Jason Simpson - Walgreens Rx Ready Pass Project

To protect sensitive business interests, designs and details are limited to general information, and some images are intentionally obscured.

A BAND-AID FOR THE #1 CUSTOMER PAIN POINT

Facing increased pharmacy competition, as well as growth opportunities with the acquisition of 1,900 Rite Aid stores, Walgreens needed to address the #1 pharmacy customer pain point — the length of time waiting in line.

A new mobile app was developed as the customer-facing solution for Walgreens' Pharmacy Renewal — a comprehensive program to transform all pharmacy operations, technologies, and customer interactions to support new and innovative ways of serving current and future customer needs.

With an ambitious timeline of less than one year to launch the app, and 12 billion annual prescription experiences on the line, it was essential for work to be completed at a fast pace — while meeting regulatory guidelines and exceeding customer expectations.

As Principal UX Architect for the project, I was contracted to use my expertise to rapidly build a team, guide product design, usability and research, to produce high-quality consumer and enterprise-level deliverables on time and within budget.

A checkup for operations and customer experience.

Rx Ready Pass was a customer-facing mobile solution to reduce operational costs, wait times, and provide a superior level of customer service for the millions of prescriptions filled in Walgreens' retail pharmacies each day.

Rx Ready Pass provided a set of advanced digital features to allow Walgreens to differentiate their customer experience from competitors, and provide operational efficiencies and cost savings.

THE CHALLENGE

INNOVATIVE APP FEATURES THAT BETTER MEET THE NEEDS OF OLDER CUSTOMERS

The customer-facing piece of Walgreens' Pharmacy Renewal was a mobile app which utilized the latest features and payment methods, while seamlessly integrating complex processes into an interface that was simple and easy-to-use — essential for the large base of customers aged 55+.

MY ROLE & LEADERSHIP

DIFFERENTIATING WALGREENS' CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

My role as Principal User Experience Architect was to lead the global vision for the project and provide tactical guidance and input for the execution of the strategy, while building and managing a UX team, and ensuring that unique business requirements were met — including regulatory compliance, legal and engineering. My activities included managing the UX process by creating roadmaps and schedules, and assigning and coordinating the work of visual designers, UX designers, and UX researchers.

I worked with stakeholders to define high-level vision, strategy, and roadmaps to differentiate Walgreens' pharmacy customer app experience from competitors.

My responsibilities for this project included working with the product team to define the scope and details for the app, including creating written scenarios and wireframes. I also interfaced with cross-functional stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle to ensure that the final solution met all stakeholder needs and business requirements. I worked closely with engineering to implement the solution and address any technical challenges in a way that allowed teams to deliver a product that was as close to the user-validated prototype as possible.

My significant contributions included:

Providing vision, thought leadership, and research for holistic design solutions, including identifying affected backend components, as well as customer touchpoints.
Managing the end-to-end UX process, creating roadmaps and schedules, assigning and guiding the work of visual designers, UX designers and UX researchers.
Conceptualizing innovative and complex features, including the addition of a QR code scanner to the point-of-sale system and integration of the solution into existing payment systems like Apple Pay and Google Wallet.
Owning processes and methodologies to unify the vision for millions of daily prescription experiences.
Defining detailed product and customer experience requirements and creating UX design standards for best-in-class digital experiences to serve pharmacy customers.
Conceptualizing new product innovations and UX strategy to meet growing customer needs and expectations.
Directing development of multiple product components, ensuring discovery/design best practices are followed.
Supporting recruiting efforts, hiring and managing UX designers and researchers.
Building a UX team and a culture where designers and researchers could grow in their careers and feel a strong sense of product ownership.
Fostering a strong, collaborative UX practice within Walgreens and increasing the organizational maturity of the function.
Extending Walgreens' brand identity into all products without compromising usability.

STRATEGY & INSIGHTS

EMPOWER CUSTOMERS WITH NEW APP FEATURES

I used data gathered from extensive UX research to identify types of users and their existing mobile app mental model, as well as established patterns that fit users' mental models.

I then applied the data to the design process to guide the creation of user flow diagrams, wireframes, low-fidelity prototypes, high-fidelity prototypes, and user interface design specifications.

After deploying the product to pilot stores, we continued to monitor user feedback and make iterative improvements to the design to address unforeseen challenges.

RESULTS

DELIGHTED CUSTOMERS & 14% INCREASE IN PHARMACY SALES IN 6 MONTHS

The customer-facing piece of the Walgreens' Pharmacy Renewal solution was the first mobile pharmacy app to utilize the latest technology by seamlessly integrating complex processes into an interface that was simple and easy-to-use.

Features included mobile payment methods, allowing customers to video chat with pharmacists for required consultations, notifying customers when their prescription was ready for pickup, and facilitating the redemption process.

The holistic solution for Rx Ready Pass included not only design for the customer app, but also significant backend components, like point-of-sale system modifications and the addition of QR code scanners. In addition to product design, I led the complex work for all backend requirements.

Rx Ready Pass allowed Walgreens to differentiate their customer experience from competitors and provide operational efficiencies and cost savings.

Notable features of Rx Ready Pass and results included:

Empowering patients with choices on how they interact with the pharmacy and managing their health.
Shortening the checkout process for both the patient and pharmacy team member.
Enabling additional service and messaging channels for customer engagement and strategic partnerships.
Moving low-value patient interaction out of the store and enabling pharmacy team members to focus on higher-value activities.

Feature enhancements were designed to better meet the needs and interests of mature customers, and increased app usage of that group to more than 20%, which is twice the industry average.

The feature enhancements for mature customers included:

Tap targets within the app, which widened the sensitivity area for each button, even when tapping isn't precise.
Support of TouchID and secure auto-login, addressing a key obstacle for users who struggle to remember or locate login and password information.
Simplified menus tailored to infrequent mobile app users.
A pill reminder feature designed to help mature adults and seniors who are more likely to have multiple daily dosages to manage.
Support for smartphones that offer larger font size options.
Loyalty program "Balance Rewards" for healthy choices that provides shopper loyalty points if customers use the app to track healthy lifestyle choices, including exercise, blood pressure, etc.

Reducing Costs & Customer Pain Points