When: Prior to the kickoff, before going on-site with the state.
Who: The civic technology team, the state staff who oversee parts of the manual renewals process
Purpose: The purpose of this meeting is to identify the top areas to focus on during user research. The workshop aims to bring state stakeholders along in the process so that they are bought in on the research plan and have agreed that they are willing to take action on the outcomes of the research.
Have state stakeholders pull data to fill in the funnel. This will highlight where the most people are falling out of the renewals process. For example, if a large percentage of people are never completing their renewal, one hypothesis might be that they are unaware they need to renew. If a disproportionate amount of people are being terminated after submitting their renewal, a hypothesis might be that there is something in the renewal form causing people to make common mistakes.
Spend a few minutes to get everyone aligned around the goal of helping more people get through the manual renewal process, and get everyone in a “how might we” mindset and away from feeling defensive.
This is likely the first time many stakeholders have seen this data, so it’s important to review it together to start the meeting with a common understanding of where users are falling out of the process.
Review the top level hypotheses together, then set a timer for X minutes and have everyone brainstorm ideas. If you’re using a tool that allows an anonymous mode, I recommend using it to eliminate groupthink. When the timer is up, reveal the stickies. Set a new timer for X minutes and have people read them and do collective affinity mapping. You may see similar stickies across categories, but I recommend keeping the affinity mapping to each column. While the problems may seem similar on the surface, the way you would test or address the problems is generally different based on what part of the funnel it’s happening in.
Note, the focus should be on eligible members who still need coverage but end up losing it anyways. Hypotheses such as “they didn’t submit their renewal because they know they make too much money now” should be acknowledge as legitimate ideas, but put in a parking lot.
Spend a few minutes reading the categories together to ensure a common understanding.
For the top hypotheses that you want to test, discuss the best way to test them. For example, if you hypothesize that people may not submit their renewal because they aren’t receiving their notice, you may test that by looking at mail bounce rate data, whereas if you believe people don’t understand their notices, you may want to usability test them with real people. For each, ask whether the best way to test the hypothesis is through a data pull, research with the public, research with navigators/assistors, or a combination.