Building Operational and Finance Tools With A Human-Centered Design Outcome Mindset

The Administration Team participated in a transformative human-centered design training in November 2022 which changed their approach to process improvement and reporting for their department and the organization. They shifted from a task-oriented mindset to an outcomes-focused mindset due to the insights from the training.

Human-centered design acknowledges users' humanity, and it's a powerful tool for creating better tools and services. In healthcare, taking the time to understand clinicians' and patients' needs and challenges can result in better care and increased trust in technologies.

The team’s training focused on understanding the "why" behind a product or service and engaging with users to create something that is both viable and desirable while addressing their inherent needs and challenges, how they use the product or service, and the emotions and behaviors that the experience evokes.

For the people and finance experience teams, this approach meant developing tools and processes that not only save time and money but also improve transparency and communication. Through the workshop, the team learned various methods and approaches to implement these ideas. They applied

them by collaborating with functional subject matter experts (SMEs) and designers to create a reporting and automation platform tailored to specific requirements and expanded to support the operational needs of the entire staff.

The Impact on Staff

By considering the needs of all users and stakeholders, including those within the organization, the team developed more effective tools that streamlined processes, automated tasks, and enhanced communication, leading to greater efficiency and improved operations.

The immediate impact of these tools allowed users to access decision-making information and insights at any time, at any place, without assistance from the administration teams. Leaders and teams have shared visibility, transparency, and awareness of cost control and staff management and can have metric-driven informed discussions to make decisions based on actual insights. Users could directly access information related to:

• Standardized financial reporting to see a continuous portfolio view of expenses and resources.

• Identifying staffing gaps on projects and more effectively assigning resources where they are needed.

• Supporting project managers when reallocating current resources and requesting new resource requirements for projects within their portfolios.

• Empowering finance and back-office operations teams to process a growing number of requests to support the organization.

•  A centralized space for staff cost planning, approvals, and notifications

Using data from numerous UCSF sources, our dashboards merge financial and project data into a structured portfolio view to provide new insights into current and forecasted costs. Our automated workflows replace unstructured email exchanges with optimized processes that are easily tracked through completion.
 

What We Learned

Throughout this process, our team learned:

• The value of utilizing Design SMEs within the organization to teach and guide us with human-centered design in our products

• The importance of utilizing Product SMEs to teach the team about product mindset

• Restructuring the team from task-driven activities in order to enable user outcome goals

• Change our mindsets with user experience as our guiding focus

• People investment and continued training, as well as the ability to pivot at any time

What’s Next

While the resulting tools and dashboards are functionally rich, users are required to maintain links and remember where to navigate. With support from the design team, the team is developing a role-based, single-point-of-contact application using SmartSheet's WorkApps.

This will provide a combined experience of information, insights, and tools appropriate for each role, documented policies and guidelines, and integrated insights on financials and staff allocations.

For more information on how we created these tools, contact Ianthe Pretorius or Robert Newton.

Team

Functional SMEs: Leilani-Marie Bergans, Sarah Cadotte, Kelly Canepa, Crisna Castro, Cheree Fernandez, Yana Peterson, Stephanie Ruelas, and Teresa Toy

Lead Designer: Amethyst Saludo

Strategy, Vision, Architecture, and Development: Aaron Neinstein, Robert Newton, and Ianthe Pretorius