SAP Eureka
Increasing User Adoption through Gamification
SAP Eureka’s Intelligent Claim Management (ITCM) System serves as an accounting tool that helps analysts with claims management and promotion tracking. Over six months, our team partnered with SAP Eureka to understand and increase user adoption of SAP’s new ITCM software. The eventual solution involved gamifying experiences within the enterprise environment to retain user adoption and engagement. The team delivered a gamification strategy in the form of a strategy playbook and proof-of-concept design that increases user adoption within SAP's ITCM System rolling out in Q2 2021.
https://news.sap.com/2020/12/sap-intelligent-claims-management-solution/
Role:
Product Designer (1 of 2)
Timeline:
March 2020 - September 2020
Tools:
Figma, Adobe XD, Mural
Research
Framing the Problem
Before this tool, claims analysts had a tedious process when submitting claims - it involved many tools like excel sheets, PDF documents, pen/paper, and more. This software automated a manual and tedious administrative task via an in-build intelligent matching system. Despite the new conveniences, users were not very willing to fully utilize the complete set of tools offered by the ITCM system.
How might we encourage users to utilize SAP’s Claims Management System features?
To better understand the issue, we started by getting to know the user’s context within the current claims management process.
Did the users enjoy using it?
What were the key pain points?
Did the users use all the features?
If not, why? How can we improve it for the users?
Through interviews with end-users (Claims Analysts), we realized that low adoption stemmed from either a failure to recognize the system’s value or a lack of awareness of the system's features. These factors were mapped onto a value-awareness matrix that outlined the general condition for non-adoption.
Interview Findings
- Seasoned claims analysts had developed their habits of doing tasks, preferring to stay to their old workflow as there was not much motivation or engagement from above to switch over. (lack of value)
- Users distrust the system since it was hard to believe that claims matching can be done with a click of a button. (lack of value)
- Users migrating from old habits fail to effectively explore and utilize all features. These users 'used' the new software only at a surface level. (lack of awareness)
Establishing the Solution Framework
Exploring the different possible solutions, we focused on key metrics/areas that tied to the root causes we identified in the problem space (value/awareness deficiency) and assessed each solution.
Solution goals established included:
- Increasing volume/usage of ITCM features
- Recognizing usage of ITCM
- Recognizing employes' hardwork within ITCM
Suggested solution KPIs included:
- Task Success Rate
- Level of User Engagement
- User Conversion towards ITCM features
We validated these ideas through SAP stakeholders/user workshops and ranked them based on their impact on established metrics. Post-validation, the greater team eventually decided that gamification was an ideal solution to tackle user adoption issues and we explored the applicability of gamification in an enterprise environment.
Gamifying Enterprise Software Experiences
Gamification is the adaptation of game design principles and game interaction elements to workplace processes and behaviors. There are two key components that form gamification:
Enumerating Gamification
Real-world
The playbook consists of 15 mechanics handpicked from academic research. Each mechanic includes the following information:
What is the gamification mechanic?
Real-world application and examples
Relevant dynamics and the behavior it influences.
Gamifiying the ITCM System Experience
Setting Goals and User Personas
With the gamification principles established in the playbook, we embarked on gamifying SAP Eureka’s ITCM system. Engaging our stakeholders and end users, we outlined important possible gamification goals and defined respective end user personas. The overarching goal of this gamification was to invoke behavioral change within the ITCM system in the long run.
ITCM System Gamification Goals
- Goal Tracking - Claims Analyst can look at their own status and metrics.
- Goal Achievement - View how far a Claims Analyst is from goals with respect to the current project.
- Sense of Community - Have a sense of belongingness and make users feel that they are part of the team.
- Social Validation - Supporting and inspiring one another, like a teammate completed goals at this speed.
Key Interactions to Gamify
The main goal of this gamification effort is to encourage particular user behaviors and instill new habits. We analyzed the overall ITCM features and selected 3 main interactions within the ITCM system to gamify.
- Basic Tasks - These included key features within the ITCM like the use of the document viewer, matching capabilities and claims submission.
- Social Interactions -These behaviors included giving positive reinforcement within teams to promote social validation.
- User Accomplishments - Linked to specific key milestones that are usually associated with quarterly goals set by company baseline KPIs.
Gamification Mechanics
Based on the gamification goals, personas, and key interactions, we decided on three main modes of gamification within the ITCM.
Storyboarding the Experience
After defining our gamification foundation and the key personas, we used storyboards to explore and define how gamification would affect a user's day-to-day tasks and activities.
User Flows
After defining possible experiences through storyboards, we mapped out the user paths for the following use cases:
- First time user experiences of claims analyst and team manager
- Give Props
- Settings
- Add Point Boosters for certain desired interactions
Design Iterations and Issues
With an agile and iterative process, we tested and validated the designs as we worked on wireframes/hi-fi prototypes. Here are some issues that surfaced during that process.
Empty Gamification Dashboard Lacked Context
During user testing sessions, the widgets on the gamification page didn’t give contexts on how they can earn points and badges. It was not clear to the user that the “Show Rules” button with a modal pop-up will provide this information. Following users/stakeholder feedback, we pulled out content within the Show Rules button and created its own widget on the dashboard itself so users can see how many points they can get per feature from the get-go.
"How do I know what's gamified and how this works?"
Gamification settings were too long and complex
"This setting list is too long and no system admin or team manager would want to spend so much time setting this up."
- SAP Eureka CPO
In the initial iteration, users had to navigate an extensive list of interaction/features and their corresponding points settings. While this gave users more customizability over the point settings, both end users and SAP stakeholders found the initial gamification point settings too complex. Both parties wanted something that was relatively simple and executable from day one.
"The gamification system settings needs to have some level of tiers to make it feasible from a development perspective. We can't just make everything and anything customizable."
- SAP Eureka COO
Based on users/stakeholder feedback, our team created a way to set the tiers of point systems based on the level of complexity desired by the customer. This also alleviated pressure from the development side as the MVP (Light) version of the point system could be rolled-out first.
Notifications were too visually impactful
As part of the "give props" interaction and to show points gained when using a feature, notifications popped out on the top right corner of the screen, reminding users of the props and points they received as they worked. However, users remarked that the notifications were getting too visually distracting, visually impacting their workflow. On hearing the feedback, we decided to remove the icons graphics within the notifications received when gaining points during feature usage and also reduce the linger time of notifications received from props.
"These are nice, but it's getting a little distracting in here."
-End User
Solution Features
Gamification Dashboard
The gamifcation dashboard is an extension of the current ICTM interface. It provides a collective view of the key aspects of gamification that users need to meet their goals through widgets.
Achievements Settings
The gamification package comes in 3 tiers - light, medium and max. The 3 tiers of gamification are based on the level of customization and complexity of point systems. Each tier has its own set of points configuration and badge configuration settings. Companies can decide what tier of gamification best fits their needs.
Points Configuration
Team managers can view and assess the points of each claims management system activity from different accounts earned. Managers can customize the experience to spur certain behaviors for their employees by increasing or decreasing points value.
Badges Configuration
Claims Analysts are eligible to earn badges as they accumulate 3 point thresholds ranging from bronze, silver, to gold. Similar to point settings, team managers can customize the experience by updating these values to increase or decrease the level of difficulty.
Point Boosters
In order to motivate the use of certain features and interactions, managers can set up point boosters. These are temporary settings applied to point rubrics to increase the usage of a specific activity by increasing the number of points earned. Managers can decide which feature to apply the boost towards, what type of booster, (multiplier or a bonus) and finally the duration of this boost.
Give Props and Notifications
Users can give 3 different props to coworkers i.e. "Thank You", "Good Job" and "I Got You" with an optional message. This promotes collaboration and social interaction between users on a casual note. Notifications will appear and fade away when received, bearing minimal visual impact on the claim's analyst's workflow.
.gif)
Results
User Testing Feedback
Users thoroughly enjoyed the features, citing how these gamification aspects can effectively motivate them to adopt the ITCM system features and negate the daily grind of claims management.
"I'm liking how it lets me see where I am at in the month."
Users see the value of the system when they can witness how the ITCM system allows for personal/team goal tracking through the points system.
"Badges are cute! What do I have to do to get them."
Gamification alleviates the monotony and grind of the claims management process, motivating users to explore the ITCM system's main features, increasing overall ITCM feature awareness.
Playbook Publication and Full Feature Roll-out
The Gamification Playbook is currently in the process of publishing and will be distributed to executives and internal teams within SAP Eureka.
Claims Management System gamification features secured by CPO to be developed in Quarter 1 of 2021. This Gamification project will be featured in SAP’s social media channels in a series of Medium posts.
The first of which can be found here:
Text https://medium.com/sap-cic/gamifying-enterprise-an-overview-d82e49afcf4e
Reflection
This experience was an awesome journey that elevated my understanding of the inner workings of a large enterprise software company like SAP. With utmost dedication and brilliance, the company sponsors gave us the professional experience that one would have within SAP.
As a team, we learned to embrace ambiguity. The vague challenge of increasing user adoption was definitely one with meandering turns and multiple outcomes. SAP gave us the space to explore various solutions and took the time to validate these solutions in great detail.
The high-tempo weekly engagements gave me insights beyond user experience design and into the depths of product management and development.
Special thanks to Robert Rabe (CPO), Lukas N.P. Egger (COO), Prof Dr Tobias Schimmer (Chief Development Expert), Kendall Sahl (Product Manager), and Kayla Fathi (UX Designer).
Thanks to Team 7Donuts - Vi Chetan, Ken Li, and Christelle Valmores. It was unforgettable working on this project together for 6 whole months!!!
.gif)
