Journey mapping to disrupt heart health

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota had big ambitions in 2017. They wanted to create bold, disruptive innovation in cardiovascular disease—but first they needed a deep understanding of the patient’s journey, mindset, and unmet needs.

This was primarily an insights project—an extremely deep one. Our ethnographies took us to every corner of Minnesota, where we asked people and their caregivers intimate questions about the heart attack that had rocked their lives. We learned to bring a box of tissues.

We found a theme of interconnectedness that made the whole experience feel, to consumers, like a jumbled mess. When you have heart issues, nothing happens in a silo—the divorce leads to the smoking, which leads to the heart trouble; the confusing hospital paperwork leads to a feeling of helplessness, which leads to more smoking. Our job was to untangle it all into a clear consumer journey with actionable pain points.

We presented our findings in a day-long Immersion Session, with consumer journey maps blown up on the walls, short stories about respondents, and creative exercises to spark out-of-the-box thinking.

The team of experts at BCBS took it from there, building game-changing innovation rooted in deep consumer truths.

What we did: Consumer Insights, Innovation Strategy/Visioning