Led the digital experience
I led product decisions across web and mobile for members, brokers, employers, administrators, providers, and sales.
Case study · Enterprise scale · Payer systems
Optimizing self service.
Ian Harman · Senior / Group Digital Product Manager · BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee · April 2016 to October 2023
When members can find an answer and take the next step themselves, the service becomes easier to use and less costly to provide. At BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, I led digital products serving about 3.5 million members. Our opportunity reached across member, broker, employer, administrator, provider, and sales experiences, with team, investment, and platform decisions to match.
$10MMember modernization budget I owned and deployed
~$60MBroker, quoting, and platform investment I influenced
22Direct reports, separate from a 130+ person matrix
>2×Digital adoption after personalization and product work
Helping members use their benefits
One health plan had many users, channels, systems, and definitions of success.
A member wanted a clear answer. A broker needed a product that was easy to explain and quote. An employer needed a benefit it could manage. Sales, service, compliance, operations, and technology each carried part of the result.
What members needed
People could not use a health plan well if its information, navigation, and tools felt fragmented. Search, content, personalization, mobile, chat, and self-service needed to work as one experience.
What BlueCross needed
Each local feature touched shared data, platforms, processes, budgets, and vendors. We needed one product direction that could serve many audiences without turning every request into a separate system.
Choosing where to invest
Give the customer experience a clear direction.
Built alignment at scale
I managed 22 direct reports and led through a separate matrix of more than 130 people across product, design, technology, operations, and business teams.
Connected money to product choices
I owned and deployed a $10 million member modernization budget and influenced about $60 million in broker, quoting, platform, Salesforce, and related investment.
Decisions that mattered
Build shared products without losing the needs of each audience.
Platform before page
Treat content, search, identity, data, and personalization as shared capabilities.
We moved beyond one-off channel work and made platform choices that could support web, mobile, service, broker, and employer experiences together.
Usefulness before novelty
Make personalization change the next action.
Personalization helped members find and use benefits. It also became part of the value story for large self-funded employer groups.
Adoption before launch
Measure whether people changed behavior.
We tracked engagement, app adoption, self-service, member satisfaction, sales support, and operating savings to understand whether the investment changed how people used the service.
Influence with clear ownership
Be clear about the investment I could direct.
I owned the $10 million member modernization budget and influenced about $60 million in broader broker, quoting, and platform programs.
What changed
Digital products served about 3.5 million members and helped BlueCross grow.
Average NPS stayed above 60 across the multi-year period. Personalization increased web engagement 15% and mobile engagement 12%. Digital adoption more than doubled.
Member and business value
Member replatform and self-service improvements supported tens of millions of dollars in annual sales and more than $500,000 in administrative savings. Personalization became a selling point for large self-funded groups.
New channels
Connected-device strategy increased engagement 50% and supported millions of dollars in annual sales. These results connected product adoption to a clear business case.
What this means for a business
A better customer experience can change the cost of serving it.
I ask founders where customers still rely on people to do something a product could make easier. At BlueCross, improving that experience increased adoption, reduced administrative cost, and gave BlueCross more to offer employer groups. Product choices, the team, and the investment had to support the same result.
Evidence and limits
These are my reported results, delivered by broad teams under my product leadership. I owned the $10 million budget; the $60 million figure covers programs I influenced. This page is independent of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee.
Applying this to your company
Where could customers do more for themselves?
We can look at where customers need help today and what it would take to make the next step easier for them.