Social Tech
Product Strategy / Research
My role
Product / UX Strategy
The team
Project Manager, Chief Experience Officer, Senior UX Strategist
Context
A team of seasoned entrepreneurs approached our studio to help them build their vision. Their vision included a comprehensive platform for the underserved population by providing accessible opportunities for finding jobs, securing affordable housing, gaining education, and earning rewards all in one place. We worked from idea to vision prototype.
Date
2023 / 2024
OVERVIEW
Kick-off meeting
The kick-off was a 5-hour meeting. I decided to incorporate a problem-framing workshop to align the team and to give some structure. The challenging aspect was that the client and Chief Experience Officer were in-person while the project manager and I were working remotely. To address the situation, I opted for the clients to write on post-it notes. These notes were then placed on a whiteboard by the CXO for everyone's visibility.
From this exercise a clear problem statement was framed which was later revised by the client:
Misfortunate populations dealing with adversities need life changing resources and opportunities during and after overcoming hardships because there is a lack of support, direction, and hope in their path to success. How might we create a lifelong community of engagement and impressions that these users can trust, and provide the tools to continue their education, work on their personal development, and access opportunities curated just for them to advance their life path?
Problem statement
What are the challenges?
Multiple partners
Defining a niche
As we learned more about the project, we quickly realized how big it was and how many partners were involved. It became clear that we needed to focus on figuring out a specific niche in order to successfully get through the complexity of this ambitious project.
Agreeing on an MVP
RESEARCH
Getting acquainted with the users / end users
We spent a couple of sessions working on personas based on the client’s vision.
When clarity became essential
Discrepancy
Misalignment
Over the course of the sessions, our team encountered some confusion as we began identifying potential partners for our client. My coworker and I have both spent a considerable time gathering data to make accurate personas and understand the problems and goals of the end users. However, during our collaborative sessions, we discovered contradictory elements that left us a bit confused. It appears that the client's original vision, which we used to develop our personas, was either lacking in detail or inconsistent. This discrepancy has caused some uncertainty within our team as we navigate through the partner identification process. We were committed to resolving these contradictions and making sure that our final selection aligns with our client's objectives so we shared our concerns.
ACTION
Focusing on the core target: SNAP recipients
After aligning on the partners front and building trust with the client, we decided to focus on designing for their biggest market: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). I crafted a survey, and we sent it out to a hundred participants via a third-party website. The goal was to understand what resources SNAP offers depending on the participants’ geographical location, what brands people on SNAP are loyal to, the order of importance in terms of housing, job, and community needs, and how much they want to educate themselves.
Aligning on our MVP approach
This stage was important, and we had to carefully find the balance between getting the information we needed about the partners' engagement and giving the client a tangible representation of their vision so they could communicate it effectively and get support from the partners. Instead of rushing to deliver a minimum viable product (MVP) by the original deadline, I suggested creating a prototype that showcases our client's vision and that could be used in their sales presentation.
We work with the client on the IA and create a feature map.
Feature map
Vision prototype
I created a clickable prototype for the client to present to SNAP and future partners.
High-fidelity screens from the clickable prototype
I took the initiative with the help of my colleague to lay out the different options with pros and cons to help the client make a better-informed decision. Here is an example for Jobs and Housing.
Developing MVP - Strategic Roadmap
💡 Lesson learned
Always make sure everyone, the team, and all stakeholders are aligned at the beginning of the project and during the process, and that there is clarity. I wrote about this; my company later adapted my piece for their blog: importance of alignment
