Challenge
In 2010, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS), which serves 72 million beneficiaries, launched the Medicaid and CHIP Business Information Solutions (MACBIS) initiative to improve internal technology and data infrastructures. The MACBIS technology ecosystem is large, complex, and home to 11 product teams staffed by multiple vendor companies with high turnover and limited collaboration. This led to inconsistent use of Human-Centered Design (HCD) principles, the same stakeholder and user groups being tapped for redundant and costly research sessions by separate vendors, and a frustrated user community.
Solution
CMS developed a vision for unifying the MACBIS ecosystem and brought on our team—made up of Fearless, XCell, A1M, and For People—to execute that vision. We designed the MACBIS Ecosystem Map Tool to give onboarding contractors a comprehensive guide to the other product suites, vendor teams, and stakeholder groups in their orbit.
The before photo is the first iteration of the ecosystem map. The after photo is version 4 of the ecosystem map. Both versions were built as interactive Figma prototypes.
11+ Established MACBIS Product Teams use the map in their day-to-day work to visualize how they connect to and interact with each other, streamlining communication across the MACBIS community.
2,000 CMS employees use the MACBIS Ecosystem Map as a resource.
Departments and Divisions within CMCS have seen a decline in the number of redundant stakeholder meetings and workshops, reducing the organization’s costs and administrative burden.
Methodology
We started with low-fidelity organizational charts and sketches that served as rough maps of the ecosystem. As we moved to higher fidelity prototypes in Figma, we sought feedback from stakeholders and SMEs that allowed us to mature the product, uncover more use cases, and improve scalability by implementing Figma Components that allow for global changes. As the product matured, the user community grew from 150 users in the HCD community to 2,000 users across the agency. By frequently soliciting feedback, we discovered more people across CMS who could benefit from the map, which led to its widespread adoption beyond its initial intended use as an onboarding tool.
