Minnesota State Retirement System

A state agency for public employees that administers pensions, deferred compensation
and health care savings plans to over 120,000 members.

Prompt

Build a branded and scalable multimedia design system that allowed members to easily distinguish plan information with a more human-centered focus. Make information accessible. Provide new creative direction for communications. Create assets and processes to align internal teams on marketing projects. Ensure compliant and positive experiences at each touch point including print, web, digital, social, email and marketing communications to meet the needs of public employees, government agencies and all regulatory organizations.

Goals

Create a new, strategic and modern design system to define services and distinguish branding to enable internal teams to communicate inclusively, equitably and accessibility with members.
Increase member engagement by translating complex information into plain language with call-to-action campaigns, consistent content and memorable storytelling at every interaction.
Ensure positive experiences to keep members informed, engaged and educated with multi-channel touch points that meets organization goals.

Role

Research and competitive analysis
Marcom strategy and campaign development
Print, multimedia and web mockups
Writing project briefs with project management parameters, distribution schedules & defining assets
Creative direction to align campaigns with organizational goals
Creating accessible design assets for multichannel distribution
Building, writing and maintaining agency branding guide
Managing freelance contributors

Tools

Adobe Creative Suite for design, branding and mockups

Figma for mind mapping, collaboration, design, wireframing, user flows, prototypes and testing
YouTube for video distributions
WCAG 2.1 for accessibility alignment

Challenges

The State of Minnesota employees with a state pension, health care savings or deferred compensation plan needed help understanding all their public service benefits. Based on feedback from existing members, documents were confusing, time consuming and information of upcoming benefit changes were overwhelming. Many members also did not regularly access their accounts online, and were missing important communications from the agency. And the majority of the communications were very dated, lacked branding continuity and only available in printed formats. There were also inconsistencies in content, design, branding and accessibility.

A cohesive design system devoted to each plan would need to be created. Marketing communications, that previously lacked accessible formats online, would need to meet WAG 2.1 guidelines to be accessible, this was essential for aging members.
Scaleable assets created in flexible formats provided consistency for agile protocols.
A digital asset management (DAM) system for branded assets was required to align print, digital, social and email communications
A new brand guide was critical as a reliable roadmap for teams and helped build more equitable and inclusive user experiences for all members at each touch-point.
Teams providing quarterly feedback through forms would influence continuous improvement updates to better connect internal departments, external partners and members.
New marketing visual designs used by all teams including: the call center, outside service representatives, accounting, IT & Web, and external printing partners would help to meet the needs of members at each stage of their career.
Insuring accessible marketing communications included meeting all security protocols, federal laws and legislative mandates which benefited all members.

Creative Strategy

Define & Develop

A human-centered design methodology was used and assets were built atomically. Components were created from the assets to work within each program that could be interchanged to create new designs. Design flexibility was key as new campaigns and important information needed to be communicated to members.

Rollout a Sustainable Design System

Meeting with key stakeholders and reviewing existing assets were gathered and a new CMS was assembled to organize projects. Brainstorming sessions with SMEs helped to define member pain points and create necessary work flows for services including pensions, deferred compensation, health care savings, human resources and accounting. Key stakeholder and staff meetings yielded a list of deliverables for each department to meet member and staff needs.

Competitive analysis and research of the retirement and healthcare landscapes, along with an assessment of current agency publications provided an effective roadmap to build a sustainable design system. Each agency plan would have a structured style composed of logos, colors, graphics and custom photography. Iconography and typography shared among plans.

Create Digital Content for All Touch Points

Customized campaigns across print, web, social, email and video propelled the brand story throughout communications. Campaigns were developed to incorporate needs for all multimedia and print at the beginning of projects.

A new brand guide provided templates, examples and design assets for digital, web, social and print. Sales reps to developers to accountants made use of a digital asset library updated and shared at quarterly intervals. An executive summary provided insights to help teams navigate continuous improvements and streamline new agency protocols, tools and Marcom projects.

The digital library provided archiving and active content to meet multiple parameters and accessibility processes. Internal teams were able to ensure branding and content was provided consistency throughout multichannel communications. This provided a cohesive style that could be branded for individual plans, services, campaigns or presentations and making it easy for members to get the information they needed quickly. Building trust between internal teams, external partners and with members.

Agile Teams Rely on Good Processes

Creating better workflows and processes to align diverse teams and partners improved outcomes. Detailed project briefs to identify member needs, business objectives, timing and deliverables for each touch-point provided accountability and clear directives. Kick-off meetings with key stakeholders and SMEs provided valuable insights for organizational goals and member pain points to solve. Check-ins helped to align teams, test user journeys, refine designs, and meet deadlines for in each service area.

Purchasing of new digital tools, including a web-based email management system (Gov Delivery) and stock photography subscription (Getty Images) provided an agile method to streamline workflows and propel the brand story throughout communications. Campaigns aligned web, social, email and print platforms. Complex information became more digestible for members to navigate information in print and online.

A better, more inclusive and accessible user experience was validated by surveys, interviews and positive comments from members and internal teams.

Deliver Solutions

The new enterprise-wide design system was strategic for business needs and flexible for continuous improvement. This enabled internal teams to generate well-branded projects and provided external partners with consistently built assets used to produce publications, videos, presentations, web content, emails and social posts. The agency’s strategic goals of lowering costs and increasing engagement with its members was achieved with agile workflows, strong visual storytelling, consistent messaging and accessible designs for members at every touch point of multi-channel communications.

Providing new Marcom processes ensured branding standards were always correct, created transparent team communications for constructive feedback and helped improve member experiences across multiple channels. Key stakeholders received high level information to make informed decisions so marketing materials met legislative and regulatory requirements. New state agency partnerships created meaningful collaborations, critical knowledge sharing and generation of accessible digital communications to ensure equitable experiences for all members.