OVERVIEW
OptumServe is a pilot program that prevents, addresses, and helps to resolve the behavioral health needs of active duty service members & veterans.
CLIENT
OptumServe
YEAR
2018
ROLE
Lead designer- business stakeholder interviews | ethnographic research | artifact creation | co-creation session | pilot design.
Background
I, along with one of our product managers, worked with OptumServe, a subsidiary of Optum Health that helps federal agencies tackle some of the biggest challenges in health care. The team we were working were trying to find an end to end solution to address the behavioral health needs of US service members and veterans pre, during and post service.
The Problem
According to the Office of Suicide Prevention and Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention (2017):
Veterans account for 18% of all death by suicide among U.S. adults and 8.5% of the entire U.S. adult population.
How Might We
Address and prevent suicide amongst military and veteran individuals?
Design Process
Ethnographic & Market Research
We spent a week too interview users, subject matter experts (SMEs), and stakeholders as well as conduct secondary research around military and veteran life and mental health. We interviewed 13 people- military and veteran individuals, behavioral science SMEs, and business and tech stakeholders.
OptumServe also provided us with ethnographic research conducted with 150+ military and veteran individuals, which we were able to synthesize and use to inform our end solution. Lastly, we did some secondary research- watching movies! My product manager and I watched Full Metal Jacket, Citizen Soldier, and The Marines- A PBS Documentary in order to better empathize with our users.
We obtained info around…
Military & veteran individuals
The military & veteran experience
Behavioral science to improve mental wellness
Sustainable engagement of military & veteran individuals
Existing mental health resources available to military & veteran individuals
Current technology within our enterprise that could be leveraged in the pilot program
Artifact Creation
We created a design statement to help everyone align on the problem that needed to be solved, design principles to help guide the outcome of our solution, two personas (one active service member and one veteran), and and end to end journey map for both users that followed their experiences pre, during, and post service.
Co-creation session
We then designed and led a 1.5 day session where we gathered behavioral science SMEs and business + tech stakeholders to walk through strategy, design, and agile frameworks, mental models, and behavioral change models to co-create a pilot program for OptumServe.
Story tents
Towards the end of the session, we used the story tent framework to ideate solutions. The winning solution that was chosen was "Super Fred"- a tactical, team-based approach to behavioral health care that provides monitoring & support.
Future State Storyboard
We then whiteboarded out a more thorough solution that took a a long term, end-to end holistic approach to managing the brain health of a service member, integrated at the time of recruitment.
Pilot design
Finally, we established the foundation for the program to prepare for its transition into build mode (blurred for confidentiality purposes).
Outcomes & Learnings
Session Results: Future state storyboard, pilot program, experiment design, and massive action plan.
Session results
We delivered a future state storyboard, pilot program, experiment design, and massive action plan
We received a 100% session NPS score
Next steps
Pilot the program
Revise the program based off of pilot results
Scale the program
Key Learnings
Primary causes of emotional distress include having an identity crisis and the transition back to civilian life
The most successful veterans focus on serving others post-military
Peer-to-peer counseling is particularly effective
Final thoughts
I’m thankful for this amazing opportunity to positively impact the lives of those that serve our country.
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