At M*Modal, I led the UX design vision for two products, HCC Collaborate and CDI Collaborate. These products assist Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) specialists in improving the documentation medical conditions using AI technology.

When a doctor types something into patient record, a dialog appears in the corner of the screen to give them insights on what they should be documenting, facilitating prompt and accurate capture of diagnoses.

Being new to this field, I initially grappled with understanding the intricate clinical documentation concepts and terminology. However, by engaging directly with CDI specialists working in hospital systems and and leveraging insights from experienced colleagues, I rapidly immersed myself in this domain. This experience allowed me to advocate effectively for the needs of these specialists, who often work 'behind the scenes,' without having formal medical training myself.

I quickly learned at M*Modal to steer away from 'design by committee,' particularly in group customer calls. Initially, I joined weekly customer adoption team calls as a means to gather user feedback efficiently, given the challenges of scheduling additional time with healthcare workers due to time constraints and organizational barriers.

While these calls helped identify existing issues, explicitly soliciting design feedback in these settings had drawbacks. Often, individuals higher up in the organizational hierarchy tended to provide feedback based on initial impressions and sometimes insisted on specific design directions without openness to further iteration, resulting in 'design by committee.'

I realized that the primary contributors to feedback during these calls were administrators and team leads who had purchased our software for others at the organization, highlighting the distinction between the 'customer' and the end user.

I quickly found that alignment with cross-functional teams was crucial, and I needed to advocate for user-centered design in order to do so. Advocacy enhanced my ability to contribute to 'big picture' design initiatives, and allowed me to innovate, conduct in-depth user research, and iterate on designs while aligning with product owners on vision and timelines.

To foster alignment and improve the CDI specialist user experience, I introduced a weekly/biweekly 'UX Update' meeting, open to all interested parties. Colleagues found it valuable for cross-communication, bridging gaps in the work handoff process under our Agile sprint model. It facilitated early awareness of technical constraints for adoption specialists and product owners while helping developers and QA testers understand their impact on the final user experience.

I advocated for user-centered design practices at M*Modal, promoting research and testing despite tight timelines. I also presented a talk at M*Modal's company-wide conference, Closed Loop, encouraging everyone to champion user-focused design.