Context

**Some details have been removed due to confidentiality. Therefore, this case study focuses on my process rather than outcomes.

Involvement in Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) process can create intense professional and personal stress. It is a complex process that involves many stakeholders including the employee submitting the complaint, the person accused, witnesses, and the employees who lead the investigation.

“If you are a federal employee or job applicant and you believe that a federal agency has discriminated against you, you have a right to file a complaint.” - Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

My team sought to identify ways to improve the customer experience. We looked for opportunities to: improve transparency, coordination, support, and proactively address issues early.

Process

The EEO process is a highly confidential and sensitive process, so we codesigned with process owners to improve known pain points and build their design skill sets to apply a customer-centric mindset beyond the project.

• Gathering background research: The team sought to understand processes at similar organizations and dive into the legal requirements of the process.

• Create experience maps: Through multiple working sessions with process owners, we visually mapped the roles, emotions, and critical actions at each step. We used a modified six thinking hats method, and we had process owners involved with the back-end of the process focus on a different lens as we analyzed and mapped the process. The hats, or lens, were: facts, opportunities, risks, and emotions.

• Testing: We used recent cases to test the accuracy of the maps and made modifications where needed.

• Synthesis: Based on interviews and working sessions, we identified frustrations and pain points.

• Brainstorming: We brought in process owners and stakeholders from three offices to collaboratively identify customer-centric improvements. The solutions were prioritized based on impact and covered the topics of skill building, outreach, and communications.

Our final report included experience maps, opportunity areas, quotes from process owners, and quantitative data about the processes.

Feedback

“The way we approach issues and the way I think about solutions has changed greatly during this process and now the customer experience is always taken into consideration...I think our office is better because of this.” - EEO Executive Leader

“Lexi is turned to as a trusted team member to lead high profile project work, as evidenced in her end‐to‐end project execution for both the Complicated Personnel Matters project. Her inclusive and empathetic approach to project delivery resulted in collaborative and fruitful conversations with project partners.” - Manager