The Problem
CalFresh (CA food stamp program) was the subject of this Harvard Business Review case study. The main question and subject for our design work was: How do we improve on an inefficient government service with limited funding and a large number of people that will be affected by changes?
Service Blueprint
After heavily researching the process of applying for and receiving CalFresh benefits, I created a service blueprint. I added in the "Questions?" boxes once I realized that the average applicant may have questions at any of or all of the potential steps. From doing this, I also realized that there are a lot of places where the applicant can potentially fail and give up.
SWOT Analysis
I also did a SWOT analysis to start to think more about some of the themes I was seeing and some potential ways to make improvements. At the time, I focused mainly on the application process itself, but I later realized that there were other ways to help make the system more efficient besides overhauling the application itself (although I do think that overhauling the application would be a huge help as well).
Problem Statement
Potential customers for CalFresh are not signing up at the same rate that they should be because the application process is unnecessarily complicated, time consuming, and bureaucratic.
Solution
In this case, my solution was to implement a chatbot to help handle a lot of questions that users might have throughout the application process. The main anticipated benefits were:
Reduced call volume on the CalFresh side of things
CalFresh customers don't have to call for answers to (what should be) simple questions
CalFresh customers can get information tailored to them rather than browsing endless county and state FAQ pages
Below is a storyboard and design map that I completed to start to think more about the process involved, where the chatbot would fit in, and some of the questions that I had.
