Collabo – Page 2 – Redesigning the Indiana Red Cross Volunteer Experience

Session 5: Enter the Understanding Phase

The main goal for session 5 was to introduce the group to what we call the “Understanding” phase (btw, we seem to keep adding pages to this site, so be sure to check out the growing list to the right, the newest addition being ‘Approach & Timeline’ where you can see our process visual and working timeline) and identify potential research participants for the first round of participatory research.

In the Understanding phase the main focus is on conducting research to understand the existing volunteer experience, from the perspective of the volunteers themselves. This means finding this out from the volunteers, in addition to folks who work with volunteers.

Once we have a general sense of what the context of the situation looks like (an outcome of the ‘Sensing’ phase) The next step is to identify stakeholders and potential research participants. Referring to each team member’s stakeholder map (homework) and the in-progress experience map (the one we sneaked a peek at in Session 3 post), the design team identified specific participants to engage with in regards to specific phases within the overall volunteer journey.

Screen Shot 2016-05-24 at 11.57.50 PM — Okay, so we didn’t actually get a chance to dive into the experience map in session 4, as we’d hoped.. but here it is, new and improved, coming out of session 5.

The main outcomes from this session included a stakeholder/participant research list (a link to an editable Google sheet will/should’ve been sent directly to the Volunteer Experience Design team members) and revised Volunteer Experience Map.

Session 4: Project Kick-off (version 2)

Homework: Fill out the Stakeholder Mapping worksheet.

In version 2 of this project kick-off, Collabo did a bit of review, with a high-level “talkshop” on Design Thinking, People-centered Design, and Design Research. The purpose here was to get the core Red Cross Design Team all on the same page and ready to get into action. If you’d like to review the talkshop presentation you can download that here: Talkshop Slides – Design Thinking, People-Centered Design and Design Research

A little more background… after an informative and wonderful conversation with Donna Stephens, Regional Volunteers Services Officer, we determined that the best way to move forward with the Volunteer Experience project was to have a consistent core design team made up of specific Red Cross folks. You all, who are essential to carrying out this project work and—more importantly, being the “spark of change” that brings People-Centered approaches to the way the Red Cross of Indiana works. (check out the new Design Team page to see a list of our core Red Cross Design Team members)

So, now that everyone was on the same page and all felt comfortable-enough with what Design Thinking, People-Centered Design and Design Research are all about, the second focus of Kick-off version 2 was to review our project process and set up what that would look like moving forward.

The main outcome here specified a project meeting schedule where the core team would meet with Collabo, either in-person or remotely, over the next 5 months with a goal of completing a design phase in 1 month each. It maybe a bit ambitious, but you Red Cross folks are amazing people!

IMG_5667 (1)

Here’s a look at that working schedule so far:

MAY 2016
“Understanding” phase
Friday, May 6th — In-person
Friday, May 20th — In-person

JUNE 2016
“Framing” phase
Friday, June 3rd — Remote
Friday, June 17th — In-person

JULY 2016
“Ideating” phase
Friday, July 1st — Remote
Friday, July 15th — In-person
Friday, July 29th — Remote

AUGUST 2016
“Iterating” phase
Friday, August 12th — In-person
Friday, August 26th — Remote

SEPTEMBER 2016
“Implementing” phase
Friday, September 9th — In-person
Friday, September 23rd — Remote

OCTOBER 2016
Project Completion!

Final Project Wrap-up Meeting: TBD

Session 3: Project Kick-off (version 1)

For our own sake (Collabo), we’ll call this third session our ‘first version’ of kicking off the Indiana Red Cross Volunteer Experience Redesign project, as those of you who worked with us in the past know that we love iteration.

Once a background foundation was set through the 2 capacity building talkshops on Design Thinking and Design Research, we (Collabo and the Red Cross experience design team) could kick-off the meaty part of the project: Setting Project timelines & Sensing current conditions (Phase 1 of Collabo’s design approach)

The main outcomes from this session lead to a rough journey map, (which has since seen some refinement thanks to the trusty hands of our amazing Visual Experience Designer, Jennifer) and a project timeline, which we’ll need to readdress in this next session (Friday, 4/22!!).

Red Cross participants did an amazing job talking through a current volunteer experience scenario.

Screen Shot 2016-04-19 at 4.55.23 PM — Here’s a sneak peek at Jennifer’s handy work, which we’ll be using in the upcoming session.

Session 2: People-Centered Design Research Talkshop

The second of 2, capacity building talkshops focus on People-Centered or Participatory Design Research and methods to carry out this type of research. In a similar fashion as the previous talkshop, this session provided some background information—i.e. frameworks, language, skills, etc.—in addition to a little practical experience. Now, keep in mind, these were only 2-hour sessions so the emphasis was on providing a high-level overview about Design Research and what that looks like in action.

Here’s a some images on the great group that participated in this second session:

Our focused Red Cross participants, diligently conducting Contextual Observations

For more information, here’s a link to the slide deck for the Design Research Talkshop: Hands-on with Design Research Slides

Session 1: People-Centered Design Thinking Talkshop

To start off Redesigning the Indiana Red Cross Volunteer Experience, Collabo set up 2 capacity building workshops or “talkshops” (as we like to call them… not quite a talk/lecture but not quite a full workshop). These 2 talkshops were focused on providing Red Cross participants—also to be the project’s redesign team—with information and lite experience with Design Thinking, People-Centered Design, and Design Research.

The first of these talkshops covered Design Thinking & Collabo’s People-Centered approach to design. Here’s a little on what that looked like: