Working in an "agile" framework
CVS minute clinic utilized the SAFe project framework
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Our team was organized into trains
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Each work phase was divided into program increments (PI's)
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Our work was broken up into 5-7 week sprints
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We worked closely with the product team to understand our goals.
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​We engaged in a week of PI planning
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At the end of each sprint we presented our work to stakeholders and decided on how we would iterate from there
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At the end of each sprint and PI we would conduct a retro
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"Trail" lead
Minute clinic was divided into a number of "trails" that included Way finding, scheduling, notifications, virtual care and several others.
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I was the lead for the Way finding trail which encompassed searching for services and CVS locations, promoting Minute clinic and educating our customers on what we offered as well as maintaining our services and symptom pages.
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Our Trail was comprised of a UX design lead (me), UX designers, Content writers, an accessibility partner, A UI specialist, and a representative from the research team.
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I Led the group through PI Planning for each feature, insuring that all roles understood their responsibilities and how to allot their time.
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I assigned out feature work for each Trail member.
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Although each member worked independently, I met with the trail regularly to insure there were no barriers to reaching our goals.
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I reviewed and mentored the Trails output
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I met with the other Trail leads to insure consistency across the trails
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I met regularly with senior management to report on our progress
Setting up a UX program
As part of the MCOE, innovation team, as UX Lead, I was part of a group that set up the UX section of our program. Here are some of the steps:
Assign roles
Defined and assigned the roles of UX Lead, UX Designers, Researcher, and Content specialist. We were able to have one each for these roles, but if you are a team of one or two, you may do all of these things.
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UX Process
Create and use a flexible UX process. Understand the user, Define the business goals and user goals, Emphasize research and analysis, Create iterative designs and test often.
User Centered
It was important to make sure everyone involved understood that we were implementing a user centered design approach and what that meant. Deliverables include: user maps, personas, and user blueprints.
Design
Collaboration. Remember to bring in your team from the early stages. Start with UX workshops and move on to lo-fidelity wireframes. After testing move on to higher fidelity designs.
Relationships
Forge relationships with other departments such as development, SEO, accessibility, marketing, architects, and product owners. Bring development in early to avoid future issues.
The Design System
Establish a design system and shared design practices based on your branding and UI best practices. This would include creating web components, standard notations, and file naming.
"Christopher has been so helpful as a lead. His meetings really help us to work through our roadblocks!"
Laura N. CVS Content specialist
PI Planning
As a trail lead, I was responsible for coordinating and facilitating PI planning several times a year. I assisted our trail in:
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Assigning features to trail members
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Assigning points to features
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Prioritizing features
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Insuring that all Trail members had a complete understanding of our features
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Mentoring
Throughout my career at CVS, I was responsible for mentoring our team:
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I was assigned to meet regularly with new designers to assist in onboarding them to our train.
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I mentored individuals who desired more training in User experience design. For example, journey mapping and research.
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I gave hour long presentations to our teams and senior management on topics such as "Research best practices", "Conversational Design", and "CVS Branding Standards".
