Customer Experience, Cross Agency Priority Goal - Journeys and Personas
Customer Experience, Cross Agency Priority Goal – Journeys and Personas Wage and Investment Operations Support, Program Management Office A. Description The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) mission is t... Customer Experience, Cross Agency Priority Goal – Journeys and Personas Wage and Investment Operations Support, Program Management Office A. Description The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) mission is to provide America’s taxpayers top quality service by helping them understand and meet their tax responsibilities and enforce the law with integrity and fairness to all. To achieve this mission, the IRS has key strategic goals and objectives pertaining to this requirement: Goal: Empower and Enable all taxpayers to meet their tax obligations. Goal: Advance data access, usability, and analytics. To attain these goals, the IRS created strategic objectives to 1) simplify the process of filing, correction, and payment for all taxpayers and their representatives, 2) expand secure digital options for taxpayers and professionals to interact efficiently with the IRS, while maintain and improving traditional service options, 3) improve analytical tools and data competencies across the IRS and 4) emphasize the use of data analytics, in conjunction with qualitative information, to select high-priority work. To support these IRS strategic objectives, Wage and Investment Operations Support, Program Management Office is seeking the services of a contractor with persona and journey mapping expertise and support. This support will span multiple internal organizations of the IRS. The Contractor shall apply its business domain experience and advise on challenges and issues while helping to align solutions to current business needs. THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts or quotations. This notice does not obligate nor commit the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in the response or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI. Further, the Government will not accept unsolicited quotes. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party’s expense. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future RFQ, if any is issued. B. Background As part of the President’s Management Agenda (PMA), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is leading a Customer Experience, Cross Agency Priority Goal 4 (CX CAPG4) designed to improve the customer experience across federal agencies. The IRS has been designated as a high impact service provider (HISP) and is leading this effort on behalf of the Department of the Treasury. The current CX CAPG4 IRS scope focuses on individual taxpayers and taxpayer-initiated service channels. To assist with achieving these goals a CX CAPG4 objective is for HISPs to develop and maintain a standardized set of customer personas and journeys as follows: Central, entity-wide catalog of customers and detailed personas that is annually reviewed Central, entity-wide catalog of customer journeys and prioritized bottlenecks that is annually reviewed To support IRS strategic objectives and CX CAPG4, the IRS is seeking the services of a contractor with persona and journey mapping expertise and support. This support will span multiple internal organizations of the IRS. The Contractor shall apply its business domain experience and advise on challenges and issues while helping to align solutions to current business needs. The personas and journey maps are important strategic tools that help provide an in-depth understanding of who are customers are, what they need, and how they interact with IRS across all touch points. This will provide valuable insight for improving customer experience. IRS can proactively take targeted action to improve customer experience. Customer personas and journeys currently exist in several locations and in various formats across the IRS. To meet the CX CAPG4 objective for personas and journeys, this requirement will develop the 10 highest impact individual customer personas and journeys and develop a set of five (5) overall customer experience maps from the personas and journeys. Highest impact, as outlined in OMB Circular A-11, Section 280, will be determined by using customer volume, annual program cost, and/or knowledge of customer priority as weighting factors. C. Scope The scope of this requirement encompasses Contractor services to Wage & Investment, Operations Support (WIOS) for development of a catalog of the 10 IRS highest impact individual personas and journey maps and five (5) overall customer experience maps as outlined in the tasks and deliverables section. This work will require the Contractor to coordinate with subject matter experts (SME) throughout the IRS in the development of these products. The preferred method for these sessions is virtual; however, some travel for limited in-person support may be required. The purpose of this performance work statement is to have a Contractor develop a catalog of IRS’ 10 highest impact personas and journey maps and five (5) overall customer experience maps with information/data obtained from IRS SME journey mapping development sessions, existing personas and journeys, and existing IRS research, which will be provided to the Contractor. To achieve the desired results, IRS needs effective personas and journey mapping which represents the true customer experience/behavior. The personas, journey, and experience maps will provide an accurate picture of customer touchpoints, metrics, pain points, and opportunity areas to inform continuous customer experience improvement opportunities. The contractor shall review sample of existing personas and journey maps, as well as existing IRS customer research, which will be provided for reference and should be used as a starting point. The contractor shall create customer journey maps that describe each persona’s experience at various touchpoints during their lifecycle with IRS. Developing personas is the critical first step in the journey mapping process. A persona is an archetype of our typical website user. Each persona represents a target audience of our website. Crafting personas means you’ll want to outline the behaviors, needs and demographic information of your core target audiences, and then brainstorm the key tasks each persona may complete when interacting with our organization and website. Services Needed: The contractor shall provide high quality deliverables that meet the delivery deadlines and shall staff all tasks with qualified and skilled personnel. IRS personnel will be made available to provide technical input, answer questions, review completed draft deliverables, and provide feedback. Task 1 - Conference Call/Kick-Off Meeting Within five (5) business days after award of Task Order, the Contractor shall conduct a kick-off meeting via (telephone/conference call) with the appropriate team members from Wage & Investment Operations Support (WIOS), WIOS Program Management Office (PMO), the COR and Program Manager or designee to review goals and objectives of this task order, and to discuss technical requirements. During the meeting, the roles and responsibilities for the Contractor / IRS will be established; the process, decision makers, objectives and deliverables under this Task Order and contents of the approach will be discussed. Within three days after the kick-off meeting/conference call, the Contractor shall provide minutes/notes. The preferred method for these sessions is virtual; however, some travel for limited in-person support may be required. Task 2 - Develop/Submit Project Plan All work accomplished under this effort will be managed via a Project Plan during execution, subject to IRS review and written approval. The Project Plan will identify key task activities, constraints, resources required, work products, and planned start and completion dates of major activities/deliverables. The Project Plan will also identify government-furnished property (GFP) required for the activity. The Project Plan may be revised as needed throughout the period of performance. The Contractor shall design and develop a complete Project Plan that is acceptable to the IRS. The Project Plan shall address at a minimum: Develop the initial Project Plan and provide updates based on changes in task priorities, funding, and scope of work. Manage the staffing, work, deliverables, and finances for the task. Major deliverables Timeline of the project Procedures for quality assurance Within three weeks after the kick-off meeting/conference call, the Contractor shall provide the PM, WIOS Project Manager, and COR with a draft Project Plan on which the Government will make comments. Members of the WIOS Team will review and approve the Project Plan or provide comments for revision within 10 business days of receipt. The final Project Plan shall incorporate the Government’s comments. To accommodate changing priorities and work requirements, the Project Plan may be revised as needed throughout the period of performance. Updates will be scheduled as mutually agreed between the Program Manager and Contractor’s Project Leader. All documents, including ad hoc reports, shall be considered drafts until formally accepted in writing by the appropriate Project Manager (PM). All documents produced under this PWS shall be created in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or Microsoft Excel 2016. The PM may request that documents be delivered in hard copy and/or electronic copy format. Task 3 - Technical Program Management (Status Report and Meeting) The Contractor shall develop and provide a Status Report every month including: synopses of key tasks accomplished during the prior month period, tasks planned for the next month period, any key issues, any initial conclusions, any relevant personnel actions impacting the Task Order The Contractor shall convene monthly Status Meetings during the Period of Performance, virtually or via teleconference, with the Contractor’s Primary Point of Contact (POC), WIOS PMO senior staff, the COR, PM and other key IRS stakeholders as identified by the COR/PM. The Contractor shall present the information within the report to ensure all stakeholders are informed of the in-progress activities and provides opportunities to identify upcoming tasks and establish priorities for execution and implementation, and to coordinate resolution of any identified problems. Task 4 – Identification of High Impact Journeys The Contractor shall coordinate with WIOS PMO, and business SMEs, virtually or via teleconference as needed, to identify and document the highest impact journeys and associated personas. WIOS PMO will be the coordination point for all written IRS data provided to the Contractor. The Contractor shall develop and document methodology for identifying the highest impact individual customer journeys/personas (Microsoft Word or Excel 2016). The Contractor shall work collaboratively with IRS SMEs to apply the methodology and develop and document the list of 10 highest impact personas, 10 journey maps, five (5) experience maps and provide to WIOS PMO for approval (Microsoft Word or PowerPoint). Task 5 – Develop Personas, Journey Maps, and Customer Experience Journey Maps The Contractor shall be responsible for providing technical leadership and facilitation during the development of the personas and journey/experience maps, which will include, upon request, participation in executive status meetings that may extend beyond those outlined below. The Contractor shall schedule and facilitate virtual working sessions with WIOS PMO and SMEs from the operations responsible for the highest impact customer services during development of the personas and journey/experience maps. The WIOS PMO will supply SME contact information. The Contractor shall deliver the initial draft personas and journey maps to the WIOS PMO two weeks after the conclusion of each working session. The Contractor shall schedule and facilitate a virtual meeting with WIOS PMO and the business owner (may be virtual) after each persona or journey and experience maps is developed to review the draft and make any recommended edits. The contractor shall develop personas, journey maps, and experience journeys that present a cross-channel view of the journeys in a scalable format that can be edited and enables service channel and cross-channel views of the customer experience. This format will allow the IRS to expand upon these personas and journey/experience maps in the future. A sample of existing personas and journey maps, as well as existing IRS customer research, will be provided for reference and should be used as a starting point; however, the contractor shall develop a standardized, scalable format for the personas and journey/experience maps. The journey and experience map format shall enable analysis of the customer journey in a specific channel, as well as across channels. The Contractor shall deliver 10 highest impact journey maps. Key features of the journey maps will include, but are not limited to the following: A visual depiction of the journey Key steps/touchpoints in the journey Supporting data and metrics at each step Customer expectations and pain points Customer experience improvement opportunities for each step of the journey The Contractor shall deliver 10 highest impact customer personas. Key features of the personas will include, but are not limited to the following: A visual depiction of the persona that will include an image or graphic Demographic details Goals, pain points, tax filing and service channel patterns Supporting data and metrics The Contractor shall deliver five (5) cross-channel customer experience journey maps, based on the highest impact customer journeys. Key features of the customer experience journey maps will include, but are not limited to the following: A visual depiction of the customer experience across channels Key channels, steps/touchpoints in the journey Supporting data and metrics at each step Customer expectations and pain points Customer experience improvement opportunities for each step of the overall experience Task 6 – Reports with Recommendations The contractor shall at agreed upon times, prepare and conduct/deliver presentations to leadership to summarize key findings as well as opportunities for improvements of each persona, journey map, and experience map. The Contractor shall participate in leadership briefings to provide a presentation of each persona, journey map, and experience map. Feedback from these sessions will be used to finalize these products. The leadership briefing will occur as follows: One virtual operational level briefing for the executive(s) responsible for the associated personas, journeys and experience maps. This will be done for each organization that has responsibility for the personas and journeys (will not exceed five briefings). The Contractor shall provide the revised personas, and journey/experience maps, based on these sessions, to the WIOS PMO two weeks after the briefings. Task 7 – Executive Presentation and Report with Final Recommendations One virtual or in person (at the discretion of the WIOS PMO) senior executive briefing with W&I leadership to provide a presentation of all personas, journey maps, and experience maps. Feedback from this session will be used by the Contractor to finalize the personas and journey/experience maps. The final personas, journey maps, and experience maps will be provided to the WIOS PMO one month after the leadership briefings. The Contractor shall provide a written analysis or report from the outlining key findings for each experience map (Microsoft Word or PowerPoint) that includes relative performance and customer feedback metrics, customer bottlenecks, pain points in priority order for the entire portfolio. The Contractor shall also provide an overview of the analysis during the senior executive briefing. D. Responses Responses shall be limited to 15 pages. Proprietary information, if any, should be minimized and MUST BE CLEARLY MARKED. At a minimum, responses should include: Company Information: (name, phone number, DUNS, CAGE Code, POC information, website, etc.) GSA contract(s): contract numbers and contractor’s socioeconomic status Description of your company’s capabilities as they relate to the services described in this notice. A description of your company’s previous experience providing the services described in this notice. A description of any teaming/subcontracting your company anticipates utilizing in support of this requirement. Any other relevant information that is not listed above which the Government should consider in finalizing its market research and acquisition strategy. E. Please respond to the following questions: What is your company’s level of understanding of IRS services and service channels? Does your company have experience developing personas, journey maps, and overall multi-channel experience maps? If so, briefly describe your experience. How are persona/journey mapping services priced? What contract types work best? What are the leading industry techniques and best practices used in development of personas and journey maps that show channel specific and cross channel experiences? THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION FOR PROPOSALS AND NO CONTRACT SHALL BE AWARDED FROM THIS REQUEST. This RFI does not commit the Government to contract for the identified services and does not commit the Government to set aside this acquisition for a small business concern. Please provide responses to this RFI no later than 12:00 PM EST, Friday, January 22, 2021. Responses will only be accepted electronically in Adobe pdf or MS Office formats. Paper media (hardcopy) will not be accepted. Responses should be addressed to Shawnna Sims via email: Shawnna.L.Sims@irs.gov. The subject line should be addressed as " RFI-IRS W&I Customer Experience – Journeys and Personas". Responses must not exceed 15 pages. Respondents are responsible for contacting Shawnna.L.Sims@irs.gov to confirm receipt of their response.
Data sourced from SAM.gov.
View Official Posting »