VSL

Problem

Business problem: The VSL program is constrained by fragmented system architecture, inefficient manual processes, and poor data quality/integration. These issues increase operational effort, create compliance risks, and hinder the program’s ability to meet legislative requirements.

User problem: Staff lack a holistic, reliable view of VSL data and must rely on manual, error-prone processes across multiple platforms. This reduces efficiency, increases rework, undermines confidence in the data, and prevents them from effectively ensuring compliance or supporting students and providers.

The Hypothesis

How might we design a fit-for-purpose VSL system that reduces manual processes, improves data quality and integration, and provides staff with a holistic, reliable view of student and provider information, so they can efficiently meet legislative requirements, ensure compliance, and deliver a better experience for students, providers, and staff?

The Approach

The ask: Develop a unified and automated VSL platform that simplifies payments and loans experience, strengthens reporting and provider communications, and delivers a single, reliable source of truth.

Pre-delivery

1. Discovery workshops

   • Ran discovery workshops with multiples business units and sustainment teams.

2. User research

   • Ran user interviews and co-design sessions to build out user journeys and key personas.

   • Met with 5 separate teams to understand individual team needs and pain points which fed into the creation of artefacts including proto-personas.

3. Current & future state Service Blueprints

   • Co-designed current state blueprints with key stakeholders.

4. Pain points & opportunity matrix

   • Developed pain point and opportunity matrix.

   • Worked with the Product Manager to prioritise pain points and opportunities for improvement.

5. Payment POC

   • Ran co-design sessions to build out the future payment experience.

6. Pre-delivery summary pack

   • Developed a pre-delivery summary document of the future state recommendations.

Delivery

1. User interviews

   • Conducted user interviews as needed to inform development of MVP features.

2. Information architecture

   • Card sorting

     • Ran moderated card sorting exercises with multiple teams to define future scope.

   • Tree testing

     • Ran remote tree testing to test proposed IA.

     • Analysed data and made recommendations for improvement.

3. Flows

   • Co-designed flows with key stakeholders.

   • Detailed flows mapped against key templates.

4. Co-design workshops

   • Ran co-design sessions, and workshops with business units to align on individual key needs and validate the future state experience.

5. Wireframes

   • Co-design sessions with business units as needed.

   • Flows informed key templates.

   • Developed key wireframe templates, liaising closely with UI designers.

6. Usability testing

   • Developed a discussion guide with key scenarios relevant to each business unit and team.

   • Ran recurring remote usability testing throughout project lifecycle.

   • Synthesised findings and developed usability reports that were shared with stakeholders and Product Owners for prioritisation.

The Impact

1. Increased staff efficiency across multiple business units by removing need for manual processes

2. Increased visibility of data, resulting in the reduction and removal of human and system error scenarios

3. Improved service experience that supports the business to carry out provider compliance and assurance activities

4. Developed an automated Provider payment platform, improving overall efficiencies.

Why it Matters

The business teams have had to build their own view of the data in order to carry out their work, which resulted in inefficiencies and human error.

Reflections & Learnings

This project provided many learnings and required ongoing adjustments before we were able to find our bearings. A few key learnings that I will bring with me to my next project:

• Close collaboration between Service Design and Product Management is essential to avoid silos developing and to ensure there is a balanced view of the high-level vision with detailed analysis.

• The right team structure from the outset is critical to ensure the project is set up for success. Ideally Service Design is embedded within a core cross-functional team to collaborate on analysis early within the project to ensure delivery teams have the clarity they need.

• Understanding team members’ comfort with ambiguity is important; while an experience-led approach is ideal, some complex back-end processes may need resolution first to enable confident engagement in design and solutioning.