tisdd day 2

Kick started day 2 with a warm up. Freeze & keep working - where we had to infer what’s happening based on our observations of other participants. Thought that this is quite a good warm up leading into empathy fieldwork, and that it’s essential to employ more than 1 method for empathy fieldwork in order to triangulate the information gathered.

The design challenge is “What’s wrong with the subway?”. Thought that the design challenge is an appropriate one; also because I’ve coached teams on this same challenge before using design thinking. Was excited to see how we might leverage on service design methods to tackle this design challenge. We started with a brainstorm, where everyone put up their thoughts on what’s wrong with the subway on post it notes - same colour post it notes & pen. The reason for the same post it notes & pen is so that it would make it easier for our brains to cluster information together later on.

Next it was Octopus clustering, where we clustered similar post it notes together. Four participants facing the white board, while the others queue behind them, and all are participating in the clustering activity. The rule of thumb is to avoid using labels such as general, various, and others as it is not a meaningful cluster name.

Then it was breaking participants into teams to work on the design challenge. Corralling was the method used, where participants selected the cluster which they would be most interested to work on - and that they had to point to the post it note, or person pointing at the post it note that they were interested to work on. And magically, you now have your design teams :)


Research fieldwork
We were then introduced to the double diamond process of service design, where participants are reminded to be mindful of the process i.e. converging or diverging. Every design research starts with a research question, and for this design challenge, it is “What’s wrong with the subway?”. Next is to employ at least two ethnography methods in data collection. There are two types of data - 1st level (photos, video, audio), and 2nd level (field notes). It is essential that the design team meet after 1/2 hour to quickly analyze the initial data collected. The question on how many people should we interview was answered based on theoretical saturation i.e. 10 - 20 people for qualitative data collection.

The team headed to the subway for field observation & interviews. The subway is not an unfamiliar place - been to quite a few in different countries. But when you are part of a design challenge, somehow your senses are more alert, taking in all sorts of information. Interestingly we were observing the recycle bins, and cleanliness of the subway station. Based on the observations, we made several inferences and wondered whether how true they were. And thanks to the local in our team who speaks Mandarin, we managed to do a few interviews to help us triangulate the information that we gathered. It is also at this point in time that I truly understood the importance & value in employing several ethnographic methods in data collection so that one might arrive to conclusions which are more reliable.


Stakeholder Map
After the fieldwork, the teams now analyze their findings in order to gain customer insights.The stakeholder map was introduced to identify the different types of stakeholders related to the design challenge, and their relationship between each other. In the stakeholder map, we should also include objects, platforms, products, and website as well. Upon categorizing the stakeholders based on their importance/ influence to the service, we then had to analyze & define the relationship/ value exchange between each stakeholder. For example, a customer gives money to Starbucks, in exchange for coffee (and other intangibles such as WIFI, environment, and the warm fuzzy feeling). The most important tip is to ensure that the customer is in the centre of the stakeholder map! It wasn’t easy to identify


Persona
We then moved on to create a persona. A persona could be thought as a profile of a person on social media. The research work that was done earlier is used to develop a persona. On the number of persona per design project, the trainers suggested on an average 5 persona/ project. Also learned Adam's 3 tips to a GREAT persona.
1. Give the persona a defining quote which is real
2. Give the persona a photograph of a real person
3. Give the persona a real name


Journey Map
Based on the persona developed, we then develop journey map of the persona. Here are the 4 steps in developing a journey map.
1. Choose a persona
2. Define the scope i.e. 5 minutes VS lifetime
3. Sketch 10 pictures of the journey
4. Refine the journey map - start, end, missing steps

Key thing to remember is that the journey map is a story, and so therefore the pictures should tell the story step by step :) Next is to plot out the emotional journey, and analyse scenes where everyone agrees that there is negative emotions, as well as discuss & explore why where there are gaps in emotions ratings. The purpose of the emotional journey map is to identify areas where we can focus on increasing the customer satisfaction. One way to populate the emotional journey map is to organise workshops with customers/employees and get them to rate their emotions. Another option is capture emotions as it happens via mobile ethnographic app i.e. experience fellow. Also, one can install emotional rating system at the touch point e.g. one can rate the service offered by immigration officers at the Shanghai airport. Social media could also be a reliable source to find out what do people talk about, as it usually relates to their emotions.


Problem Statement
At the end of the day, we define a problem statement i.e. recycling is HARD! which would lead to the ideation space the next day.


Some of the other activities:
1. wave hands in the air, and participants follow in order to get everyone to stop working & talking. Quite an interesting way to get participants’ attention, wonder whether it would work with really really large groups; and if yes how long would it take?
2. Warm up - yes, but … & yes, and …
3. Green/Red feedback - green (what you like), red (highlight issue & share possible ways to improve). Facilitator to acknowledge feedback with a Thank You


It's amazing how much I have learned in just a day. And I loved it that the trainers mentioned to us up front that it's about learning the methods, rather than focus on the content of the design challenge. So far am enjoying the experience, and the team I'm working with.