I led a 16-week research initiative into internal processes to understand the current process and system, identify pain points and highlights, and ideate around opportunities for optimization. Below is the timeline I created for the project.
I had designers on the team who had never participated in research before so I collaborated with a teammate to train them. We pulled from existing resources from within the organization, leaned on industry best practices, showed recordings of past research sessions and practiced through role playing.
We conducted focus groups with individual contributors and interviews with executives. We had 31 total participants from 12 lines of business and spent 60+ hours in the field. Below is an example of a canvas created in one of the focus groups to document the current process.
We had 5 note takers capture more than 2000 notes throughout the different sessions. We standardized our note taking to make synthesis easier, leaning on the best practices in the training I led.
We utilized theme sheets to identify the most prevalent themes across the sessions. Due to the sheer volume of data, we then grouped the themes with the top findings from each session in Mural to create insights.
In addition to creating insights, the process maps created in the focus groups were synthesized to create a current system map. The systems map and insights were taken into an ideation workshop with partners to identify next steps.
As a result of this research, a design team secured funding to redesign a critical internal tool. Two years later, the team is still thriving and making improvements in the space.
I was promoted to design director for another team about the time we were synthesizing insights in Mural and did not get participate in the ideation and implementation of ideas in this space.
