Co-Creating a vision for the Future of Long-Term Care

Cross-functional co-creation of a transformative, AI-enabled vision for long-term care, empowering customers and caregivers with seamless, personalized digital solutions.

Role
Lead Service Design, Workshop Design & Facilitation, and Design Strategy

In-house
John Hancock

Context

John Hancock’s long-term care insurance business needed a transformative vision to address customer and business challenges, including fragmented processes, high claims risk, and limited digital tools. The challenge was to move beyond a reactive, transactional model and define a customer-centered, technology-enabled ecosystem. Building on foundational mapping efforts, the HCD team collaborated with over 80 stakeholders to envision a seamless, empowering experience for policyholders and caregivers.

We had initial customer research to guide us, as we kicked off a multi-faceted deep-dive customer research initiative in parallel including extensive secondary research, general population surveys, and 1:1 interviews with both John Hancock and competitor LTC customers.

Approach

The vision was co-created through a three-part workshop series, each focusing on a distinct stage of the customer journey. Over 80 cross-functional participants from customer service, operations, IT, risk management, and business leadership collaborated in these sessions.

Workshops were structured around “How might we” questions, sparking ideas and solutions that incorporated:

  • AI and automation for seamless policy management and claims processing.

  • Personalization and data modeling to signal behavior and care needs.

  • Straight-through processing (STP) for efficient workflows.

The HCD team synthesized these ideas into a unified, intuitive end-to-end prototype. Bridging user needs with advanced technologies, the prototype showcased a cohesive, AI-enabled, and data-driven customer journey.

Results

The prototype, unveiled to over 200 stakeholders, including C-suite leaders and global sponsors, served as both an aspirational vision and a practical tool. It demonstrated how business outcomes — reducing claims risk, improving customer satisfaction, enhancing health, and supporting aging in place — could be achieved through user-centered design and advanced technologies like AI, automation, and personalization.

Some features were actionable immediately, laying the groundwork for iterative progress, while others represented long-term goals. The HCD team delivered a prioritized feature backlog to guide product teams in future roadmap development, aligning short-term efforts with broader strategic goals.

By combining a compelling prototype with actionable insights, the project secured buy-in across all levels, fostering collaboration and driving measurable progress toward transforming the long-term care experience.

"Adri is so patient and thoughtful. She helped me highlight my work in a way that makes me so proud of my unique approach to design."

— Collette Noll