Project Context
To deliver best-in-class services, McKesson Technology (MT) must accurately plan and forecast its fiscal-year budget (Sept–Mar) across people, tools, and initiatives. The MT Finance team produces an 18-month rolling forecast, but manual processes, disparate tools, and unclear ownership led to volatility in estimates and stakeholder frustration.
Objective
• Understand the end-to-end MT FY budget process and all actors (MT Finance, FSS, Capability Leaders, Solution Owners).
• Improve budget accuracy to within ±1% and raise participant satisfaction, establishing a clear baseline via survey.
• Improve budget accuracy to within ±1% and raise participant satisfaction, establishing a clear baseline via survey.
Scope & Timeline
Six-week discovery phase to:
• Map the current process (actuals + forecast)
• Surface pain points, gaps, and opportunities
• Deliver actionable recommendations to streamline workflows
• Map the current process (actuals + forecast)
• Surface pain points, gaps, and opportunities
• Deliver actionable recommendations to streamline workflows
My Role & Activities
• Define & Align – Worked with directors and finance leads to frame four key “How might we…?” challenges on focus, prioritization, and automation.
• Stakeholder Research – Designed an interview guide and engaged 15 participants across finance and leadership roles, uncovering pain points, tool usage, and improvement opportunities.
• Synthesis & Mapping – Coded insights into themes, created affinity maps, and developed three personas to represent distinct user needs.
• Journey Mapping – Documented the full process from kickoff to sign-off, highlighting friction points and hand-off gaps.
• Reporting & Facilitation – Delivered findings with visual maps and prioritized recommendations, and led a workshop with the steering committee to plan next steps.
Our Work Process
1. Define problem statements - align with stakeholders/directors the UX team objetives in this project
2. Interview preparation - create a interview guide, organize questions, idententify the target, and send invies
3. Stakeholder interviews
4. Organize interview notes - create affinity mapping, categorize notes, Pain points, Tools Leveraged, Wants and Needs, Project Overall Goal, Complications vs Opportunities
5. Synch and share understanding
6. Design a journey maps
7. Document findings
8. Present results
2. Interview preparation - create a interview guide, organize questions, idententify the target, and send invies
3. Stakeholder interviews
4. Organize interview notes - create affinity mapping, categorize notes, Pain points, Tools Leveraged, Wants and Needs, Project Overall Goal, Complications vs Opportunities
5. Synch and share understanding
6. Design a journey maps
7. Document findings
8. Present results
Problem Statements
1. How might we enable MT to focus resources, time and money on value adds to McKesson, that aligns with top-down business goals?
2. How might we lean into EPMO, portfolio and delivery processes to improve inputs into the budget cycle?
3. How might we prioritize initiatives that are impactful to McKesson, before it gets to the budget process, so scoping is more accurate and resources time is not wasted?
4. How might we streamline the budget process, and enable those responsible for a budget, as well as FP&A team with modern tools and automated processes?
Finding the voice of the users
End-User Interviews
• Understand current process, pain points, and usability gaps with the FP&A team, Capability Leaders, Solution Leaders, Delivery Leads and those that own a cost center, around the MT budget process through 15 User Interviews
• Identify opportunities for improvement in both process and user experience
• Identify opportunities for improvement in both process and user experience
Archetypes
• A fictional, yet realistic, description of a typical or target group (MTFinance team, Solution Leaders, etc.) of the process
• Based on research, archetypes outline behavioral differences, tasks and pain points
• Support a User-centric approach and ensure we create a product that will be desired and user friendly by ELT, BUs, finance and those responsible for managing a budget
• Based on research, archetypes outline behavioral differences, tasks and pain points
• Support a User-centric approach and ensure we create a product that will be desired and user friendly by ELT, BUs, finance and those responsible for managing a budget
User Journeys
• Compilation of user goals, actions and pain points throughout the journey of the MT budget process
• Journey maps combine storytelling and visualization to help us understand and address user’s goals and needs
• Highlights areas of opportunity to solve for the future experience
• Journey maps combine storytelling and visualization to help us understand and address user’s goals and needs
• Highlights areas of opportunity to solve for the future experience
Interview notes and affinity map
Interview Questions
1 - When you think of the MT budget process, what feelings do you have?
2 - What is your approach to coming up with your budget for the year?
3 - What are your responsibilities when it comes to the budget process within MT?
4 - In relation to the budget process, out of all of the things and responsibilities that you have. Which one takes up the most time?
5 - From a manual processing perspective, which takes up the most time that you wish could be automated?
6 - What kind of tools do you have to help you get the fi nance team what they need?
7 - In past employment experiences have you leveraged other tools that worked well?
8 - What tools or materials are you provided (from fi nance or elsewhere) to help you get the fi nance team
9 - What they need for the budget process?
10 - What would you say are the the biggest challenges that continuously pops up around the budget lifecycle?
11 - What works well with the budget lifecycle process?
12 - If you had a magic wand, what is one thing you would improve around the budget process?
2 - What is your approach to coming up with your budget for the year?
3 - What are your responsibilities when it comes to the budget process within MT?
4 - In relation to the budget process, out of all of the things and responsibilities that you have. Which one takes up the most time?
5 - From a manual processing perspective, which takes up the most time that you wish could be automated?
6 - What kind of tools do you have to help you get the fi nance team what they need?
7 - In past employment experiences have you leveraged other tools that worked well?
8 - What tools or materials are you provided (from fi nance or elsewhere) to help you get the fi nance team
9 - What they need for the budget process?
10 - What would you say are the the biggest challenges that continuously pops up around the budget lifecycle?
11 - What works well with the budget lifecycle process?
12 - If you had a magic wand, what is one thing you would improve around the budget process?
Deliverables
• Research Report: Detailed write-up of interviews, pain-point clusters, and tool evaluations.
• Affinity Maps & Personas: Visual artifacts to ground discussions in real user needs.
• Journey Maps: End-to-end flows with annotated opportunities (e.g., “Automate data ingestion from ERP,” “Standardize budget templates”).
• Recommendations Deck: Roadmap of quick wins (e.g., centralized budgeting tool pilot), medium-term automation (schedule-driven data feeds), and long-term governance improvements.
Research
Conducted 15 interviews (FP&A, Capability Leaders, Solution Owners)
Organized 6 hours of affinity-mapping workshops
Synthesized 100+ interview notes into themes
Organized 6 hours of affinity-mapping workshops
Synthesized 100+ interview notes into themes
Ideation
Facilitated 2 problem-statement alignment sessions with directors
Produced 20 affinity clusters of pain points & opportunities
Built 3 archetype personas
Created 2 end-to-end journey maps
Produced 20 affinity clusters of pain points & opportunities
Built 3 archetype personas
Created 2 end-to-end journey maps
Validation
Held 1 workshop to vet findings with the MT Finance steering committee
Collected baseline satisfaction scores via a 1-page survey
Refined recommendations through 2 follow-up feedback loops
Collected baseline satisfaction scores via a 1-page survey
Refined recommendations through 2 follow-up feedback loops
Execution
Delivered 1 comprehensive research report (30 pages)
Authored 1 prioritized recommendations deck
Held 3 co-creation workshops to define pilot initiatives
Authored 1 prioritized recommendations deck
Held 3 co-creation workshops to define pilot initiatives
Key Learnings
• Early Alignment Is Critical — Defining “How might we…” statements with directors focused research and built consensus
• Diverse Voices Matter — Engaging every role, from cost-center owners to FP&A analysts, uncovered hidden hand-offs and misaligned expectations
• Visualization Drives Change — Personas and journey maps turned abstract frustrations into tangible opportunities, accelerating decision-making
• UX in Finance — Even heavily number-driven processes benefit from user-centered design: clarity, consistency, and streamlined interactions boost both accuracy and morale
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