Leading Strategy and Design Across 20M Members and 130,000+ Providers
Company
MetLife, one of the world's leading insurance and financial services companies (Insurance / Enterprise).
Product
The MetDental Member and Provider Platform, serving over 20 million members and a network of 478,000+ dental locations nationwide, including 133,000+ unique providers offering in-network benefits.
20M+ Members · 478K+ Locations · 133K+ Providers
Overview
Role
Lead Product Designer, Dental Provider & Member
Leading a Team and a Platform Transformation at Scale
Team
3–4 Designers, UXR, Multiple PMs, Engineering, Business Leadership
MetLife's dental insurance administers benefits for over 20 million people across a network of 478,000+ dental locations nationwide. The platform supporting this ecosystem, used daily by providers and members alike was outdated. Navigating eligibility, claims, and benefits had become unnecessarily complex for both sides of the experience.
The business had made modernization a top priority, and I was brought in to lead both the design team and this large scale initiative simultaneously. While I owned the provider platform redesign end to end, I also oversaw a team of designers each running their own parallel work streams across the member experience.
Structure of My Team
With a team of 3–4 designers, I assigned clear ownership by domain. A dedicated designer for the member experience and a dedicated designer for the provider experience. This gave each designer a single focus and accountability while allowing me to lead across both tracks.
The member side work streams included:
Orthodontics: A 0→1 experience for members
Member Dashboard Redesign: Improving the core member home experience
Family Benefits: Surfacing benefits clarity for families
Opt into Paperless: A behavioral nudge initiative I also led directly
Resource Center: A 0→1 content hub I also led directly
I built and maintained the roadmap across all of these initiatives, regularly presenting progress and priorities to leadership and the business.
Aligning Stakeholders Before Designing Anything
Rather than diving straight into design, I kicked off the provider platform project with a design sprint alongside UXR, bringing together key business and product stakeholders. This surfaced the potential and limitations of the project early, creating shared alignment before a single screen was designed.
Diving Deep into Research
How might we use behavioral signals to make design decisions that are measurable and tied to business outcomes?
We discovered
Behavioral signals in the data
UXR surfaced quantitative and qualitative patterns worth acting on across member and provider workflows.
We took action
Framed a design hypothesis
If we nudge this behavior, Y should improve. Every design decision tied to an expected, measurable outcome.
And got results
Outcomes aligned to the business
Decisions communicated to stakeholders with clear before/after expectations, not just user needs, but business value.
Prototype, Test, Iterate
Each team built focused prototypes tested first internally, then externally with real users, including providers navigating a network of 133,000+ unique locations. Designs were iterated until hitting appropriate quality marks before moving into development.
A System for Running Parallel Work streams
Managing multiple designers across multiple projects required a tight operating rhythm. I held weekly meetings for each work stream using a consistent format: where we were, where we are, where we're going. Blockers were addressed, iterations discussed, and everything documented in Jira and Confluence so leadership always had clear, real-time visibility into work in flight.
Each team also received a weekly written recap covering progress, blockers, open questions, and next steps, keeping every project running in a glass box and every stakeholder informed without having to chase status.
Wins
🏗 Platform Modernization Prioritized A legacy platform serving 20M+ members and 478,000+ locations, full redesign leading UX from day one.
🎯 Stakeholder Alignment Before a Single Screen Kicked off with a structured design sprint that aligned business, product, and engineering before any design work began.
👥 Clear Team Ownership Across Two Tracks Assigned dedicated designers to member and provider domains, enabling deep focus and parallel delivery across 6 projects.
🔬 Research Tied to Business Outcomes Every design decision framed as a hypothesis aligned to measurable business goals, not just user needs.
📋 Full Leadership Visibility at All Times Weekly cadences documented in Jira and Confluence kept every workstream transparent and on track.
📈 Reduced Follow-ups & Accelerated Claim Resolution Redesigned workflows reduced friction, giving providers real-time clarity into claims and payments.