Intro
One of my favorite parts of my job, is that I regularly get to talk to Kaiser Permanente members and take a pulse on how we are doing in regards to the website and mobile app. My coworker and I (pictured above) lead this effort where we travel to different Kaiser Permanente locations across Southern California (pre-pandemic) to reach different demographics of members and interview them on their experience using KP’s website and mobile app. We partner with the facilities and allow them to input any questions they like to help them better understand how their facility is doing. Currently, we are leading this effort remotely by talking to Kaiser Permanente members across the country and weaving in relevant topics such as how KP has done during COVID-19 and with vaccine communication.
My responsibilities as a co-lead on this project include:
Coordinating interview script questions with stakeholders
One of the goals of this rolling research is to be flexible and continue to bring relevant information forward to the teams. With COVID-19 being life changing for everyone, we decided to focus a large portion of our recent interviews on how KP has done in supporting members during the pandemic. Since these interviews are focused around the digital experience, we targeted many questions around how digital has played a role in getting them resources and care they need during such unprecedented times.
Sharing out findings with relevant stakeholders and incorporating them into the roadmap
I take these findings, analyze them, compile a report and share them with various relevant teams. A major finding from recent research was the impact of member’s mental health from the hardships of the pandemic. We shared this with the COVID team and began to brainstorm how we could make mental health resources more visible to members on our COVID resources page. You can see here towards the bottom of the page that there are mental health resources listed to assist members in finding the help that they need.
Another major finding from these interviews was around misinformation regarding the COVID vaccine. The team working on the COVID vaccine page on kp.org employed us to see what members wanted to know about the COVID vaccine and where the gaps were in information. We found that many members were scared of the vaccine and the efficacy/side effects. When talking to members who were more confident in the vaccine, we found that this was due to their own research which included articles backed by scientific data, watching informational videos and their trust in experts support of the vaccine. With this finding, we shared back with stakeholders how integral education on the vaccine is for members to feel comfortable in getting it. We are continually working with the teams to help maneuver how to best improve our site and mobile app based on the most current user feedback.
Scheduling future sessions with facilities and recruitment
I work closely with Kaiser Permanente facilities to partner with them on how we can coordinate effective visits where we can interview members while they wait for their appointments without disrupting anyone. We communicate with facilities about how they can impact questions they may want asked regarding their facilities and then share facility specific findings with them.
During remote times, I work closely with our recruiting team to recruit for specific segments that we want to hear from. I meet with our recruiter to ensure all the requirements are understood and help select participants with compelling or relevant stories. Some segments we target include members with mental health needs, caregivers and digitally unengaged. Our goal is to understand how digital can play a role in supporting all member needs, not just our more typical users.