Public Trustee of Queensland
Conducted user research, created research artefacts such as personas and journey maps and designed wireframes for a new user portal
About the Public Trustee of Queensland
The Public Trustee of Queensland (PTQ) are a government Statutory Authority that provides services such as:
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a free will-making service,
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services for enduring powers of attorney,
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deceased estate management, and
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providing financial administration for people who have impaired capacity and no one else to help them manage their money.
The brief
The PTQ had customers who were unhappy with their services, and had a high volume of customer complaints. They engaged us to understand what these complaints were, and to design a solution to these complaints.
What we did
At a high level
We needed to understand the 4 main product lines that the PTQ provided (wills, enduring powers of attorney, deceased estate management and financial administration), how customers engaged with the PTQ and what their current complaints were regarding the process.
We were aware of the sensitive nature of this project was as we were dealing with people who had recently lose loved ones and had to deal with the complex process of deceased estates and enduring powers of attorney, as well as people who had no control over their own finances.
We decided that conducting face-to-face user research sessions was the best first step. As a whole, we took the following approach for this project:
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30 one hour user interviews across th 4 product lines to understand the customers’ current experiences with PTQ’s services,
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A hands on sense making workshops with the PTQ staff to understand the main issues customers face when dealing with PTQ staff,
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'How Might We’ design workshops with customers to get their ideas future state improvements,4 ‘Ho
After the discovery phase, it was evident that users needed digital self service options, such as a user portal in order to access PTQ services and engage with PTQ staff.
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Prioritised, conceptualised and roughly sketched out most valuable ideas that came out of the customer workshops.
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Created customer personas, future state journey maps and recommended concepts for service improvements.
In more detail
We facilitate 30 one hour user interviews with:
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3 wills customers
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6 customers for the enduring power of attorney
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11 deceased estate customers
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10 financial management customers
Using the insights from the user interviews, we conducted a sense making workshop with PTQ staff where we presented the insights back to them. We then asked them to theme the insights from the 4 groups together, as a way to bring them across the customer complaints.
Some of the high level insights (for the Wills customers) from the workshop were:
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There was a general lack of awareness of the importance of making a will.
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Customers generally found it easy and straight forward to create a will.
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The first impression of PTQ was generally good, people felt they were talking to knowledgeable staff. However, the initial call didn’t set a lot of expectations about the further process.
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Clients felt involved and included in the will making process during the meeting.
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There was a lack of communication and services from the PTQ after the will had been made.
How Might We design workshops
We facilitated 4 How Might We design workshops with customers from the 4 product lines to get their ideas on how they would like to engage with PTQ.
The workshops were conducted in-person, and generated some great insights, which we incorporated into our designs.
Creation of research documents
Personas
We created personas for the different product lines. The personas weren’t based on demographics like age, location or marital status, rather we created the personas based on the traits that stood out during the interview.
For example for the Wills product line, the personas were based partly on the different reasons that people were making wills.
Journey maps
We created current state and future state journey maps for all 4 product lines. The current state journey map mapped out the current journey of the customers and included the current pain points, delights, unmet needs, information needs, tone and feeling.
In the future state journey map, the following were included:
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Customer pain points,
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Customer delights,
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Unmet needs,
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New information and communication concepts (based on the user research),
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Digital self service concepts (based on the How Might We workshops),
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Tone and feeling.
Rough wireframes
We created design concepts based on each phase of the future state user journey map. In this way, we addressed all the problems faced by the customers. For example:
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Get started on creating a will online - fill in the essential details
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What to consider before making a Will appointment with the PTQ agent
