On-the-job learning
Agenda-based learning
UX/UI design, research, & content—ON-the-job learning
Helping facilitators and attendees feel engaged and energized about meeting planning & participation
ROLE
UX/UI Designer (Sketching, wireframing, and visual design), Content writer, Project manager, and Lead user researcher
TEAM & timeframe
Our project team was made up of two engineers, two designers, and one project manager working for about four months (March–June 2018)
Background
For this internal project at LUMA for LUMA Workplace, I acted as the project ‘driver’ or manager, as well as a lead designer and researcher. Being on a small design and development team required me to manage a lot of different aspects of the project. This work also stemmed from earlier projects my team did creating recipes and ways for people to plan and prepare for sessions.
PROBLEM
With this project, the challenge presented to our team was to explore ways to help meeting participants learn about methods used in a session they attended.
The LUMA business team saw this project as an opportunity to reach and activate new LUMA Workplace users. Our team had struggled to find ways to connect with and introduce people to LUMA’s human-centered design methodology if they hadn’t already attended a LUMA Workshop or internal company training in the past.
early assumptions
As we kicked off the project, we collected and mapped early assumptions to ensure we steered the project in the right direction. A few of the early assumptions:
Facilitators share meeting agendas with participants ahead of a scheduled session,
Participants desire to learn more about methods used in those sessions, and
This experience will entice new users to sign up for LUMA Workplace accounts.
Early on in the project, our design team did a quick assumption mapping activity to determine what assumptions and concerns we should plan around, elevate, generate ideas about, or defer completely.
APPROACH
After mapping our assumptions, we kicked off a round of early interviews with people who were already creating session agendas on LUMA Workplace. By speaking with them, we started to better understand their attitudes, needs, and goals surrounding session planning, facilitation, as well as their interactions with session participants. These conversations helped guide an experience mapping exercise to think through some of the critical moments to prototype and test with more users.
Reframing the challenge
To help focus our ideation, research, and testing, we reframed the project challenge and focus. Our hypothesis was that by putting more tools in the hands of our existing users, we could encourage them to invite their colleagues and connections to join LUMA Workplace in a variety of ways, instead of through a session agenda alone.
How might we provide meeting facilitators with timely advice and just-in-time learning to boost their confidence before, during, and after a session?
Prototyping & testing
Through rounds of prototyping and testing, we uncovered a few insights that shifted our approach. In the people we spoke to, we learned that many of them eigher wouldn’t share the agenda with attendees ahead of time, or they wanted to keep the agenda to themselves for better management of session timing. Many people were looking for guidance around the transitions between activities, and other tips along the way.
PROJECT OUTCOME
While we did enable users to share their session plans, we de-emphasized agendas as a way to bring new users and their teammates onto the platform to help them learn about human-centered design concepts. Based on the feedback we received, we provided facilitators with a better overview of their session, with the ability to go deeper for tips and advice when they needed it. Following this project, our team also kicked off some work to enable people to invite their peers through SSO. This was determined to be a better growth lever compared to sharing agendas.
“I check the workplace before every workshop to watch the videos. The tips help me facilitate sessions and guide participants.”
— consultant
REflection
With the willingness to pivot, research helped our team identify the right problems to solve and deliver something valuable.
I believe that by conducting lots of research and listening to our users, this project was successful. While our team originally sought to deliver something different in the beginning, through early interviews and by testing several rough prototypes, we learned that what our customers wanted did not match our early assumptions.