Our client, a leading cancer research center in New York, was interested in enhancing care provided to their customer, and shifting behavior from one of "cure" to one of "prevention". They approached us to explore customer healthcare, along 4 major categories "Data sharing", Hub Services', 'Reframing Risk', and 'Customer Engagement.' Below is our approach, learnings and output.
This is a list of a few organizations we looked into, interviewed and analyzed while creating our catalog of case studies.
Here's an example of a final case study we provided to the client. In this case, we combined a number of different organizations that were tackling the same issues to create a more robust and thorough analysis of best practices.
While the first part of the case study covered highlights and profile information, along with interesting stories to read 'at a glance', the second page captured a more in-depth review of some of the organizations' design principles, best practices and noteworthy initiatives.
Here is an example of best practices we provided the client under the category "Data Sharing". How can they be the "good guys of data?" What can they learn from organizations such as McGraw Hill about data privacy?
In the final phase of the project, we incorporated learnings and best practices from the in-depth research interviews and case studies to create an end-to-end service that would help the client build out their capabilities in the areas of 'Hub Services', 'Customer Engagement', 'Risk Reframing' and 'Data Sharing'
One of the key insights from our research was the behavior of "Practiced Avoidance" when it comes to knowledge about illnesses such as cancer. A key element of our proposed solution was a discussion and activity kit for the entire family that would encourage transparency and reduce the fear of the unknown.
What happens after a cancer screening? HM the organization help build and maintain a lasting relationship with the customer, so that they can incorporate small, but positive steps in their day-to-day?
In order to move from a mental model of cure to prevention, we focused on how to bring recommendations to encourage changes in the day-to-day (diet, exercise, sun exposure etc.)
Building a sense of community to help build and maintain behavior change over time
Providing an expert to answer any questions or doubts, in an effort to build an environment of continued support and transparency.
Providing an "Arc of Services" to customers, and thereby reaching out to a larger community of people.
Faculty Research Project with Laura Forlano and Maryam Heidaripour.
Team members : Fellow MDEs students : Becky Marshall, David Pollack, Theresa Lafranchise
The goal of this workshop was to get participants to engage in actively discussing and designing alternative futures, around the "future of work and automation". This can be a difficult task, and often is viewed from a singular lens, so we used methods and frameworks from speculative design and design fiction to encourage participants to think at a systems level, from different POVs.
The first activity was a "Headline Clustering" activity, which functioned as a sort of 'primer' - getting participants to discuss and become aware of the landscape of automation, future of work narratives etc and relevant issues being addressed in the media.
These are a few of the artifacts that were used in facilitating the workshop - namely, the main work canvas, scenario "tents" and cards that encourage participants to think about different human and non-human actors in the ecosystem. The scenarios were set on a planet far, far, away, titled "Gleep Glorp".
For each scenario, participants were given the challenge of thinking about how they would navigate a scenario from a different POV than their own.
At each level, participants were given a new scenario and asked to pick their main considerations (Economic, political, socio-cultural, technical, ecological, legal etc.). They could also use the "wild card" to create their own, which were used to further shape conversations and develop the final comic strip.
The modular nature of this kit enabled multiple entry points and resulted in an extremely rich discussion and share-out. Commonly these workshops end in short-term, "silver-bullet" style solutions. In this case however, the result was a more well-thought out problem definition, with a series of recommendations and questions to design for.
The consideration buckets prompted participants to discuss and prioritize various values, and use these to inform and develop a comic strip that captured the concerns/alternative futures of the scenario provided.
This is an example of the output created by a team at the end of the 2 hour workshop.
Intervening at different points during a service
