From Siloed Operations to Member-Centered Strategy: AZ Blue
TL;DR
- Client: AZ Blue (formerly Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona) - major regional health insurer
- Problem: High-quality content with no system to support it. Podcast burning 30+ hours per episode with flat audience growth. The content team was stretched thin, producing assets that didn't connect to business goals or support each other.
- Solution: Content Operations Playbook + Content Strategy + year-long advisory engagement focused on team development and strategic thinking
- Shift: From reactive content creation across disconnected silos to a proactive, member-centered approach with shared language and a clear coordination model.
- Impact: Teams building strategic capabilities, establishing sustainable processes, and gaining confidence to make member-focused decisions. Work is early-stage implementation with strong internal momentum and team excitement about the direction.
The Challenge
AZ Blue's content marketing operations were fragmented. Three divisions operated independently with no unified approach to serving members across commercial, individual, and Medicare lines. Despite commercial driving the bulk of business, those members weren't getting the strategic attention or resources they needed.
The symptoms showing up:
- Teams were drowning in one-off content requests without understanding member journey needs
- No economies of scale - everyone recreating content instead of sharing insights
- Team members were stuck in tactical execution without time to think strategically
- Meeting overload with no clear frameworks for making decisions
- The lack of shared language between departments made collaboration challenging
- Content approach hadn't adapted to evolved member expectations post-pandemic
- Marketing is competing for member attention against WebMD, Mayo Clinic, and Healthline without a differentiated strategy
The team knew something needed to change, but couldn't step back from the daily fire drills to figure out what or how.
The Shift
What made this work worth doing: AZ Blue needed to help their distributed content model work through intentional coordination around member needs and shared purpose, not restructuring or adding headcount.
The beliefs that had to change:
- "My content" → "Our members' journey"
- Reactive requests → Proactive member service
- Reporting metrics → Delivering insights
- Perfection paralysis → Member value through data-informed decisions
The barrier they faced: Years of operating in silos had created competing priorities instead of unified member experiences. Commercial and personal lines teams didn't speak the same language about member needs.
The Work
- Content Operations Playbook
Created bespoke playbook establishing shared language for understanding member needs, clear roles for delivering value at each journey stage, a Center of Excellence coordination model, an optimized intake process based on actual member pain points, and accountability frameworks. This gave teams common ground for collaboration instead of competing priorities. - Content Strategy framework
Mapped content to the full member lifecycle from prospect through long-term health management. Identified opportunities to optimize existing high-traffic content. Created a broker-focused strategy addressing both large brokers needing thought leadership and small brokers needing lead gen tools. Built frameworks for scaling and repurposing content, addressing top member questions. - Year-long advisory engagement
Worked directly with team members building strategic capabilities: SMART goals training, meeting effectiveness focused on member-impact decisions, executive presentation skills connecting insights to business outcomes, personal development (team members as "The Advocate" and "The Bridge Builder"), GenAI frameworks for content acceleration, and time-blocking for strategic thinking beyond tactical execution. - Role architecture development
Developed job descriptions emphasizing member-centricity with clear accountability for understanding different member segments, emphasis on coordination for seamless experiences, responsibility for ensuring external agencies understand member needs, and skills requirements covering both B2B and B2C journeys. - "Aha" moment: When the team realized they were all serving different parts of the same member journey but had no way to coordinate or share what they learned. Members were getting fragmented experiences, not because anyone was doing bad work, but because good work in silos still creates inconsistent experiences.
The Outcome
- What's different now:
Teams are building strategic thinking capabilities and gaining confidence in making member-focused decisions by using frameworks rather than reacting to the loudest or latest requests. They have shared language for collaboration that didn't exist before.
The operations playbook and role architecture give the team a structure for coordination without restructuring. Team members are developing from tactical executors into strategic thinkers with protected time to focus on member needs. - What's being built:
Content strategy moving toward proactive planning, mapped to member decision journeys. Data-informed decision frameworks help teams move faster instead of waiting for perfect information. Teams learning to present member insights and impact to executives, not just activity metrics. - Internal momentum:
Strong team excitement about the direction and frameworks. Internal feedback shows that confidence builds as teams gain language and structure for collaboration. Early signs that the shift from siloed to coordinated is creating energy around member-centered thinking instead of internal competition. - Reality check:
The frameworks exist, teams are learning to use them, and internal reception is positive. The real test comes as they operationalize these changes consistently across divisions and measure impact on member experiences over time.
The Takeaway
For other organizations:
If your content operations are distributed across divisions with no coordination, the problem probably isn't that you need restructuring or more people. You need shared language for member needs, frameworks for strategic decision-making, and protected time for teams to think beyond tactical requests. Building strategic capability takes intention and time - it's not an instant transformation.
Who's probably in the same stuck place:
Healthcare organizations where content creation is distributed but member experience is fragmented. Companies where the highest-value customer segments get the least attention because teams are too busy reacting to requests. Teams drowning in tactical execution who've lost sight of the customers they're meant to serve.
What this case proves:
You can start building member-centered operations without restructuring if you give teams shared language, strategic frameworks, and development support. The shift from siloed to coordinated requires more than just new processes - it requires building team capability to think and collaborate differently. Early-stage implementation with strong internal momentum is worth more than perfect plans that never get executed.