This presentation was given at Agile Australia conference 2017 at Sydney. Synopsis is as follows, “Healthdirect Australia has an awesome suite of online as well as telephone services. Our website metrics are growing but we realized that our service users don't just need information but great end to end services. In the session I have presented how Healthdirect evolved from delivering discrete websites to operating multichannel services that meet consumer expectations. It was achieved by realigning the organization structure in line with our Service lines, and embedding right skills within delivery teams to enable user-centric service design and delivery. During the transition we referred to Digital Service Standard, provided and maintained by Australian Government’s Digital Transformation Agency. Will also present the challenges tackled along the journey.” I will be more than happy to receive your comment or feedback, and to answer any questions you might have regarding the topic or presentation. Thanks.

1. Build Digital Services, Not Websites
Syed Riyazuddin
Delivery Manager
Healthdirect Australia

2. Agenda
21/07/2017 2
About us
The Journey
• How it began
• Key improvement areas
• Learnings & achievements (so far)
• Key challenges
Q&A

3. 3
Who we are
Healthdirect Australia – A national, government-owned, not-for-profit organisation
About us
What we do
We develop and deliver a range of digital health and telehealth services
Objective
To provide every Australian with 24/7 access to the trusted information and advice they
need to manage their own health and wellbeing

4. 21/07/2017 4
About us – Our services
mindhealthconnectMy Aged CarePregnancy, Birth and Baby
Carer Gateway Get HealthyNational Health Services Directory
healthdirect after hours GP helpline Quitline

5. 21/07/2017 5

6. 21/07/2017 6
How it began
Key improvement areas
#1 Organise better
#2 Build the ‘Right’ thing

7. 21/07/2017 7
#1 How we used to operate
Organisation level
• Functional Silos
• Management overhead
• Reporting nightmare
• Conflicting priorities

8. 21/07/2017 8
#1 Design principle
#Build digital services, not websites.
Our job is to
uncover user needs and build the
service that meets those needs.
“A service is something that helps
people to do something.
Of
course much of that will be pages on
the web, but we’re not here to build
websites.The digital world has to
connect to the real world, so we have
to think about all aspects of a service,
and make sure they add up to
something that meets user needs.”

9. 21/07/2017 9
#1 How we operate – Org level
Then – Functional Silos Now – Service oriented organization

10. 21/07/2017 10
#1 How we operate – Service level
Service
new role
• One end-to-end service line
• Stronger service and product focus
• Clearer accountabilities
• Cross-functional service team

11. 21/07/2017 11
#1 How we work - Team level
Then
“DevOps” team
Now
Platform Engineering team
• Release bottleneck
• External approval process
• Conflict of interest
• Team frictions
• Us vs Them culture
• Self-sufficient Delivery team
• Release autonomy
• Clearer accountabilities
• Effective DevOps
• Improved team morale

12. 21/07/2017 12
#2 User and their needs
- Knowledge of their broader context
- Enough empathy
- Are we building the ‘Right thing’?

13. 21/07/2017 13
#2 Service design and delivery process
Focussing on users’ experience to design and deliver better solutions.

14. 21/07/2017 14
Discovery
Purpose
Understand user needs
Mechanics
Contextual user research
User journey mapping
Prototyping
Outcome
Hypothesis to prototype

15. 21/07/2017 15
User Research
- Focus on overall context
- Get out into the field
- Don’t research to validate your assumptions
- Map user journeys and capture their stories
- Have a dedicated and experienced User Researcher…

16. 21/07/2017 16
Alpha
Purpose
Test the hypothesis
Mechanics
Build prototypes
Test prototype
Iterate
Outcome
MVP

17. 21/07/2017 17

18. 21/07/2017 18
#2 How are we tracking
Knowledge of their broader context
User wall
User research session

19. 21/07/2017 19
Enough empathy
Anxious/Fearful
Stressed
Confused
Skeptical
Prejudice
#2 How are we tracking

20. 21/07/2017 20
#2 How are we tracking
Source:
International and National ranking in monthly site visits
• Last year May worldwide ranked 18th
• YoY increase in total site visits – 60%

21. 21/07/2017 21
Key challenges
If you find the going
easy, you’re probably
going downhill

22. 21/07/2017 22
#1 Functional [in]coherence
healthdirect
Developer
Q.A. Engineer
DevOps
Engineer
…
My Aged
Care
Developer
Q.A. Engineer
DevOps
Engineer
…
Carer
Gateway
Developer
Q.A. Engineer
DevOps
Engineer
…
Other
Developer
Q.A. Engineer
DevOps
Engineer
…

23. 21/07/2017 23
#1 Community of Practice 

24. 21/07/2017 24
#1 Community of Practice 
“Building Successful
Communities of
Practice”
-Emily Webber

25. #2 Reporting to non-technical manager
21/07/2017 25
Leonard: Actually, ethyl alcohol inhibits electrical conduction in the nerve cells
and stimulates reuptake receptors of inhibitory neurotransmitters like gamma-
aminobutyric acid.

26. 21/07/2017 26
#3 Adapt to User research

27. 21/07/2017 27
Final words..
• Service-oriented organization
• Map the broader service landscape
• Research user and their needs
• Don’t forget the non-digital experience

28. Thanks!
Syed Riyazuddin
syed.riyazuddin@healthdirect.org.au
https://www.linkedin.com/in/syedriyazuddin/