Design Operations & product design/development.

Digitally enable the federal workforce and accelerate expanded access to benefits via online filing, processing, and management.

The ECOMP product ecosystem allows for complete, end-to-end digital filing, routing, and management of claims by all case parties including federal workers (claimant), agency personnel, federal claims workers, doctors/nurses, entity representation, and more. As well as sustained benefits management and access for all parties.

Product Growth

Upon my introduction, the engagement consisted of an 18 person team (10 developers) working on two established ECOMP products with approximately 200,000 users. Throughout my 2.5+ years on the project, our team grew to over 50 people (35 developers) working to expand the ECOMP ecosystem to include six products and over 420,000 users. In this time ECOMP also received presidential and congressional recognition and additional funding specifically noting the product experience success to be trusted and expanded. This expansion was achieved in part as a result of the UX team’s focus on user enablement via unified experiences to ensure product adoption was effective and enjoyable.

Role Evolution

I was been brought to the DOL team based upon the client’s expanded interest in UX and how it may improve their product. Intevity saw this opening as a unique and important opportunity for us to help them leverage the power of UX and enrich our strategic offerings to them through the re-defining and building of a UX practice. In mid-2019 I joined the DOL engagement with the long-term goal of expanding the ECOMP product ecosystem and building a UX team/practice. Upon my introduction, I was the sole designer for the team and owned all UX design and strategy work. Intevity saw this opening as a unique and important opportunity for us to help DOL leverage the power of UX and enrich our strategic offerings to them through the re-defining and building of a UX practice.  My focus was to define and demonstrate the value of a robust UX practice with the goal of expanding funding for UX efforts.

In my first 6 months I hit the ground running as the sole designer to prove the value of UX and justify team expansion. These efforts began paying off by late 2019 when we added our first additional designer and I stepped into a lead role. Growth efforts were paused in early 2020 from pandemic uncertainty then hastily picked up again by 2021. By early 2022 the team expanded to four UX/UI professionals and myself as UX Manager (UX team total of 5).

This unique opportunity to start at the bottom and grow with the team/product gave me specific insights along the way which I will discuss below through the lens of each role.

UX Designer

As mentioned, my first role on the team was UX designer. My focus at this time was to immersed myself in the DOL team and product with objectives to establish a solid relationship with the client team and a robust foundational understanding of the product, business, and user base. In this stage I was not only doing the UX work but also advertising this work as demonstration the value of UX.

The first step in helping a client unlock the power of UX is establishing trust. To best position the team and product for expansion, my initial focus was to build client relationships and trust in myself, the UX practice, the team, and our strategic approach. Throughout 2019 and early 2020 (pre-pandemic) we regularly (once/week) went on-site to DOL’s DC offices to facilitate in-person product work with our stakeholders. My strategic influence at this time was valuable for Intevity and DOL’s working relationship, strengthened trust, and solidified alignment on the product vision and collaboration standards going forward. 

This in-person work with DOL also allowed me to establish a firm grasp on the state of their work. The federal landscape was new to me, having come from a commercial background, and my ability to lean into relationships at DOL gave me an understanding of OWCP’s working styles and processes online and offline which dramatically accelerated my ability to effectively design for that space. Through this work in understanding DOL and OWCP, I was also able to gain an understanding of their current and prospective user audiences and products. 

UX Design Lead

By late 2019 the client recognized the value of UX and was ready to expand the team and practice. We made the second hire on the UX team in November of 2019 and I was elevated to the lead role where my focus was to set standards and exemplify DOL’s UX practice for the expanded team. 

Once the client was bought into the value of UX it was up to me to leverage this trust and opportunity to strategically advance the practice and team. I also began to look towards the future of the product participating in road mapping discussions and injecting the voice of the user at the higher levels of product planning, where UX previously did not have a seat at the table. I was the face and voice of the UX team and my focus shifted from user advocacy to user experience advocacy working to better our practice making space for junior designers to thrive and individually advocate for their user audiences as I set the bar for the UX practice. 

UX Manager

​​As UX team manager I grew the team to four UX professionals. I was responsible for setting individual and team priorities, mentoring, and managing the UX practice. I lead the strategic direction and oversight of the product on all levels. On the macro level, I was accountable for roadmap work, design operations, and team/product strategy and management. And this work all translated down to the micro-level, working directly with junior and senior UX team members on research and design insights ensuring all product work was headed in the same strategic direction. As well as ensuring the product strategy was shared cross-functionally working with fellow managers and leads to ensure all were aware of how their work fit into the larger product vision.   

A noteworthy project I continue to direct for the DOL engagement is the mobile app and DMP design system update projects. These projects are separately funded initiatives for DOL which we have strategically taken a combined approach to ensure the best possible outcome for the ECOMP ecosystem of products. Details of this initiative may be found on the DOL Refactor & Design System page.