Turning messy data into clear direction

Challenge

VA.gov wanted to surface veterans' military service history on their profile to help connect service to disability claims. But no one knew if the underlying data was accurate, and the stakes were high — this information affects veterans' access to healthcare and benefits.

Solution

I interviewed 16 veterans across all six military branches, walking through their real production data so they could validate its accuracy themselves. This surfaced exactly which data elements were trustworthy and which weren't.

Outcome

We recommended shipping two data elements that were verifiably accurate, and holding back a third veterans wanted but the data couldn't support yet. That recommendation shipped to VA.gov's user profile feature, reaching millions of veterans, and the data-quality gap became a prioritized item on VA's roadmap.