Optum wants so desperately to be a leader in consumer health, but is COMPLETELY out of touch with consumers. The consumer executives: Rita Kahn, Katie Schumacher, Robbi (ROBERTA) Thatcher have NO idea how to run a best-in-class product org. From process, to roles, to strategy, to roadmaps, etc. It’s a performative executive DEI club. Also recently added: Benson Chan, a waxy-looking self-indulgent Canadian who is a a big phoney and previously fired from Amazon Alexa. These people don’t lead, are not motivating and aren’t close to the work at all. They just repeat the same talking points at town halls. In 2026 they are injecting $55M of new capital into…. wait for it.., a chatbot called “Optum Companion” that doesn’t actually do anything better than before. Do consumers want this? No! But they will stick it everywhere. It’s more tech determinism cr-p being shoveled at consumers, also led by other executive a--hats like Sandeep Dadlani and Julie Durham who are constantly cheerleading on LinkedIn about AI and “100x” to boost their own personal brands/egos. As for the employee experience and culture, it has become a toxic culture of fear and loathing. Constant rounds of layoffs, and ever increasing return-to-office mandates that can be expected to continue until everyone works in MN or India. The market also agrees, and the stock price has lost practically all gains over the last 5 years. “Healthy Optum-ism” is a hilarious new attempt to revive a failing brand, but is so cringe, it’s unbearable. If you survived this latest round of layoffs (read: firing squad), then I wish you luck, but honestly, do you want to work at a soul-su-king place where you’re always looking over your shoulder wondering if your number will be called next. F this place. Let it burn to the ground.
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Anymore layoffs anticipated in the consumer office?
@1ew, Beta Benny clocked this on day one, passed it around, and there’s more coming as Robbi the Robot keeps rolling out orders. Your numbers line up with the bigger plan, Oct. 30 is just a tiny piece of it. Also, Beta Benny would totally rock white frames, kind of like Moody Dan, who managed to shatter the revenue-generating UXDS. Thanks Dan.
@ew Heard that Chan was brought in to cut designers and told that number was 75-100 including accessibility.
Hemsley directly requested ongoing visibility into several areas, CXDP among them.
Gosh, I sure hope that TERRY CLARK, the EVP and Chief Marketing Officer at Optum doesn’t see this. That could be bad for some folks if TERRY CLARK found out what a sh-tshow his organization has become.
"Scream Rita, scream." Why would anyone encourage that? There’s nothing acceptable about it regardless of gender, background, or who’s doing the screaming. It reflects a lack of emotional regulation and control, and it’s telling. Over the past couple of years, many have witnessed and even recorded these outbursts to share as examples of deeper organizational dysfunction.
This thread reflects the frustration of demoralized CXDP'ers who aren’t being gaslit anymore, they’re seeing the groundhog day movie reality play out right in front of them, with no real sense of hope or direction. Many are talking about it and sharing it widely, and for good reason. For a lot of people, the grace period and the benefit of the doubt have run out. Terry probably sees this as well.
100% this. The leaders have no product experience. I’ve worked at other companies that have high-performing product teams. The difference here is like comparing a clown show to the Navy SEALS.
Optum and UHC completely failed in the (many more than 2 years) rollout of agile development. No roadmaps (business or IT products), no human-centered design for (business) products because there is no design and development @ Optum...just sign up as many vendors as possible and confuse the customer with no strategy and many options. Strategy? Experience? Testing? Metrics? Reporting? No need for any of that! No support from senior leaders that these are needed because the senior leaders have NO product experience and don't know how to develop or manage a product and so they let their teams do whatever they want to do. Hiring a bunch of Target people who know how to get people to buy toilet paper is a very different strategy than successfully ensuring both employers and consumers with conflicting wants and needs are both happy with their experiences. The shiny object wins everytime with the execs over quality execution. Its arranging deck chairs on the Titanic...
I like it here. I have found it to be incredibly collegial and supportive. Yes, the top-down dictates that lead to rifs and reductions are brutal. But nobody in CXDP has the power to change that. There are valid concerns raised in this thread, but some of it is quite unfair.
Ha ha. Optum got Channed. That can't be nearly as bad as getting Makoski'ed. That dude ruined lots of careers and promoted narcissists like himself. We are still recovering. Chan seems like a kitten in comparison.
Rita is the best thing we've had in years. Don't diss her because you are angry about the RIF. Rita brings cross-industry consumer and digital experience expertise: She held senior roles in retail (e.g., Best Buy, Target) and digital product, which means she understands consumer-facing brand, experience and engagement dynamics rather than purely clinical or operational health care. Optum has a habit of placing physicians in key roles for which they have no training or experience. I'm happy that Rita is not Dr. Khan.
She’s led significant digital transformation in health care, as chief digital officer at Mayo Clinic where she established the Center for Digital Health and architected digital strategy for patient experience.
Cut her some slack. In her current role as chief consumer officer at Optum, she is explicitly tasked with “aligning products, services and digital capabilities to meet the needs of nearly 100 million patients and members.” That's 100 million people and a huge assignment.
Rita emphasizes a consumer-first mindset, personalization, digital engagement and the shift from traditional healthcare towards seamless consumer experiences. These principles are all core for modern consumer marketing.
If anything, Rita needs support:
Making sure the Optum marketing team has the right structure and skills (creative, analytics, media, messaging) under her leadership.
Balancing brand/marketing ambitions with compliance, provider network relationships, clinical partnerships and patient outcomes.
Navigating Optum's extremely complex stakeholder environment.
Ensuring that CXDP has clear KPIs (consumer engagement, NPS/experience, ROI of marketing investments, growth of consumer segments, lifecycle management) and that reporting is aligned to broader business objectives.
And to whomever called her "screaming" Rita. Would you ever say that about a man who raised his voice? Scream, Rita, scream! Your team trusts you and is ready to move consumerism forward under your leadership.
Katie is doing her best and truly cares about the success of the organization and her team. Anyone who has worked with her directly can see this. The riffs are a decision mostly made by finance/HR and managers and senior leaders have very little input. It always comes down to the bottom line. Everyone is a number on a spreadsheet and all replaceable.
I've worked with Katie for years and I will say that I believe that she's trying her best to make the experience better for our members. I know the recent layoffs su-k, and I'm so sorry for anyone affected. Assuming it could be more still, and it's a scary time. However, I think dragging people should be saved by people who deserve it (cough Sandeep cough)
Following this
Don't worry... Lots of shakeups and layoffs still coming :)
The only work valued by CXDP is that which “proves” the trio (RK, RT, KS) have moved the needle a tiny bit: it has absolutely nothing to do with improving the actual experience for consumers, it’s all about making them look good. The amount of time spent creating PPTs to make them look good is 5x the work actually focused on the consumer.
Important lesson here for everyone: RSUs and that sh-t is all Monopoly money. Don’t ever consider it compensation. Dumping people before vest is classic start up sheningans that the top of the non-tech S&P is evidently adopting even more than before.
With Channing and Ruffian at the design helm you can expect even more design cuts. She never wanted design in the first place. More cuts are already in background discussion. Zero empathy except for herself.
@ee I’m sorry the company cut you, but trust me, those of us who remained after all these rounds will not be “enjoying” anything. We are left to pick up the additional work without any hand-off and I doubt the “bonus” will come anywhere close to compensating for the stress and additional work.
I believe RSU vesting continues through your severance period, not just the last day you worked. Maybe that will get you there - I hope so. Sorry this happened you.
I work with Amazon and was pointed to this thread. Optum got Channed. Enjoy that.
Those consumer office leaders are the queen trio of toxicity. Screaming Rita and Rough Robbi who seriously lacks soft skills and empathy. They don't know their consumers, their staff and don't have the skills to do it. EXI is going to be entertaining to see, and telling, again.
Optum has NO EMPATHY for its employees. They laid us all off in November, just in time for the holidays. Guess what? No one is hiring during the holidays! For many of us recently laid off, that also means we worked for Optum basically the full year, but will not receive our bonus for the year, while our co-workers who remain will enjoy theirs in a couple months. I personally also had several years of stock RSUs that are vesting 2 months after my last day, about $20k worth. All gone. The stress this is causing me is terrible and I am not sure how I’m going to get through the next few months. I’m especially sad for my three young kids. They will be getting much of anything this holiday season. Merry Christmas, Optum.
Yeah, I’ve noticed this. Optum has zero clue what consumers actually want and use. Requirements? Don’t need ‘em! Just do what looks cool and brag post internally, hoping Candyman will notice you!
Optum is an employee meat-grinder. It’s a result of the growth-by-acquisition model. The firings will continue until morale improves!
Anything that isn’t directly aligned with contracting to bring in revenue is probably getting cut or outsourced 70% to India… then they will have all the contracting outsourced after.
100%. CXDP is on life support and its a clown show. What has it accomplished since its inception? Those leaders will likely be getting their 15 minute RIF call as well with CXDP being disbanded like the other consumer office iterations. For those that survived this round of RIF's, congrats, but the clock is ticking. No matter how good a performer you are, that doesn't ensure safety. Start thinking about and executing your exit plan NOW. Exit on YOUR terms. The writing is on the wall. Protect yourself and your family.
I agree! The Optum consumer office under Rita K. and her lackey leadership team (Katie, Robbie, Christina) are terrible. I’ve been watching them try to establish “Agile” product development for 2 years. There are also literally no roadmaps or KPIs. There is no intake process. What a complete joke. I am one of the GL31s who avoided the recent layoff, but I’ll be quitting as soon as I get my next bonus.