overview
Launched in January 2021, the Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave digital web portal was a site created and maintained for the PFML state benefit program. The program allows workers and employers to request and manage family and medical leave in Massachusetts.
about the project
Company: Nava PBC
Client: Massachusetts State Government
Timeframe: Summer 2020 - Fall 2021 (1 yr 2 months)
My Role: Designer/Researcher (7 months), Design Lead (7 months)
Goal
To build and launch a digital web portal for Massachusetts employers to support and manage their workers in the process of applying for family or medical leave.
Details
On June 28, 2018 Massachusetts was one of six states to pass legislation for a Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) state program. The state benefit program offers up to 26 weeks of paid leave for family or medical reasons to eligible employees in Massachusetts. Managed by the Department of Family and Medical Leave (DFML), they hired Nava PBC to build, launch, and maintain the digital web portal for workers who need to submit applications and employers who review and manage them. The portal was separated into 2 experiences, the worker and the employer. In my role I researched and designed for the employer experience. The employer web portal allows for human resourcing staff, those that manage family and medical leave, to review and oversee worker applications.
What I did: After 7 months as a Designer/Researcher working on the employer experience, I became the Design Lead of that scrum team. My duties included leading a group of designers/researchers through researching and launching new features, releasing the ability to apply for caring for a family member, building strategic direction, and managing cross-functional relationships and client relations.
Approach
Research Methods
Generative & Evaluative Research (Interviews, Usability Testing)
Workshop Facilitation
Feedback Form/Survey Analysis
Data Analytics Analysis
Final Outcomes
Research Insights turned into Product Features
Site Map Diagram
Collaborative Service Blueprint
Phased Feature Roadmap (post-MVP)
Final UX designs (pre + post-MVP)
Tools
Ethnio, Mural, Figma, Lucidchart, Google Analytics, New Relic,
Confluence/Jira, Zoom & Audio Transcription Tool
high-level process
The timeline to build a Massachusetts PFML digital platform for both workers and employers including designing and building an MVP site, and then monitoring, refining and expanding that site post launch. As both Designer and Researcher this included identifying key MVP features through generative research, and co-creating with our client, additional stakeholders, and Nava’s cross-functional team of product managers, engineers, and delivery managers.
In addition, I planned and conducted a mix of evaluative research methods to understand how we could improve and inform the strategy for incremental features after launching.
methodologies (pre-launch)
Generative Research
Prior to launching, part of my role was helping to determine which MVP features address the basic needs of Massachusetts employers while simultaneously meeting the legislative requirements PFML. Because the main goal was to define the best experience to introduce employers to this new web portal, a generative research approach was selected.
1-on-1 User Interviews w/ 8 Participants
In order to develop what this experience could look like and the best way to engage employers I planned and conducted 1-on-1 interviews (45 mins) for the authentication and onboarding experience. My co-researcher designed the study for reviewing the application. We used clickable prototypes as visual artifacts for employers to describe their needs and pain points.
Inclusive Recruitment & Research Tools
We recruited through Facebook, Craigslist, and Massachusetts’ Employer Advisory Groups. To ensure diversity in employers we strive to recruit across company size, roles, location, industry, race, and gender. I created clickable prototypes in Figma and leveraged Ethnio for scheduling, and Zoom for interviewing, and provided $50 incentive gift cards..
MVP Requirements
Some early explorations of mobile-first designs for creating an account and onboarding used to develop prototypes show in 1-on-1 interviews.
Synthesis Outputs
Snapshot of Atlassian Confluence Readouts
Post interviews we synthesized both our research findings in Mural with the goal to address the key research objective: “How might we give access and guide employers through the process of managing PFML?; What would make it easier for them to review and manage PFML applications?”
To support working in collaborative agile environment findings were uploaded to Confluence for a readout and product/engineering tickets based on actions items were created in Jira.
In addition to reading out our findings, I updated our cross-stakeholder service blueprint made in excel for easy collaboration. I also developed the a web portal site architecture based on prioritized user requirements.
Employer Portal Site Architecture
Cross-Stakeholder Collaborative Service Blueprint
Final Designs (MVP)
The final design direction entailed verifying employers manually and then pre-creating their account. This looked like sending them an onboarding email to finish setting up their account and providing them just the “right” amount of educational content to inform them about this program. I used USWDS design with Massachusetts visual Mayflower system to create the final designs.
I later added the ability to create an account for those who were not pre-verified.
expanding post-MVP
Site Feedback Forms & Google Analytics Analysis
Post launch myself and my team identified and aligned on the next set of features most important to employers based on quantitative (web analytics) and qualitative (site feedback form) data. The most requested feature was a centralized list view or dashboard that displayed all applications and their statuses for employers to review.
“It would be helpful to have a list of current claims. That way when I log in to approve one person’s claim, the other one is also there to view without me having to find the email with the specific link”
- Employer 1 (site feedback form)
“ It would be VERY helpful to have a home screen that displays all outstanding applications, application status, if information is due from the employer & due date…”
- Employer 2 (site feedback form)
Cross-functional Ideation Workshop
Through understanding that a dashboard key feature for employers I developed some user scenarios based on real life examples from the feedback forms and prioritized them with our product owner. These scenarios were used for a cross-functional (product, engineering, research, design and content) generative sketching workshop I planned and facilitated. There were 8 internal stakeholders who worked all along the employer experience contributed to what a dashboard product strategy should looked like.
Outcomes of the workshop included features needed in the dashboard and prioritization of these features built into a product roadmap strategy.
Phased Feature Roadmap | Applying An Incremental Approach to New Features
Post workshop, I developed a phased approach to build a centralized list of applications, the dashboard, in partnership with the product owner and technical lead. The phased proposal identified how we can build an MVP dashboard for the biggest impact and lowest technical feasibility for our clients and their users, moving toward an optimize experience with more features.
PHASE 1
Easy access
Users can manage their claims from the portal instead of email.
PHASE 2
Improve experience
All employers can more easily prioritze and sort claims.
PHASE 3
Optimize the dashboard
Employers can easily search and more effectively manage claims.
Evaluative Research
Moderating User Testing (7 Participants)
Based on our phased approach I developed a prototype and moderated testing study guide to validate phase 1 of the dashboard, ensuring we were on the right path. The study was conducted by myself and 2 designers/researchers on my team. We took notes for another using google templates I created and synthesized findings in Mural.
Some Synthesized Findings
Some of the key things we learned from testing with employer participants were...
- 7 out 7 of the participants found majority of the dashboard columns and flow easy to understand except for the Status Tags
- Status Tags were very critical for them when scanning the list of applications but currently they're labeling was confusing.
- Employers wanted to know when an application was submitted and how much time they had left to review it.
- Search was priority number 1 for employers with employees over 50 and then different type of filters.
Final Dashboard Designs (live as of 2022)
I created the below final designs for the employer dashboard based on what we learned from the moderated testing and for first live launch of the dashboard. Iterations after this released were created and designed by my team, following the Phased Feature Roadmap, as I transition to Design Lead.
This video of the current experience includes the original designs I created and the addition of later features such as sort, search, and filtering.
Impact & Reflections
Success Metrics
- For the employer web portal we managed to engage 10% of MA employers and 95% were successful in creating and verifying their account.
- As of FY2021 prior to the dashboard employers had reviewed and approved 43,440 applications from January 1st to June 30rd.
- The state of Massachusetts were able to pay out $167, 915,781.01 to workers going on family or medical leave in the year of 2021.
Key Learnings
The portal site for employers was a complex experience simplified in order to provide users with the most straightforward experience. Something I learned is that achieving some of those simplified experiences that have many policy/legislative restrictions required a lot of planning and re-imagining with cross-functionally upfront. This meant bringing in engineering, policy, and product teams very early into the generative and evaluative research process so they can observe user needs but also align collectively what we should actually build.