Emerging Insight: Design thinking for public sector health schemes
21 March 2018
The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) in Ghana took on the design sprint methodology to tackle one important barrier for its users. Currently, in order to renew their membership of the National Health Insurance Scheme, members have to queue at NHIA district offices. With nearly 11 million members, this process is an administrative burden on the scheme and cumbersome for members.
Therefore, since May 2017, the NHIA partnered with the Facility to expand population coverage of the National Health Insurance Scheme by designing a simplified user-friendly digital renewal process.
To do so, the team decided to use the design sprint process – a step-by-step model that guides teams through a shortened, creative design process of just three to five days. The steps are outlined below:
To begin with, the intense process of gathering insights, building personas, ideation and prototype testing led to a much deeper and broader understanding of the change that was needed. For example, the NHIA team realised that meeting the needs of district office front-line staff was as important to its success as meeting the needs of its members. With a clearer understanding of what was needed, and in just six days, NHIA staff developed mobile renewal and digital authentication prototypes, communication prototypes in three languages, and gathered insights from around 50 users using not much more than a smart phone, computer and an empty plastic box! In summary, design thinking allowed clever use of limited resources to develop viable solutions that could be tested immediately.
The sprint became the basis of a more extensive design process, in which prototypes were tested with additional users and their feedback incorporated through several rounds of refinements. NHIA believes that had they used a traditional process of brainstorming and piloting, they would have identified similar refinements much later in the process, at which point, implementing them would have been much more costly.
The design sprint proved a valuable basis for a more efficient and agile design process at NHIA. For more information on how design thinking can be used for innovation in public sector health schemes, watch our webinar recording.
Therefore, since May 2017, the NHIA partnered with the Facility to expand population coverage of the National Health Insurance Scheme by designing a simplified user-friendly digital renewal process.
To do so, the team decided to use the design sprint process – a step-by-step model that guides teams through a shortened, creative design process of just three to five days. The steps are outlined below:
- Day 1 - Introduction and journey mapping: The first day of the sprint was spent understanding the design thinking framework, defining user categories, mapping the user journey and identifying user pain-points. The team also learnt application of the five-whys in deriving insight.
- Day 2 - Understand: The second day was spent in the field interviewing users. Interviews were conducted in urban and peri-urban locations. Interviews were open ended and aimed at understanding users' point of view.
- Day 3 - Ideate: On the third day, the team downloaded user insights to create target user personas. Based on the personas, the problem was reframed to include communication. Through an intense period of individual and group brainstorming, initial prototypes were developed for process and communication problem statements.
- Day 4 - Build initial prototype: On the fourth day, the process prototypes were built to prepare for field testing. The communication prototype was recorded as a mock radio call-in show.
- Day 5 - Test prototype with users: On the fifth day, the team tested the prototype with users at two new locations. Adding diversity to locations helps create a rich testing ground. The reactions of the users while interacting with the process and the communication were recorded for reference.
- Day 6 - Refine prototype: The final day was spent ideating on a revised iteration of the prototype based on user feedback. The revised ideas were built out to prepare for the second round of prototype testing.
To begin with, the intense process of gathering insights, building personas, ideation and prototype testing led to a much deeper and broader understanding of the change that was needed. For example, the NHIA team realised that meeting the needs of district office front-line staff was as important to its success as meeting the needs of its members. With a clearer understanding of what was needed, and in just six days, NHIA staff developed mobile renewal and digital authentication prototypes, communication prototypes in three languages, and gathered insights from around 50 users using not much more than a smart phone, computer and an empty plastic box! In summary, design thinking allowed clever use of limited resources to develop viable solutions that could be tested immediately.
The sprint became the basis of a more extensive design process, in which prototypes were tested with additional users and their feedback incorporated through several rounds of refinements. NHIA believes that had they used a traditional process of brainstorming and piloting, they would have identified similar refinements much later in the process, at which point, implementing them would have been much more costly.
The design sprint proved a valuable basis for a more efficient and agile design process at NHIA. For more information on how design thinking can be used for innovation in public sector health schemes, watch our webinar recording.