs for Retro and CSS to exceed $40 million over the next three years. SQM was estimated to cost a fraction of that.
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