Pharmaceutical Ordering Transformation - Incubate

Formative Agile Research Studies

What Research Challenge was I Asked to Solve?

The incubate project set out to prove that three different ways of redesigning/rebuilding a digital product could work in an organization that had not previously had experience with these methods. All cross-functional team members, including research, working in a 2-week, Agile sprint methodology, and from remote locations due to COVID and in addition, scoping a feature or flow that could be designed, developed, and delivered in a few weeks.

Because the overall transformation will take 3-5 years, project leaders wanted to ensure both customers and internal sponsors can transition and experience the value-add over that period.

To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted and obscured confidential information in this case study.

Actions

What was OUR Plan to Address This?

The team carved out Delivery Closures as the feature MVP delivered by the end of the trial period. This functionality allows pharmacy customers to notify distribution centers (DC’s) when they’ll be closed or unable to accept deliveries, which prevents additional costs and fees in the event drivers return orders to the DC’s.

Business Goals

To prove cross-functional squad teams could work together remotely
Breakdown a value-add feature into 2-week sprints
Work in an Agile methodology – learning from customer feedback and evolving the design and build in each sprint

Research Objectives & METHODS

To ensure the design work received customer feedback for each sprint and that the delivered feature was user-informed throughout the process.

SPRINT WEEK 1:

Worked closely with the team to know what capabilities they planned to design
Prepared high-level research questions and discussion guide
Recruited customers and handled testing logistics

SPRINT WEEK 2:

Conducted mixed-method formative/usability sessions
Performed analysis and synthesis
Provided high-level, actionable insights to the squad team
Delivered a final readout to project sponsors and executives

Participants

Leadership directed us to have existing customers serve as participants. Because of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, it was stipulated that customers were not to receive incentives for participating in research. Over the course of 14 weeks, we persuaded 22 customers to participate in short formative research sessions. For every 2-week sprint, we enlisted 3-4 Retail Independent customers to perform a couple of tasks, talk aloud, and answer follow-up questions.

Range of experience and performance levels
Regionally diverse across the US
A mix of genders and ages

“To me, it would just be clicking on each day that we’ll be closed and hitting Submit. And it’s pretty easy to figure that out because you can see as you’re hovering over stuff that squares are changing colors and giving you a checkmark to click if you want to select those days.”

— Participant 3

Findings & Recommendations

Through numerous sprints, several insights and recommendations resulted from the testing. Many findings were incorporated into the MVP of the feature, and others were stored in a backlog. At a high level through the process, we learned:

To set closure dates, participants would expect to find it under account settings. Findability will be a part of future research when the entire site IA is investigated.
We quickly realized customers close for days throughout the year other than days around the national US holidays. We pivoted away from a restricted list to a full calendar view.
Our customers' mental model for giving the DC's notice not to deliver an order is a one-day notice. Customers reason that they place an order, and it arrives the next day. It is in the backlog to work with the business processes of the DC's to reduce the 2-week lead time they currently need.

Old pop-up notification - limited availability, caused confusion, no confirmation, and wouldn’t stop appearing, even if the user checked “Don’t ask me this again” — **Old pop-up notification** - limited availability, caused confusion, no confirmation, and wouldn’t stop appearing, even if the user checked “Don’t ask me this again”

In the current state, customers are annoyed by the pop-up notifications about CAH DC holiday closures and admit it is the only method that captures their attention. However, we continue to use the pop-up to remind customers of upcoming holiday closures, modified to eliminate confusing and annoying characteristics.

Retail Independent customers were the primary focus; however, other classes of trade made us aware that the capabilities around choosing locations would need to be enhanced for the feature to work for their large organizations.
Customers were delighted with the on-screen and email confirmations.
Throughout the process, labels were fine-tuned to eliminate confusion or misinterpretation. Users passed over instructions preferring to see a reference key for quick visual confirmation about date colors. Future iterations will use succinct instructions, if necessary, and a reference key.

Mobile responsive version of the new Delivery Closures feature.

“It shows you right there that you’ve got two upcoming closures within the next couple of weeks. And then if you notice that something’s wrong or one of those closures gets canceled, you can pretty easily go back in there and unselect it and resubmit that you’re not going to be closed.”

— Participant 9

Results

What were the results of the work?

The incubate project proved that the teams could successfully work remotely, within the 2-week Agile sprint methodology, and deliver an MVP portion of the product that customers can begin to use. Research proved that it could effectively function and add value to the process in an Agile environment. The transformation project was fully approved, funded, and currently underway.

Lessons Learned

What did this project teach me about research, design, or myself?

The incubate project was my first experience working fully Agile and ensuring research remained in step with the design and development team through the sprints. I was excited and terrified about the pace at which I would have to move to stay aligned with the team and bring the critical voice of the customer into the process.

I knew I would have to focus on research essentials and expedite where possible, without compromising the integrity of the research. I was able to do that by thinking through a plan, establishing research questions, creating a discussion guide, recruiting/scheduling customers, having a notetaker assist me, using virtual boards for analysis, sharing high-level insights with the team, and completing a final report deck for presentations and documentation purposes.

It was liberating, exhilarating, and addictive to see customer feedback incorporated so quickly. To experience the evolution of the designs and, in the end, have customers validate that we were going in the right direction. It was genuinely thrilling, and looking forward to more of it.