Amplifying advocacy for Women, Infants and Children of New York State
Ripley, the Casemaker
Strategizing research that revealed the systemic impact of advocacy, guiding thoughtful design for a complex nonprofit ecosystem.
Background
WIC—Women, Infants, and Children—is a public health nutrition program run by the United States Department of Agriculture. Our client, the WIC Association of New York State (WICANYS), is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and enhancing the delivery of the WIC program in the state of New York, representing local agencies and WIC program participants through advocacy. They constantly find ways to drive support from pillars of the WIC ecosystem, especially policymakers, as it ensures continuity of WIC throughout time.
We found gaps as advocates go through a battle for policymakers’ attention in the midst of a lack of resources. Our team develops a revolutionary solution to enhance existing advocacy efforts across all stakeholder layers and persuade lawmakers to back this initiative.
FIRST STEPS
The playing field wasn’t clear at the beginning.
The initial brief targeted a broad goal: to optimize operations and ensure strong support for WIC. Since the environment was complex, extensive research was needed to identify root causes, detect problem areas, prioritize them, and propose potential solutions. These could range from internal communications and operations, to community management, data infrastructure, and external influences.
Narrowing Down is crucial
working with ambiguity
The political situation was turbulent when the project started due to the recent election. Constantly changing policies affected day-to-day operations in local WIC agencies, highlighting the need to supplement references with hands-on updates.
Research brought frameworks to reach clarity.
As research lead, I planned workshops and initial research to guide exploration of the problem into clear, actionable problem statements.
Analogous domain studied
5
8
5
1
1
Subject matter experts interviewed
Think Aloud study
Conference talk attended
Speed Dating exercise
Assumption Matrix, helping us prioritize based on impact and information size
Problem Statements
DIGGING DEEPER
At the end of the strategic phase, research started identifying target users and hypothesize potential fixes.
I guided the direction of user interactions and led the synthesis of findings we gained.
Our team did a total of:
25
various interviews, guided activities, and expert talks in WIC annual conference
32
concept testings with participants, co-led with Design
11
interviews with WIC participants and staff members
8
interviews with subject matter experts
Four key insights emerged that apply across stakeholder segments and became a guide for building our solution.
1
Transparency is non-negotiable—it assures both privacy and emotional reward for making an impact.
Humanizing the data and amplifying people’s voices should be the north star.
Empower, not replace.
Let advocates have the final say and control as they will deliver impact for the last mile.
4
Tap the whole ecosystem, not just touchpoints. Everything is systemic and part of a bigger whole.
A solution suite for data collection and advocacy tools
transformING real voices into meaningful action
what is ripley?
Ripley the Casemaker empowers WIC advocates to drive meaningful change by cutting through inefficiencies, integrating multiple sources of data and harmonizing them in one platform. It's there for them from start to finish—from offering a library of information on their fingertips, tailoring data to any legislator's priorities, down to being their real-time rehearsal partner to drive strategic insights home.
