Mapping Member Journeys

Company

Brightside Health

Role

Senior Product Designer

Problem

Despite having a strong clinical platform, Brightside Health faced challenges with member activation. Many users completed the intake process but didn’t book or attend their first appointment. Others dropped off at various points in their journey. We needed to uncover why and how to intervene earlier.

My Role

I led the research of key member flows in the in the member portal by conducting the following:

  • Discovery

  • Defining strategy

  • Quantitative & Qualitative Research

  • Stakeholder Alignment

  • User Journey Maps

The Team

Research Goals

I wanted to uncover why members were dropping off or hesitating to activate and I set research goals focused on identifying behavioral barriers, emotional needs, and moments of confusion across the entire mental health journey. They included:

  • Identifying emotional drop-off points and logistical blockers

  • Understanding who our members are, how they behave, and what influences activation

  • Informing product and messaging updates to improve clarity, trust, and conversion

  • Mapping the end-to-end journey of a member to uncover opportunities

Discovery Methods

To capture a complete picture, I used a mixed-methods approach which included:

  • Running a collaborative white-boarding and brainstorming workshops with stakeholders

  • Organizing internal data and feedback

  • Conducting a journey map synthesis to triangulate insights from qualitative research, member feedback, product flows, and team assumptions.

Leveraging Internal Data

I wanted to understand what factors were influencing activation rates, so I collaborated with the Data Science team to analyze member intake data. We looked for patterns tied to demographic and clinical attributes. Below are examples of scenarios where activation rates were impacted by variables such as severity level, age, and income.

I conducted a deeper review of existing member research and spoke with stakeholders from Member Care and Support to identify common themes related to activation hesitation. The key themes are outlined below:

Persona Definition

I wanted to gain a comprehensive understanding of our members, so I put together a set of key questions. I met with the member support team, who were able to provide valuable answers and insights.

  • How do we define member groups

  • What are core attributes of primary members?

    • (e.g., first-time therapy users, age/income, condition severity)

  • What are their goals and pain points (qualitative)?

  • How do members make decisions?

  • What motivates them to purchase or book an appointment?

Based on the insights gathered, I grouped members into two segments: first-time, low-severity members and experienced, high-severity members.

Surveys

To address remaining gaps and validate our assumptions, I collaborated with the product manager to send out a member survey. I synthesized the survey data and clustered responses around emotional motivators, practical needs, and decision-making patterns to uncover what truly mattered to members at different stages of readiness. Sample questions included but were not limited to:

  • What matters most to members when it comes to therapy

  • What are important factors when selecting a therapist

  • How frequently do they want to meet with their therapist

  • What do patients hope to accomplish after completing therapy

Mapping the Journey

End to End Member Journey

In order to visualize and understand the member experience end-to-end before jumping into activation, I created a comprehensive journey map from awareness through retention. This included Brightside and member goals, emotional states, actions, screenshots, highlights, lowlights, and opportunities. The journey map helped align cross-functional teams around key drop-off points and unmet needs.

Activation Journey Deep Dive

To zoom in on the most critical drop-off point, I then created a detailed journey map where I focused on the activation phase, from post-purchase intake to first therapy or psychiatry appointments. I analyzed all associated touch-points, including screen flows, emails, and feedback, to identify friction points and content gaps.

The journey maps highlighted some key insights:

  • Members feel emotionally alone between signup and care

  • Clarity = confidence → confusion = drop-off

  • First-time users need emotional support more than logic

  • Decision paralysis happens when choices feel too personal without enough context

These insights informed the identification of opportunity areas, which included:

Giving more Trust and Clarity

  • Calmer onboarding tone

  • Reassurance messages after intake

  • Explain “what happens next”

Improving Booking Flows

  • Smart reminders

  • Therapist preview or video

  • Streamlined confirmation steps

Integrating Education and Personalization

  • Tailored onboarding per persona

  • Show outcome expectations earlier

  • Offer tooltips or tips during signup

Stakeholder Brainstorming Workshop

To explore hypotheses about what was preventing members from activating, I facilitated a whiteboarding workshop with cross-functional stakeholders. Together, we mapped assumptions into categories (e.g. “didn’t purchase,” “couldn’t schedule,” “too many choices”) and later validated or disproved them with real user data.

Impact

The research and synthesis work created alignment across teams, uncovered friction points in the activation flow, and informed targeted improvements to messaging, onboarding, and support. The journey map became a strategic tool that aligned teams around member needs. It improved cross-functional collaboration, helped prioritize roadmap features, and ensured product decisions were grounded in real user experiences.

  • Created shared understanding across product, marketing, and clinical teams

  • Highlighted UX gaps in activation and booking flows

  • Prioritized support for first-time therapy members

  • Shifted the team from metrics-only thinking to experience-driven insights

My Learnings

This project reinforced the importance of emotional clarity in mental health design and the value of involving stakeholders early. It also showed that meaningful insights often come from connecting existing data in new ways, not just from new studies.

  • Trust and reassurance matter as much as UX clarity

    For first-time mental health users, activation is about feeling safe and supported.

  • Personas must reflect mindset, not just demographics

    Severity and therapy experience were stronger predictors of behavior than age or income alone.

  • Assumption mapping built shared understanding

    By involving stakeholders early, everyone felt more connected to the problem and more invested in the solutions.

  • You don’t need to start research from scratch

    We had a wealth of data and pulling together what we already had was just as useful as doing new research. It’s about connecting the dots and organizing information in a clear way to understand the full picture.