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 Marcom projects. Ensure compliant andpositive experiences at each touch point including print, web, digital, social and email communications to meet the needs of public employees, government agencies and 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.

  • 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 & Opportunities

Over 120,000 members with a state pension, health care savings or deferred compensation plan needed to be informed of benefit updates or changes. Many members also did not access some of their accounts on a regular basis. The majority of the communications were very dated looking and in printed formats only. There were inconsistencies in content, design, branding and accessibility.

BEFORE >

< AFTER

A cohesive design system devoted to each plan was created. Communications, that previously lacked accessible formats online, were made WAG 2.1 accessible, which was essential for aging members. Assets were created in several formats to provide flexibility and consistency for agile protocols. Teams were provided a reliable brand guide with continuous improvement updates on a quarterly basis to connect internal departments, external partners and agency services to meet member needs. A scaleable, accessible and branded system to align print, digital, social and email communications provided a reliable roadmap for a better user experience that was more equitable and inclusive at each touch-point. The call center team, outside service representatives, internal processing teams, accounting and IT departments, and external partners benefitted from a common Marcom language that included security protocols, federal laws and legislative mandates to ensure requirements were met and help the agency effectively connect with members.

Define & Develop

Rollout a Sustainable
Design System

Existing assets were gathered from several stakeholders 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 would be shared among plans.

A human centered design methodology of atomic building provided components and systems that could be easily interchanged to create scaleable designs. This created flexibility as new campaigns and services were created across several areas.

Create Digital Content
for All Touchpoints

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 archiving and active digital library provided 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 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 easily aligned web, social, email and print platforms simultaneous. 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.

Projects for Pension, Deferred Comp & Health Care Savings Plans

  • Pension - Brochures

  • Pensions - About spread

  • Pensions - Benefits spread

  • Pensions - Center Spread

  • MSRS - BOD Campaign

  • MSRS - BOD Campaign Style

  • MSRS - Newsletters

  • Deferred Comp - Plan Brochure

  • Deferred Comp - Beneficiary Spread

  • Deferred Comp Spreads

  • Deferred Comp - Campaign

  • Deferred Comp - Big Jump Campaign

  • Health Care Savings Plan Brochures

  • Health Care Savings Spread

  • MSRS Disability Brochures

  • Disability Style

  • MSRS Holiday Style

  • MSRS Holiday Post, Video & Card

  • MSRS Annual Report

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 being met, 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, meet legislative and regulatory requirements and the ability to move projects forward. New partnerships with other state agencies created meaningful collaborations for knowledge sharing to generate accessible communications.