From WIC to Table Using a Journey Map to Identify Innovations to ...

From WIC to Table
Using a Journey Map to Identify
Innovations to Increase CVV
Redemption Rates
Martelle Esposito
National WIC Association
March 5, 2013

Journey Maps
• Visualize customer processes, needs, and
perceptions during a service
• A design industry process, it is used to
identify opportunities to improve customer
experience in order to achieve a desired
outcome/behavior

Why Use Journey Maps and
Design Thinking to Solve
Consumer Problems
“Traditional techniques such as focus groups and surveys,
which in most cases simply ask people what they want,
rarely yield important insights. The tools of conventional
market research can be useful in pointing toward
incremental improvements, but they will never lead to
those rule-breaking, game-changing, paradigm-shifting
breakthroughs that leave us scratching our heads and
wondering why nobody ever thought of them
before." Tim Brown, CEO and president of IDEO

Quantitative and Qualitative
Data Enhance the Journey Map
Process
• Can provide insight on a particular
population
• Can identify problems/inconveniences in
the consumer experience
• Can provide insight on barriers to
achieving a behavior

Why Use a Journey Map for
WIC
• Helps to visualize the client’s experiences and
relationships with many different people and
components involved in the WIC client’s journey
• Helps to identify opportunities for improving the
WIC client experience at many different touch
points in the journey to ultimately achieve optimal
redemption and consumption of healthy WIC foods
– In national and state policy
– In vendor management
– At the clinic
– At the retail outlet

These Ideas Can …
• Inspire pilot projects in clinics, local
agencies, state agencies, in grocery stores
• Inform new research opportunities

The WIC Client Journey
Pre-clinic
travel
To clinic
enter
clinic
nutrition
education
session
receive
checks
leave
clinic
post
clinic
pre-retail
outlet
enter
retail
outlet
produce
section
other
grocery
sections
checkout
counter
leave
retail
outlet
post
retail
outlet
“pre”-
preparing
meals
preparing
meals
serving
meals to
family
post-serving
meals to
family

The WIC Client Journey: Touch
Points
• Pre-clinic
• Transportation to clinic
• Enter clinic
• Nutrition education
session
• Receive checks
• Leave clinic
• Post-clinic
• Pre-retail outlet
• Enter retail outlet
• Produce section
• Other shopping sections
of retail outlet
• Checkout counter
• Leave retail outlet
• Post-retail outlet
• “Pre”- preparing meals
• Preparing meals
• Serving meals to family
• Post-serving meals to family

Using a Journey Map and Design
Thinking to Brainstorm Potential
Ideas to Make the WIC Client
Experience Better at a Few
Selected Touch Points

The WIC Client Journey
Pre-clinic
travel
To clinic
enter
clinic
nutrition
education
session
receive
checks
leave
clinic
post
clinic
pre-retail
outlet
enter
retail
outlet
produce
section
other
grocery
sections
checkout
counter
leave
retail
outlet
post
retail
outlet
“pre”-
preparing
meals
preparing
meals
serving
meals to
family
post-serving
meals to
family

Touch Point: Client
Navigates the Produce
Section of the Grocery
Store
Human Interactions: children, family, produce
employee, other food retail customers

What Thoughts May Be Running
Through the Client’s Head What
Emotions is She Feeling at that
Touch Point
“Which fruits and vegetables should I get What
vegetables did my nutritionist say were the best
What will I do with them Will my kids eat them How
do I know how much the items cost Here is a scale.
I’ve never used one of those before. What’s it’s
purpose Does the scale tell me the price or does it
just tell me the weight I need to add up my items. I
need to write them all down. Where is the calculator
in my phone “ How do I get to just $10 I don’t want
to ask for help or buy the pre-bundled items because
I don’t want my community to know I need WIC. I am
just going to grab a few items and check out. ”

Continued
“I cannot go over the $10 because I do not have any
extra money this month. I have $0.60 left on the
CVV, but what could I buy for that little I can’t
figure it out, so I am just going to leave.“
Frustration/Giving up
“I don’t want to ask for help or buy the pre-bundled
items because I don’t want my community to know I
need WIC. I am just going to grab a few items and
check out.“ Embarrassment
“I need to get in and out of the store fast because my
baby won’t stop crying. I am just going to get a few
fruits and vegetables and leave.” Timeconstrained

Thinking about Analogies
• Phone plans with rollover minutes
• SNAP EBT card unused values roll over
from month to month

Potential Opportunities for
Improvement
• CVV Debit Cards with rollover potential
– CVV Vouchers are set dollar values can translate
easily into a debit card
– EBT technology not as complicated as full WIC food
package EBT
– Technology already exists in every state for SNAP
– A card could
• Reduce stigma
• Eliminate confusion and anxiety to get to exact value of the
CVV
• Store easily in a wallet
• Hopefully result in less unused value over the course of a
whole year

The WIC Client Journey
Pre-clinic
travel
To clinic
enter
clinic
nutrition
education
session
receive
checks
leave
clinic
post
clinic
pre-retail
outlet
enter
retail
outlet
produce
section
other
grocery
sections
checkout
counter
leave
retail
outlet
post
retail
outlet
“pre”-
preparing
meals
preparing
meals
serving
meals to
family
post-serving
meals to
family

Touch Point: Preparing
Meals
Human Interactions: children, family, none

What Thoughts May Be Running
Through the Client’s Head What
Emotions is She Feeling at that
Touch Point
• “How do I get my kids to eat these vegetables I am
going to follow this WIC recipe and hope for the best”
Anxiety
• “I am grateful for the recipe ideas, but I wish I were a
better cook and didn’t get so frustrated and confused
all the time.”Hesitation
• “My mom and sisters don’t cook healthy food, so there
is really no one to turn to for help in the thick of
cooking. So, sometimes I just give up.” Low selfconfidence

Thinking about Analogies
• The successful WIC Breastfeeding Peer
Counselor Program
• Behavior change support groups like in the
Weight Watchers Program
• Teams: “We are in it together” mentality
• Nutrition Interventions Targeting Parenting
Skills and Skills Sharing

Potential Opportunities for
Improvement
• Nutrition Education Peer Counselors
– Similar to breastfeeding peer counselors but
focusing on shopping, cooking and getting
kids to eat healthy food
• Peer Support Groups
– Moms share ideas and experiences on
shopping, cooking, and getting kids to eat
healthy WIC foods

Summary
• Journey Mapping is a design tool that can
be used to help identify opportunities to
improve the WIC client experience
• Innovations identified in this presentation
– CVV Debit Cards with rollover potential
– Peer counselors/support groups for shopping,
cooking, and getting kids to eat healthy WIC
foods

Conclusion
• We found journey mapping to be useful in
identifying creative potential solutions to
improve CVV redemption rates
• Journey mapping can help state and local
health programs identify policy and
programmatic possibilities specific to their
programs
• Journey mapping can help to determine
opportunities for future research and pilot
programs

What Can You Do
• Try creating a WIC client journey for the
specific populations you serve
• Incorporate journey mapping into your
agency’s research plans or store
improvement strategic planning, potentially
involving product and service designers in
the process
• Report the ideas that you brainstorm or
pilot test to NWA

Acknowledgements
Joey Zeledón
Award-winning Industrial Designer
New York, NY
Joey.zeledon@gmail.com

Questions