The ‘Working with Cancer’ project is a pivotal initiative aimed at supporting employees diagnosed with cancer. Initially, we developed a website that allowed companies to pledge their commitment to assisting employees facing cancer. We extended this commitment by developing a complimentary white-label platform for all pledge members. This platform enables organizations to quickly build internal portals consolidating resources, benefits, and support mechanisms related to cancer in the workplace.
The ‘Working with Cancer’ initiative highlighted the critical need for enhanced organizational support systems for employees diagnosed with cancer. Although companies were eager to pledge their commitment, a major challenge remained – the lack of a centralized, customizable platform to fulfill these promises. This gap not only affected employee well-being but also had broader implications for organizational culture and productivity
• Lack of Centralized Support: Companies lacked a centralized system to offer comprehensive resources, benefits, and support services for employees dealing with cancer.
• Varied Organizational Needs: Each company possessed unique policies, cultures, and employee requirements, necessitating a flexible, customizable solution.
• Urgent Implementation Required: Employees facing cancer diagnoses needed immediate support, requiring the rapid deployment of an effective solution.
We employed a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies to uncover the following insights. Surveys and questionnaires collected large-scale quantitative data to identify trends, including the percentage of employees hesitant to disclose a cancer diagnosis. Focus groups and individual interviews offered qualitative insights, capturing personal stories, emotional challenges, and nuanced experiences of employees managing cancer in the workplace.
Ethnographic research provided real-world insights into how these challenges affect daily work life. Additionally, secondary research, including reviews of medical studies and public health data, helped validate findings and provided evidence-based context. Expert consultations with oncologists, mental health professionals, and HR specialists ensured the accuracy and depth of the insights. This multi-method approach ensured a comprehensive understanding of the challenges employees with cancer face, enabling organizations to design more effective support systems.
Our goal was not to replace medical and scientific experts but to emphasize cultural relevance within the workplace. The solution needed to be grounded in the needs of employees with cancer and their supporters.
• Create something unique to #WorkingWithCancer
• Focus on culture over science
• Do what is right and good for the user
The insights and guiding principles provided a focused understanding of how users interact with cancer survivors, revealing emotional and privacy complexities at all levels. This involved balancing support tools within the framework of various governmental and state regulations, while managing team dynamics and privacy considerations.
Following a strategic sprint exploring multiple solutions, our resolution was to develop a singular platform encompassing a portal, page creator, gated internal support site, and employee app. Additionally, we created a corporate management system for all Publicis white-label clients with multi-level access rights
The image above represents the experience map created after multiple rounds of negotiation between tech and design teams to strike the right balance between time-to-market and a frictionless process. This map helped align the rest of the team on the platform’s functionality throughout the onboarding process—starting without SSO integration and progressing to post-SSO integration. As the platform evolved, additional features unlocked along the journey. The primary users were HR personnel, responsible for managing all cancer-related documentation.
Key Challenges - Defining minimum publishing rules, sequencing functions that build on one another, integrating SSO, managing user rights, and ensuring legal review compliance.
This encompassed the page creator, allowing organizations to publish a homepage where employees could learn about supportive benefits. A resource page enabled documentation uploads, addressing specific employee questions and guiding them to the appropriate resources. The management rights section granted designated personnel editing access, segmented by region and language
Our design team conducted rounds of color theory and component exploration to find a design system pattern that could work with multiple brands' color palate and font styling. The one presented is above is Publicis Group's look and feel.
The mapping of the employer platform was a living document, evolving with the pace and discoveries of the project. Solving one challenge often impacted other features or altered the sequence in which certain functions could activate. Minimal information was required to publish and trigger subsequent tools.
Key Challenges - Creating groups, adding/removing messages and users, ensuring privacy rules and best practices for anonymity, implementing AI logic, and simplifying high-value features for employees.
The team created over 100 wireframes for both mobile and desktop to account for multiple user scenarios. Some functionality had to be descoped for version 1 either due to technical complexity or the experience need more refinement to meet our level of frictionless flow.
The design needed to balance hierarchical functionality with a simple, clean look and feel, ensuring the interface could adapt to different brand style guides. Custom function selections allowed the dashboard to dynamically rearrange based on the features activated by the employer platform for their employees.
Key App Features
• Voice of Support - A company-wide anonymous question-and-answer board, allowing individuals to share personal stories or request support. Employees could seek advice on challenges such as finding a doctor or researching treatment options.
• Support Signals - Customizable quick buttons to send automated responses or notifications to groups or teams, such as “In Treatment Today.”
• Candid Conversation - A direct messaging function that facilitates group or individual conversations.
• Our Promise - Direct link to resource page for quick reference of document search.
• AI Assistant - Leveraging GPT’s LLM, we created an assistant to automate app functions and perform resource documentation searches based on employee inquiries.
Gathering feedback and testing usability was a top priority, conducted as frequently and quickly as possible. We engaged internal and external volunteers who were either navigating ‘Working with Cancer’ (WWC) or had done so in the past, utilizing multiple techniques. For the CMS platform, we collaborated with HR department heads to validate product needs and ensure compliance with regulations and laws
This project has been one of the most impactful and rewarding experiences of my career, as it touches lives in ways few of us can fully comprehend. The passion and dedication from the team and leadership stand as a testament to how quickly and effectively an idea can materialize when humanity and business align.
The project is still gathering pledge members and remains in development, with a pilot roll-out planned for 2025, involving a select group of initial pledge participants.