STREAMLINING CROSS-TEAM COLLABORATION THROUGH PROCESS OPTIMIZATION
Enhancing communication, aligning team goals, and improving operational efficiency to drive better user experiences
Background
​Ping’an Insurance, an $800 billion company, tasked its newly founded digital health department with designing a chronic disorder management app to help insurance clients better manage their health conditions. The goal was to improve health outcomes, reduce long-term healthcare costs, and enhance user engagement with the company’s health services.
The Problem
A Fragmented Team, A Fragmented User Experience
When I first joined Ping’an Insurance’s digital health team, it quickly became clear that there was a deep misalignment in communication and goals across teams.
The department was newly formed, bringing together three distinct groups—product management, product operations, and the clinical team (dietitians and clinicians)—each of which had previously worked in silos.
With no centralized project manager to facilitate communication, each team was operating under different KPIs and priorities:
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The clinical team focused on user satisfaction and new patient registrations.
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The product management and product operations teams prioritized app engagement and usage rates.
Lack of communication between teams led to inefficiencies and a fragmented user experience.
The Approach
Uncovering the Gaps: How Misalignment and Siloed Decision-Making Affected the User Experience
Recognizing the need for change, I raised my concerns with my manager. He gave me the freedom to solve the problem however I saw fit and introduced me to managers across the product, operations, and clinical teams.
With this access, I gathered information by:
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Interviewing three people from each team to uncover their roles, responsibilities, and dependencies.
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Mapping internal workflows to identify points of information exchange—or the lack thereof.
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Tracing inefficiencies back to the user experience by aligning internal processes with the user journey to pinpoint where workflow breakdowns led to poor patient interactions.
Internal Workflow Mapped with User Journey, Blurred Due to Confidentiality
Internal Workflow
​Key Insights from the internal workflow and user journey mapping:
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Lack of cross-team awareness: The clinical team was unaware of app engagement efforts, while the product team had no visibility into direct patient interactions.
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Fragmented information flow: Patients were being contacted by multiple teams without a coordinated approach, leading to confusion and frustration.
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Isolated decision-making: Misaligned KPIs meant teams were working toward separate goals rather than a shared product vision.
By mapping out workflows, teams were able to see the bigger picture—how their work interconnected, where efforts were being duplicated, and how inefficiencies negatively impacted the user experience.
However, identifying the problem wasn’t enough; we needed actionable solutions.
Breaking Down Silos: Building a Collaborative and Aligned Team
After presenting my findings to the department, I proposed and implemented several initiatives to improve cross-team communication and alignment:
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The Impact
​​​1. Increased Cross-Team Collaboration Efficiency: Streamlined workflows and improved communication across product, operations, and clinical teams through regular meetings and a ticketing system, reducing redundancies and ensuring alignment on shared goals.
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2. Enhanced the overall user experience, ensuring better utilization of app features and clearer communication for patients.
3. Reinforced the importance of aligning departmental and team goals to achieve business objectives and provide better patient support.
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What started as a communication problem turned into an opportunity to redesign team collaboration for long-term success—ensuring that Ping’an’s digital health platform truly met patient needs in a seamless and integrated way.
Lessons Learned
​​​1. Clear Communication Reduces Bottlenecks: Mapping workflows helped uncover where misalignment slowed progress, reinforcing the importance of transparency and knowledge-sharing.
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2. Bridging Silos Requires Initiative: No one was assigned to fix the problem—I had to proactively identify inefficiencies, bring teams together, and propose solutions.
3. Aligning Team Goals for Effective Collaboration: Different teams had unique KPIs. Understanding and aligning these goals was key to reducing friction and improving efficiency.