Human-Centered Design (HCD) is the process we use to understand the people for whom we are writing policies and creating programs and services for at CMS. The successful practice of HCD means we are meeting the mission of CMS: "to ensure that the voices and needs of the populations we represent are present as the agency is developing, implementing, and evaluating its programs and policies." HCD can be applied to any type of work at CMS, including products, services, and even policy.

Following the six-step HCD process that we use at CMS, the training workshop will introduce you to HCD and reinforce knowledge with activity-based group learning.

After completing the training, the learner will:

• Understand introductory concepts of human-centered design 
• Understand some basic HCD methods/activities that can be applied to their role at CMS

Understanding your customers is foundational to human-centered design (HCD). How do you create a shared understanding of your customers across a team and leverage customer research? Personas, a fictitious yet realistic representation of your target customers, can help you do just that.

During this online training, attendees will learn the benefits of using personas to drive creativity in their roles at CMS or the HCQIS Community. They will finish the course with the skills needed to use personas to develop empathy for their customers and power ideation for product features and customer experience improvements.

After completing the training, the learner will:

• Understand what a persona is and why we use them
• Experience the creative process using personas for empathy and ideation
• Understand practical uses of personas in product development

Human-centered design (HCD) practices should be applied iteratively throughout a product’s development and delivery lifecycle, even after functionality has been released. When working towards continuous improvement, site analytics tools can help you gather both qualitative and quantitative usability data and make informed iterative improvements.

During this online training, attendees will learn how site analytics can help teams improve the design and functionality of product solutions. They will finish the course with the skills to use common site analytics tools to improve customer satisfaction.

After completing the training, the learner will:

• Understand how analytics complement human-centered design
• Identify competitive analytical tools for usability insights and five usability indicators available in Google Analytics
• Utilize a framework to remediate usability

Understanding the customers’ holistic experience with CMS can help you identify both customer pain points and opportunities for improving the customer experience. Journey maps, a commonly used human-centered design (HCD) tool, create empathy by depicting the customers’ perspective as they interact with different touchpoints throughout their experience with CMS. 

During this online training, attendees will learn how journey maps can be a useful human-centered design tool. They will finish the course with the skills to create and use a journey map to communicate insights, engage cross-department team members, and provoke change through the findings in this tool.   

After completing the training, the learner will: 

• Create and use a journey map to communicate insights
• Engage cross-department team members
• Provoke change through the findings in this tool

Surveys are one of the most frequently used methods of collecting information from a group of people. Yet perhaps because we’ve taken so many surveys throughout our lives, it’s easy to discount the rigor and planning necessary to gain meaningful information. 

During this online training, attendees will learn about a survey life cycle, general guidelines, best practices in survey design, and how to avoid common problems while gaining insights into this popular research method. They will finish the course with the skills to create surveys following a seven-step process including how to define goals, write straightforward questions, and obtain accurate and meaningful results.  

After completing the training, the learner will:

• Create surveys following a seven-step process
• Define goals
• Write straightforward questions
• Obtain accurate and meaningful results

The art and science of determining what to build, and when, is often a convoluted process driven by business viability and technical feasibility. But what if prioritization could include what provides the greatest value to our customers? 

During this online training, attendees will learn techniques for prioritizing backlogs in an intentional, quantitative way that eliminates stakeholder bias and provides the best customer value.

After completing the training, the learner will:

• Understand techniques for prioritizing backlogs that provides the best customer value

There is a common misconception that design and development are at odds. One prioritizes understanding and the other prioritizes solutioning. The goal of this training is to discuss how teams can thoughtfully share these responsibilities and achieve a balanced approach to delivery.

After completing the training, the learner will:

• Understand how CCSQ implements lean, agile, and human-centered design via the SAFe model
• Recognize the complementary value proposition of lean, agile, and human-centered design philosophies
• Empower teams to apply an agile mindset when faced with program challenges
• Apply multiple alternatives for team structures to aid in delivering solutions quickly with low costs
• Engage with the Centers of Excellence to help programs achieve their objectives