CLIENT: BCBSMA

Role: Enterprise Director of UX, UI, and Accessibility | Subject Matter Expert | Team Lead

Launched a UX onboarding & training program that resulted in 38+ designers and product managers being upskilled to design strategically across app and web. The program catalyzed a philosophy of designing cross-platform within the enterprise. It also enabled human capital cost-savings and a more cohesive user experience at the right time, the right place, and the right channel.

THE CHALLENGE

Onboarding was non-existent

When I first joined BCBSMA as a consultant, there was no onboarding process with the design organization. Designers were spread across the enterprise in multiple capacities such as Graphic Designers, PPT Designers, Innovation Design, Marketers, and Digital UX all received completely different guidelines and standards (if any).

Brand and experience inconsistencies

Without a singular design reference library, every team that had an element of design, operated independently causing increasingly inconsistent experiences across multiple channels.

Resource constraints

There were not enough UX designers to keep up with the demands of BCBSMA's consumer base, which was increasingly shifting towards digital experiences.

Trust the Process

Starting from no documentation was daunting, but it opened me to multiple perspectives. By asking others (as well as documenting my experiences), I was able to record the most efficient process to successfully hire, onboard, and upskill my growing team.

Interviews that empower

To upskill folks with leadership & public-speaking opportunities, I coached them how to vet and interview candidates. Pairings of a senior member of the team and a junior led interviews themselves, guided by my curated list of diverse questions. Delegating leadership opportunities like this increased the team’s confidence tenfold.

Use the Buddy System

Pairing new and veteran team members during onboarding was critical to success of the program. It was a coaching opportunity for the veteran members (guided by my onboarding checklist guide). It also provided a critical layer of security to newcomers being paired with a trusted buddy to ask questions, peer design reviews, and build rapport within the team.

Check for Success

During the onboarding season (Days 1-90), I created a series of checkpoints to gauge the new team member’s level of understanding as well as the overall success. of the onboarding program to update if needed. The checkpoints were activities ranging from multi-choice quizzes, short design exercises, scavenger hunts, and more.

Sharing is caring

I shared my collection of knowledge, references, files, openly and often using the enterprise’s Confluence wiki capabilities, encouraging a culture of sharing and continuous learning. My advocacy to share knowledge in a centralized location set the organization’s standard for hiring, onboarding, and team/function management.

Impact

During the first official run of the UX onboarding program, we trained an initial batch of 8 designers who all successfully contributed to the team and enterprise. After that, more designers and project managers continued to be onboarded and trained using this framework. Speaking the same language and sharing our knowledge made our org more resilient and able to adapt to consumer needs. We will continue to transform our org by training more people about UX principles over time.

The UX onboarding program received interest from CX and technology leaders across the enterprise. It even inspired designers on other teams to launch their own training program, underscoring the idea of unlocking more human capital efficiency.

People onboarded
38+

Projects shipped
200+

Avg. score of Onboarding Quiz
86%

Learnings

Reflecting on my work and the overall team operations to leverage insights into future projects:

An organized library of information that illustrates the team’s strategic vision, processes, archives design source files, and resources and information that is relevant & easy for the team to navigate is invaluable to team success. View Case Study about the UX Confluence Space
Delegating duties of onboarding by enabling a buddy system of existing members of the team to new members is the most effective way to teach management skills and ensure both old and new members of the team are influencing the team’s knowledge base. View Case Study About Upskilling the UX Team
Gathering honest feedback before, during, and after onboarding is vital to ensure that the process and documentation are accurate and valuable to the team as a tool throughout their employment.

Onboarding UX team