How to Create Change
Summary
In a case study of change management at Cigna / Evernorth Health, Amy Evans will walk through a use case of a new self-service operating model. From the beginning, Amy will share how they started change discussions, brainstormed on new models and launched a pilot process. She will also dive a little deeper into tactics that helped the team succeed in innovating the way the teams worked together.
Key Insights
-
•
Nearly half of all organizational change initiatives fail, highlighting the need for effective change leadership.
-
•
Self-service models can significantly increase design team capacity by shifting some workload to business stakeholders.
-
•
Categorizing work into must-do, may-do, and desire-to-do projects helps prioritize resources and reduce backlog.
-
•
Strong governance—including legal agreements, design checkpoints, and content guidelines—is critical for self-service success.
-
•
Asynchronous communication reduces meeting overload and improves team efficiency during change implementation.
-
•
Starting small with one line of business and demonstrating success encourages wider adoption across an organization.
-
•
Involving stakeholders early through pilots and continuous feedback fosters empowerment and builds trust.
-
•
Design operations can evolve into strategic change leaders by facilitating workshops, analyzing workflows, and enabling data-driven decision making.
-
•
Self-service enabled Cigna to redirect 62% of ad hoc design requests, improve revenue by millions, and speed delivery by 86%.
-
•
Empathy and transparency about design processes increase stakeholder admiration and collaboration.
Notable Quotes
"Would you feel confident leaving your project success to the flip of a coin based on the fact that almost half of all change fails?"
"Change is messy and it can be uncomfortable, much like baking bread—it’s hard to imagine sticky dough turning into a perfect loaf."
"What if product and business actually manage designs and deliver digital communications?"
"Design takes on a new role as governance practitioner, overseeing branding, content, and accessibility."
"We categorized all our work into may-do, must-do, and desire-to-do buckets to better allocate our efforts."
"Self-service was a model with the most unknowns but possibly the biggest rewards."
"Controls like insurance qualifiers and legal agreements were necessary guardrails for this new way of working."
"Async communications helped us reduce emails and meetings, improving overall efficiency."
"Starting with one line of business and showing success creates a trickle effect for broader organizational adoption."
"Stepping into the shoes of design gave stakeholders a new admiration for the design process and strengthened our relationship."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"We design a community that would be missed if it were gone for our service design leaders."
Marc Fonteijn Ru ButlerIncrease your confidence, influence, and impact (through a Professional Community)
December 3, 2024
"My ideal state would be to sprout like a potato. That explains everything else."
Dem Gerolemou Alexis Oh Neef RehmanClimate technology fundamentals
May 15, 2024
"Implicit methods alone can explain around 80% of the purchase decision, with half of it due to unconscious measurements."
Daniela Magaña Flores Ariane Rahn Jeff Ephraim BanderAhead of Competition: Learn What UX Benchmarking Can Do for Your Business Today
March 10, 2022
"Target’s internal teams varied in design maturity from totally nonexistent to full design strategy, so we had to meet them where they were."
Abbey Smalley Sylas SouzaScaling UX Past the Size of Your Team
January 8, 2024
"Our CIO, Fletcher Prev, has always made the employee experience his North Star."
Patrick CommarfordDesign Staffing for Impact
January 8, 2024
"We fundraised to cover Tatiana’s salary for three months so she could launch this project very quickly after the war started."
Xenia Adjoubei Sean BruceEmpowering Communities Through the Researcher in Residence Program
March 29, 2023
"If going from no design system to a system, you should see an increase in product development efficiency by at least 25%."
Craig VillamorDesign Systems for Ethical Design
January 26, 2023
"DP&M tools pull together necessary reference materials and design deliverables, showing how they relate to each other."
Jon Fukuda Ellie KryslDesign Planning and Management Support
October 3, 2023
"If you’re not embarrassed by what you share, you’ll share too late."
Iain McMaster IHan ChengDesign and Product: from Frenemy to Harmony
November 29, 2023
