A Service Design Case Study: Part 1

Halfway through 2018 I was hired by M&C Saatchi’s Innovation design consultancy, Tricky Jigsaw, as part of their CX and Service Design team.

Mark Brenchley
Sep 8, 2018 · 7 min read

The following Case Study is one of three projects I worked on as part of one of our client’s broader transformational and service design strategy.

The Challenge

Assist internal teams towards a more customer-centric focus when designing services and products.

My Role

Customer Experience Associate


To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted and obfuscated confidential information in this case study. All information in this case study is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Education or my employer.


PROJECT ONE

The Challenge

To understand and articulate the core goals and needs of NSW teachers across the span of their career in a customer journey map, using Jobs-to-be-done as a methodology.

My Role

User Researcher and Customer Experience Associate

Approach

We recruited 20 participants for 1-on-1 ‘switch’ interviews. These ‘switches’ were a key part to understanding a customer’s Job-to-be-done, which is a method of outcome-drive innovation that focuses on the outcomes a customer is trying to achieve, rather than the outputs they use to get there.

Recruitment

With the project scoped, my Director and I began drawing up the recruitment questions. We designed the survey using an information architecture to filter the people we were looking for.

Some of the questions we asked in the recruitment process

An introduction to framing

I found it interesting how delicately the framing of each question would effect participant responses. We also structured the chronology of questions with a basic information architecture to properly lead the right participants through the maze of questions.

Drafting the journey

By the time the recruitment responses started coming in we had begun to map out a draft journey. To get a head-start, we:

  • Analysed existing persona research from the client
  • Analysed Intelligence gathered from another agency working within the walls at M&C Saatchi
Drafting the journey

Facilitating collaboration

To get a better idea of what might bring structure to designing the career lifecycle of teachers, we facilitated a workshop with teacher’s working for the Department. The facilitation of this workshop was run by myself and my Director.

What worked:

  • Well designed slide deck
  • Active and passionate participants
  • Deeper insight into the teacher experience

What didn’t:

  • Were not clear on parameters for the session
  • Failed to validate all of our assumptions on the current journey
  • Communicated poorly to each other beforehand, leading to poor preparation

The workshop failed because we did not communicate well with one another, and this ultimately stopped us from being able to gain real value from the teacher’s we had in the room.

Reflection

With hindsight I understand there was a knowledge gap between my Director and I. He was used to operating on a higher level, with people who had more experience, meaning he could communicate the complexity of his ideas much easier. Being enthusiastic and passionate with relative experience meant that I needed strong communication and collaboration in preparation to properly perform. In future I’ve made a conscious effort to think about which questions need answering and to prioritise them.

20 Switch-Interviews

We recruited 20 participants for interviews. We interviewed across ages, years of experience, locations, schools and genders.

Switch journey (w/ illustration)
A face to the research (w/ quotes)

Research trends

As we interviewed participants (there were a few mis-recruits) we began to see some patterns:

Age, experience and desired outcomes were influenced by one another but not exclusive

Another CX team had previously mapped the customer journey of students. They used the years students progress through (eg. Kindergarten to Year 12) as a spine to give the journey a structure. It was difficult when it came to mapping the teacher journey because there was no defined start and end to the journey and their relationship with the Department.

Teachers took on certain states of mind depending on the experience of their career, age and ambitions.

We began to categorise teachers by the following three outcomes they were trying to achieve:

  • Help me understand how to engage young people in learning
  • Help me succeed to make a difference in the lives of young people
  • Help me maintain my skills and relevance
One of the three parts to the overall journey

Insight

Teachers passed through the first outcome to get to either of the other two. From then on they would pass from one stage to another, leaving the first behind. The career lifecycle was not entirely linear.

Devil in the documentation

Documentation and full synthesis lasted several weeks, causing scope-creep.

We had several check-ins with a team of executive Directors organised by the client. We learnt — given the nature of our customer group — we had to frame the information in a particular way so it wouldn’t cause any concern when it was eventually publicised.

Because of this detail, framing the insights became difficult. We became so bogged down by the wording of the research that we lost grip of the concept we were trying to communicate.

Throughout this process my Director and I complemented one another in terms of driving the conversation forward and analysing the quality of our insights.

Integrating product features as part of a service

The capacity for my Director to keep working on this project was reduced, which meant I had to start driving in the delivery of the research, using him as a check-point and secondary lens.

Originally we had intended to design a full journey map. The extent of research across the phases meant we could not condense it for the sake of accessibility. So we decided to produce and deliver the research in the following two formats:

  • 4 x Posters (1 overview poster and 3 posters for each of the outcomes driving teachers at different stages)
  • A research booklet (to deliver the full depth of the research in an accessible medium)

Over several days of close collaboration with a journalist, we delivered the final edit of the research to the visual designer.

Drafts for presentation

The Linchpin

These posters and booklet, I realised, would eventually be digitised in the product we were designing in parallel to this research project (I have described the design process of this product in part 2 of this case study).

For the sake of the broader strategy and service, the elements of the posters needed to convey the intended outcome of using this research. To do that, the copy needed to be in similar tone. The visual shorthand of the iconography needed to be in line with the iconography used on the digital product. These posters became the interface of the digital product’s analogue experience.

Drafting the narrative

In all of our presentations to senior stakeholders and executive directors the impact of the findings was lost by the sheer amount of information we had to communicate. In each presentation, we found the audiences became disengaged after the first 15 minutes or so.

To create impact and drive empathy with the teachers’ journey, I began to draft a narrative that simplified and distilled the research into a format that would be engaging on delivery and sustain people’s interest whenever reflecting on the research.

I created an archetype (a persona that could develop across each phase) and wrote a short story using the customer journey of a teacher as the overarching plot to the story:

Bold = Customer Jobs-to-be-done (the outcome a teacher is trying to achieve)

Green = Something motivating the teacher to achieve this outcome

Red = Something stopping the teacher from achieving this outcome

Blue = Insight

Yellow = Edits

The information here has been obfuscated to comply with my NDA.

Delivery and next steps

This narrative was a great base — but the team agreed it needed be developed into a professional format that could be handed over to the client.

We delivered the research in a formal presentation to the executive team of Directors, who responded to the value and depth of research and how it provided direction on the prioritisation of opportunities.

As consultants our recommendation was to take the following steps to ensure the uptake and retention of use:

  1. Facilitate workshops with executive teams to develop their understanding of the research and how to apply it to current projects and initiatives
  2. Communicate the value of this research and its use to staff across internal departments
  3. Implement this research as part of the Department’s project governance framework

If you’ve enjoyed the ups and down of this project, please:

Continue to Part 2 for more drama…

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade