COA ESP Workflow Optimization 2025

Overview

The Live Well team partnered with the Council on Aging (COA) to optimze the Elderly Services Program (ESP) by improving billing, financial evaluation, and contribution processes. Through research, ideation, and refinement, the team developed new educational materials, client engagement strategies, and financial calculators. The project was handed off to the COA team for further testing and final implementation decisions.

My Role

Project Lead
Create Research Plan
Create Co-creation Activity
Conduct Interview
Create Visualization

The Team

1 Graduate Design Research Fellow
2 Faculty Leads
5 IndustrialDesign Co-op
1 Fashion Design Co-op
2 Communication Design Co-op
1 Bio-medical Engineering Co-op

Project Timeline

The project lasted for three semesters in total. Because of the setup of the UC semester, a new team of Co-op students worked on this project each semester, making continuity of knowledge and onboarding new team members extremely necessary and important.

01 Understand

understand COA workflow and stakeholder challenges

Understanding the ESP journey: Stakeholder interactions, challenges, and opportunities

The team interviewed 26 stakeholders involved in the ESP process, ranging from Case managers, billing and accounting staff, to clients.

Clients’ journey mapping

Refine maps and Identifying Pain points

The team summarized and narrowed down to 3 main focus areas for this project.

02 Ideate

Co-create and develop possible solutions

Co-creation

The team initiated idea generation and co-creation based on identified opportunities with the COA sponsor team during the ideation phase.

Prototype development

Following the outcomes from co-creation sessions, the team started working on developing prototypes and getting ready for the testing in next phase.

04 Project refinement

Project Refinment

Testing in field work

The team planned and initiated 1-month testing period with COA assessors, having them enrolling new clients with the proposed payment model, calculator tool, financial evaluation method, and contribution materials.

Where is it now?

After handoff, the COA ESP team has adapted the new workflow and has tested, refined and implemented the new payment model.

reflection + Learnings

This was my first time leading a project and a multidisciplinary team independently on a daily basis. Throughout the 2 semesters I was involved in this project, I grew so much as a researcher, a team leader and as an individual.

Balancing Stakeholder Priorities: Navigating the tension between leadership’s revenue goals and field staff’s mission to support seniors, ensuring that financial sustainability aligns with service equity.

Rapid Adaptation & Leadership: Quickly onboarding in a complex environment, understanding the landscape, and confidently stepping into a leadership role to drive the project forward.

Co-Creation with Stakeholders: Leveraging field staff’s firsthand expertise to collaboratively refine processes, ensuring solutions are practical, impactful, and embraced by those implementing them.