Creating a North Star Vision
As I stepped into my new role as a senior design lead, I felt a mix of excitement and apprehension. Leading a team of ten designers while still getting to know them and understanding the intricacies of our product was quite the challenge. Recently promoted to senior design lead, my focus was on enhancing the end-to-end digital experience of MinuteClinic. And then came the request from leadership: create a North Star vision. It felt like a daunting task, especially so early on. But instead of rushing in headfirst, we decided to start with some solid groundwork – customer journey mapping and Jobs to be Done (JTBD) research.
Customer journey mapping
Gather customer data
Customer interviews
Survey customers
Benchmark competitors
Rank top opportunities
Create prompts for ideation
Define scope
Define success metrics
Organize a design sprint
Round 1 - design sprint
Round 2 - lo-fi iteration & testing
Round 3 - hi-fi iteration
Empathize
We reviewed our current state, gathering data from sources like Adobe Analytics and Quantum Metrics, alongside customer feedback. Through customer journey mapping, we identified opportunities and set a course for improvement.
We kicked off Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD), conducting interviews with customers and analyzing competitors' approaches. By synthesizing insights from these interactions and prioritizing customer needs, we identified key opportunities to innovate and enhance our offerings.
Comparing our opportunities against competitors allowed us to pinpoint where we could excel. This insight guided our focus for the upcoming ideation phase.
Define
The next hurdle proved unexpectedly challenging. While we had identified ten top opportunities, we realized the designers could not address all of them simultaneously.
Collaborating with our research team, we grouped top opportunities and crafted two prompts for the design sprint. I socialized the design sprint prompts with our stakeholders, securing their buy-in for the upcoming four-day sprint.
Prompt 1
Imagine being ill enough to warrant a visit to the doctor. Normally, you prefer to see your primary care physician (PCP), because you feel comfortable with the care you receive from them as a transgender woman. But your PCP has no availability in the immediate future, so you decide to instead schedule a MinuteClinic visit after recalling a great experience you had with one of their providers back in April. You don’t quite recall the provider’s name, but you’re hoping there’s an easy way to get those details and potentially schedule something with her or at least at the same clinic you visited in April.
Imagine being ill enough to warrant a visit to the doctor. Normally, you prefer to see your primary care physician (PCP), because you feel comfortable with the care you receive from them as a transgender woman. But your PCP has no availability in the immediate future, so you decide to instead schedule a MinuteClinic visit after recalling a great experience you had with one of their providers back in April. You don’t quite recall the provider’s name, but you’re hoping there’s an easy way to get those details and potentially schedule something with her or at least at the same clinic you visited in April.
Prompt 2
Imagine your daughter Ashley (age 14) plays girls basketball. Her traveling Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball team will be leaving in a few days to compete in several tournaments this summer. At the last minute you are informed by her coach that she’ll need a more recent sports physical exam to meet the criteria to playing one of the major tournaments. Meanwhile, your son Carson (age 7) woke up this morning vomiting with a fever after complaining of a sore throat the last couple days. You don’t believe Carson’s illness is very serious, but you want to have him checked out since you ned a visit a doctor for Ashley. Getting Ashley and Carson an appointment with their PCP today won't be possible so you look into MinuteClinic as an alternative.
Imagine your daughter Ashley (age 14) plays girls basketball. Her traveling Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball team will be leaving in a few days to compete in several tournaments this summer. At the last minute you are informed by her coach that she’ll need a more recent sports physical exam to meet the criteria to playing one of the major tournaments. Meanwhile, your son Carson (age 7) woke up this morning vomiting with a fever after complaining of a sore throat the last couple days. You don’t believe Carson’s illness is very serious, but you want to have him checked out since you ned a visit a doctor for Ashley. Getting Ashley and Carson an appointment with their PCP today won't be possible so you look into MinuteClinic as an alternative.
Ideate
Round 1
The design sprint emerged as the highlight of the project. Organizing teams for a four-day sprint, each tasked with addressing specific scenarios, injected energy and creativity into the process. My role as facilitator involved providing support, creating presentation templates, and offering feedback, alongside coordinating efforts with the innovation lab committee. Witnessing teams innovate and embrace their ideas throughout the sprint was truly inspiring.
Round 2
We ended the design sprint with four unique concepts. I worked with the senior designers on the team to pull the best concepts from all of the presentations and weave them into a consolidated end to end story. We created a storyboard to visualize the experience and share with our stakeholders.
Once we had alignment on the consolidated storyboard we created low fidelity wireframes of the core experience. We conducted moderated usability testing to validate the designs.
Round 3
We translated our lo-fi vision into a high fidelity prototype and conducted another round of unmoderated usability testing to further validate the designs. After we refined the high fidelity prototype we presented it to our stakeholders for review.
“Great job presenting the MinuteClinic North Star work to product leadership last week. This was the culmination of a ton of great work, and the depth of research and customer-centric thinking were very evident in the final product. ”
- Health Services Design Director
- Health Services Design Director
Key Takeaways
• Customer-centric innovation is essential for guiding organizational vision and strategy.
• Data-driven insights and user feedback should inform vision work.
• Iterative refinement ensures that design solutions resonate with users and stakeholders alike.
• A shared vision fosters alignment and empowers teams to drive impactful change.
• Data-driven insights and user feedback should inform vision work.
• Iterative refinement ensures that design solutions resonate with users and stakeholders alike.
• A shared vision fosters alignment and empowers teams to drive impactful change.