Project Background

The Product, Marketing, and UX teams came together to better understand the biggest issues impacting client satisfaction and overall product experience. Through client feedback, internal discussions, and research, we identified several major areas that needed immediate attention:

• AI Integration: Clients felt the platform was falling behind modern expectations without AI-supported tools and experiences. Many wanted smarter features that could simplify benefits decisions and make the experience feel more personalized and efficient.

• Better Communication and Engagement: Users were frustrated with unclear and inconsistent communication surrounding healthcare plans, benefits, and enrollment information. We saw opportunities to improve transparency, trust, and the overall flow of communication throughout the experience.

• Reducing Friction: Research uncovered major usability issues within healthcare plan comparison and decision-making workflows. Many users struggled to compare options, understand tradeoffs, and confidently make decisions, creating frustration during important moments in the experience.

From there, I helped lead a research-first approach focused on understanding user behaviors, needs, frustrations, and decision-making patterns surrounding these issues. We prioritized the areas with the biggest opportunity for impact and worked closely across teams to turn research insights into actionable improvements. Rather than simply fixing isolated problems, the initiative became an opportunity to rethink how the platform could become more intuitive, modern, and genuinely helpful for the people using it.

Process

The process for this project started with gathering all the feedback we had from clients and diving into the key pain points they raised. Leading the charge, I worked with Product, Marketing, and the rest of the UX team to kick off our response to this urgent situation.

Laying the Groundwork‍ ‍

I began by writing down ideas and organizing the feedback into actionable categories, which helped give structure to our approach. Once the issues were clear, I facilitated a brainstorming session with the team. The goal was to turn concerns into opportunities, exploring potential solutions for the three core issues:

1. AI Integration

2. Better Communication and Engagement

3. Reducing Friction in Benefit Comparisons

We shared ideas, debated priorities, and discussed the best ways to move forward. From this session, I crafted a clear plan of action that split the work into manageable parts and delegated tasks based on team members' expertise and interests.

Driving the Research‍ ‍

As the lead for the Research team, I took ownership of the AI project. This was the first study we had worked on concerning AI and how it relates to our products. I outlined a detailed research plan, which included creating a project overview, defining goals, and developing questions to uncover how clients and users perceived AI integration. I also developed a survey on Userlytics to gather quantitative insights while a colleague conducted qualitative interviews with participants, asking deeper questions about their expectations for AI.

Analyzing and Refining‍ ‍

Once the data came in, I analyzed the results and identified key insights. These findings were essential not only for the AI integration piece but also to inform the broader team about user needs and preferences. I pulled everything together into a case study that demonstrated the depth of our research and its relevance to the product’s future.

Collaborative Presentations‍ ‍

Once the research was complete, I brought together the findings into collaborative presentations with internal teams, designers, and stakeholders to help align everyone around the biggest user pain points and opportunities for improvement. My goal was to turn research into something teams could actively use: helping people better understand user frustrations, behaviors, and needs in a way that informed real product decisions and next steps.

A large part of my role throughout the project was creating structure and momentum during this high pressure moment for the business. I helped identify the core issues, define research directions and coordinate efforts across the UX Research team. The project ultimately became an important opportunity to strengthen collaboration across teams and help shift the organization toward a more research-driven, user-centered approach.

Analysis & Insights

After completing the research, we organized and analyzed the findings to better understand where users were struggling, what they expected from the platform, and where the biggest opportunities for improvement existed. The work involved both qualitative and quantitative analysis and helped guide the direction of future product and design decisions.

1. Affinity Mapping:‍

We grouped interview feedback, survey responses, and usability findings into categories to identify patterns across the research. This made it easier to spot recurring frustrations and opportunities related to AI features, communication issues, and difficult healthcare decision making workflows.

2. Thematic Analysis:‍

As we reviewed participant responses, we identified recurring themes around confusion, trust, personalization, and information overload. These themes helped us prioritize which issues were having the biggest impact on the user experience and where teams should focus first.

3. AI Analysis through Marvin Repository:‍ ‍

For the AI-focused workstream, we used the Marvin repository to review and organize responses related to AI expectations, hesitations, and trust. This helped us better understand how users felt about AI in benefits management, including where they saw value and where concerns existed.

4. Highlighting Key Quotes and Insights:

One of the most impactful parts of the process was surfacing direct user quotes and examples that clearly showed where people were frustrated or struggling. These became important discussion points in presentations and helped teams connect more directly with the real experiences behind the data.

Team Presentation‍ ‍

To bring all the pieces together, the team held a collaborative session where we presented each project’s findings to one another. This step was crucial for aligning on the outcomes of both the individual and collective efforts. It was also an opportunity to integrate insights from multiple angles, ensuring our recommendations were as comprehensive as possible.

Design Team Execution‍ ‍

Once the findings were organized, the UX Research and Design teams worked together to review insights, align on priorities, and discuss potential solutions. The research directly influenced new concepts and product improvements focused on reducing friction, improving communication, and modernizing the experience. Seeing the work move from research into actual product decisions helped create stronger alignment across teams and gave stakeholders a much clearer understanding of user needs.

Conclusion

The "Emergency Care" project was a remarkable journey that showcased the strength of collaboration, thorough research, and user-driven design. The feedback we received from Product, Marketing and our stakeholder was overwhelmingly positive. They were impressed by how deeply we delved into the core issues, our ability to uncover actionable insights, and how we translated those insights into our design solutions.

Most importantly, our clients loved the work and the results we presented. They expressed excitement about the new direction and were eager to see these updates in development. This project not only restored their confidence in our product but also strengthened our relationship with our clients.

It was incredibly rewarding to see our efforts make such a tangible impact. I really enjoyed being able to be a part of this and lead in such an impactful way. This project set a new standard for how we approach challenges, paving the way for a brighter and more competitive future for Empyrean Benefits Solutions.