R499--Veterans Experience Office Human Centered Design and Customer Experience

Important Information: This Request for Information (RFI) is for market research purposes only. The information gained will be used for preliminary planning purposes only. THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION ANNOUNCEMENT FOR PROPOSALS, QUOTATIONS OR BIDS. Therefore, no contract will be awarded as a result of this announcement. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this announcement or any follow-up information requests. This notice is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government for any purpose other than market research. INSTRUCTIONS FOR RESPONDING TO THIS REQUEST FOR INFORMATION Confidentiality: No classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s). Response Format/Page Limitations: Interested parties should limit marketing material in order to allow sufficient space for adequately, directly, and substantively responding with the information of most interest to the Government. Interested parties, small or large organizations, should submit responses relevant to this request via email to anthony.zibolski@va.gov and micah.kauzlarich@va.gov no later than 06-03-2022 at 08:00 AM Eastern. 36C10X22Q0157 shall be included in the subject line of email response. A. Objectives: In order to better understand our customers experience, as well as that of our U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employees in delivering that experience, to identify opportunities for improvement and develop impactful product and service design solutions, Veterans Experience Office (VEO) seeks information from firms that have successfully performed studies, research, analysis, and designed transformational solutions for moderately and highly unstructured and undefined problems within large, highly complex organizations (VA or entity of similar scope and complexity). This information is necessary to assist VA in developing a procurement approach that will result in VA receiving support necessary to be more strategic at anticipating future needs and in designing services that meet the long-term and short-term needs of customers and employees. Specifically, VEO seeks a partner who will work closely with VEO staff, in collaboration with our customers across the VA enterprise and Veteran community on the following activities: Develop fresh, deep research insights about VA s customers and how they interact with VA. Support VA in applying HCD to create better experiences for Veterans (and other customer segments as needed), mapping key journeys and processes, and designing solutions. Support research activities to build on existing research and, in some cases, validate current hypotheses to identify FboNotice causes ripe for problem-solving. Research will typically involve multiple audiences, including Veterans (and other customer segments as needed including families, caregivers, survivors, and supporters), VA staff, service providers, and/or the larger ecosystem of supporters, including community groups and stakeholders. Obtain insights and analysis that improves our understanding of employee experience (EX) and Customer Experience (CX) to inform the improvement of the design and delivery of programs, benefits, care, and services to VA s customers. Apply data science and advanced analytics rigor to support VEO to identify, collect, and analyze customer insights to help inform opportunities in service recovery, performance improvement, and systems improvements. VEO supports all of VA and, in some instances, cross-agency efforts. Using CX information and data to articulate program impacts for greater transparency and accountability to stakeholders. B. Information to be provided SHALL include, but not limited to the following: Rationale: Responses will be reviewed to determine industry best practices, and capabilities to successfully conduct a project of similar size, scope, approach, focus, and complexity. Contractors Information: Provide your firms contact information, such as, name and address of firm, phone number and e-mail address, and Unique Entity Identification number. Experience: Describe any recent (within the past 5 years) and relevant (similar scope) experience as a contractor (specify prime or sub), where you have supported similar requirements. Indicate contract numbers, Government point of contacts, values and number of employees used in completing the contract tasks. Existing Contracting Vehicles: If the respondent has a GSA FSS contract or another applicable contract, indicate so, and include how your exiting contract is within scope of this requirement. Provide recommendations for shaping innovative approaches for meeting VEO s future requirements: VA, VEO has a need for flexibility to order either a full team of support for a project/task or surge support (of various categories, such as note-taking, interviewing, synthesis, research, design, graphic design, etc.). What recommendations do you have for how this could be structured for the best balance of high flexibility and lower administrative burden (on both contractor and government)? Should IT-related work for research and/or design (User Experience/User Interface - UX/UI) be listed separately to address potential variances in skill/cost for this type of contractor support? What are the benefits/issues with this approach? How might such an approach impact experience/skill requirements for Lead/Key Personnel (KP)? (i.e. KP with technology expertise for UX/UI for a focus on digital products. KP with domain expertise in patient experience (healthcare) in addition to Research/Design/Technology.) What Labor Categories are recommended for IT Research Teams? What Labor Categories are recommended for IT Design Teams? What positions and levels of experience do you recommend as Key Personnel? VEO strives to create artifacts and prototypes that are effective and unique to the project/customer needs, which may include visual communication, interactive storytelling, instructional design and/or toolkits, graphics/branding, survey design, etc. What recommendation(s) do you have for how a contract for HCD support can be best structured to outline flexible deliverables within a firm-fixed price task structure? What recommendations do you have for aligning support for prototyping/design support at various levels of refinement? What labor categories do you recommend for a Research Sprint? What size(s) of team(s) do you recommend for a Research Sprint? What labor categories do you recommend for a Design Sprint? What size(s) of team(s) do you recommend for a Design Sprint? What labor categories do you recommend VEO consider under a flexible time and materials or labor category support task(s)? VEO often has quick-turn requirements for research support. What recommendations do you have for best practices in designing support for same-day, next day, or 1-2 week turn around support requirements? What recommendations do you have for labor categories to support survey question-writing? What recommendations to you have for how to best structure this support [i.e. hourly cost vs. FFP task(s)]? What recommendations do you have for outlining scope of design support, in terms of ensuring a mutual agreement on the level of refinement that is acceptable in a design prototype/solution? What recommendations do you have for outlining scope of support for Recruiting efforts (Research and Design)? How can reimbursing participants for their time be considered or included in this effort/task? What labor category do you recommend for Spanish translation of survey questions, survey wireframes, and dashboards? What skills and/or software systems expertise do you recommend for data science / advance analytics support? What labor categories do you recommend under labor hours to ensure available support for ad hoc requirements for Data Science, Data Analytics, Implementation, and related measurement support? Please include any additional information that may not be covered from the above referenced questions you deem relevant for the Government to know, or be aware of, about your firm, services and industry overall (i.e., best in class practices in the marketplace) that may assist the Government in developing a Performance Work Statement(s) and determining the best procurement vehicle(s), and contract structure(s).