Leave of Absence Explainer

Taking a leave of absence from work, whether it's a parental leave or an illness/injury, can be really tricky. You have to wrangle overlapping state and federal laws, mountains of paperwork, and employer-specific processes, all of which adds stress to an already stressful time.

We created a voice-based interactive coach as a pilot product for Comcast that could ask you some questions about your leave and then walk you step by step through how much time you could take off (paid and unpaid), what percent of your salary you'd get, and whether your job would be protected. Then, we created an interactive timeline that explained how to submit a claim, what to do while you were out, and how to get ready when it was time to come back to work.

Here's an excerpt from the top of the experience that shows how the Q&A system worked.

And here's a bit from the key moment: the infographic. Trying to come up with a single, flexible graphic that could accommodate the multitude of possible benefits combinations was challenging, but I worked closely with our artists and engineers to develop a dozen indicative example scenarios and then test it rigorously during production.

• Worked closely with the Comcast benefits team to immerse myself in the pile of wikis, PDFs and call center scripts they were using previously.
• Distilled that research into a logic outline and branching flowchart script that accounted for user responses to deliver their personalized leave package.
• Directed voice talent and lead creative team of artists, animators, sound designers, and media editors.
• Worked with engineers to develop a dynamic infographic that could accommodate the multitude of possible leave combinations a user might encounter.
• Helped our revenue team craft a compelling demo and sales story as they brought the product to market.

• The pilot with Comcast was enough of a success that we were able to quickly white label the product and launch it as an offering to our full customer base.
• Comcast entered into a multi-year renewal of our core Benefits Counselor product, attributed in large part to the success of the LOA pilot.