Northstar

Knowledge

How to solve each kind of case, and what every word means.

Before / During / After

Map an experience before, during and after an event. Locate customer pain points, choose meaningful metrics and prioritise improvements.

An experience
  • Before
    • Finding and booking
    • Getting there
  • During
    • Waiting
    • The service itself
  • After
    • Paying and leaving
    • Follow-up
Top layer: keep it fixed Below: adapt to the case

Watch out: Fill each stage with steps from this case, not generic ones.

On a case

Improve a hospital's outpatient visits.

Outpatient visit
  • Before
    • Booking a slot
    • Parking
  • During
    • Waiting room
    • Consultation
  • After
    • Pharmacy queue
    • Follow-up call

Illustrative case. Figures and conditions below are assumptions for practice, not market data.

For an outpatient visit, follow one patient from booking to follow-up. Before the visit, unclear instructions can cause missed appointments; track the no-show rate. During the visit, long waits can cause patients to leave; track the median and longest waits. Afterward, pharmacy queues and missed follow-ups can interrupt care.

Assume 20 of 100 booked patients do not attend, while 30 of the 80 attendees wait over an hour. These are different denominators, not 50 percent of patients with the same problem. Ask patients and staff which step causes each failure.

Prioritise a booking reminder if avoidable no-shows are the main access problem. Assign the appointment team an owner and compare no-shows before and after a pilot. Do not improve the waiting-room metric by moving the queue into the pharmacy.

Sources and further reading

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