Towards a Place-as-a-Service: Discovering the community
Who are they and how do you reach them?
In my last blog post I talked about how our proposed service design event for the community of Te Karaka was not a good fit for the people of the town. We decided that we needed to better understand how the community presently functioned, and the best way to get them involved in creating a growth strategy for their town.
On 22 May 2016 we met with Tu Ake Te Karaka Community Committee to co-design a human-centred design event, project, or strategy to suit the Te Karaka Community. We set aside 4 hours explore the problems and that we wanted to tackle, and ways in which we could involve the wider community.
Our plan
The best way to understand how the design process works is to do it. Instead of simply explaining our plan to the Committee, we would lead them through the steps required to explore the process for themselves.
First up, we introduced ourselves and gave a short introduction to the design tools and methods we would be using during the course of the project. Next, we asked each of the participants to place PostIt notes on the whiteboard listing the things people would like to get out of the day. Each participant did a quick introduction as they placed their notes on the board. This exercise would ensure that both we as organisers and the participants were all clear about what we needed to cover, and what would be set aside for another time.
Understanding the project
Turning our minds back to the town of Te Karaka and the project itself, what did the group want to achieve? What does success look like overall in 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months time?
We recorded the individual thoughts of each of the participants to look for patterns and to enable the cross fertilisation of ideas.
Understanding the people
Our next exercise was to understand the types of people who live in Te Karaka. This free-form exercise got everyone to contribute by writing names on Post-It notes and described them as they placing them on the wall. We then grouped the people into segments using a couple of different slices. Thinking about why we initially grouped them, we then thought about whether we should group them in that way, how we might think about them differently.
Each group was given a name to describe how they fitted into our thoughts about the community of Te Karaka. The groups included:
To better understand these groups of people we used the customer lens from the value proposition canvas to understand for each segment. What their job or role was within the community, what were their challenges and pains, and what gains they receive from being part of the community. We split into groups of 3–4 people and spend a few minutes on four of the different types of roles that people perform within Te Karaka. Here are some of the things that the groups came up with:
As a group we then had a discussion and reflected on each of the groups that we had explored. We talked about who were the most in need, and who were the hardest to reach. What did each group value, and how might we best engage with these groups.
Setting up a stand at the sports grounds on a Saturday morning might me one of the ways that the community committee can go to where the people are. Some other fun examples of how information can be taken to where the people are were looked at, including the “Pooch Booth” that Waipa District Council set up for people to pay dog registrations.
Understanding the place
The next part of the workshop was focused on mapping all the different parts of the town that made up the community of Te Karaka. On a large piece of paper on the table, the group sketched out a schematic diagram of the town, and then set about marking out places (described as “actors”) using different icons.
For each of the icons, the group recorded the name of the “actor”, what role it performed, what it needed, and in what capacity it provides back to the community.
Looking at the town as a whole, were there concentrations or clusters of activities? Did the different parts of the town have differed attributes, tools, or resources? What were the flows of traffic, information or people?
We were also interested in identifying what are places of interest, and why. What were the histories and stories are associated with these places, and why are these stories important? How do the values and narratives associated with these places relate to today? We ran out of time to complete this aspect of the task, but we were excited to learn about the huge amount of rich information about the community that has yet to be explored.
What we found
The assumed starting positions was that the community needed an economic development plan to encourage growth and investment within the town. What we found is that there are a couple of other steps that need to be dealt with first.
Who is this being done for, and what are their needs. We think that we are on our way to exploring this issue.
There is also a tendency with economic development initiatives to look for the silver bullet solution — but there is a lot more work yet to be done when it comes to understanding how the community works and fits together. There is a lot of great energy and ideas within the community, so we need to work out how can we amplify this.
The community has a lot going for it. It is largely self sufficient, and has many of the pieces needed to be a very resilient community indeed. We would really like to capture that spirit and share it in a way that enables people to appreciate and build on it.
Future plans
So where are we heading with the Place-as-a-Service project now? Well the original concept of holding a weekend long service design event didn’t fit the community. We went back to the community organisers and looked to design a longer process with them. From the workshop we discovered more about the types of people that make up the community.
We plan to find out more about the drivers and motivations of each of these community segments, by talking with them first hand. We will be looking for the things that provide value to them, and compare the responses from all of the segments to look for patterns. From that information we should be able to define those things that are important to many of the roles people perform in the community.
In essence, we are looking to map out all the parts that make up the community to see how it works as a system. We will then explore ways in which we can add value to the town of Te Karaka. Our focus will be on building products or services that not only strengthen the existing community, but create value for people from outside the town.
During this development phase our focus will be on having the community identify opportunities to work together on initiatives that add the most value to the people of the town. While doing so, we will also have them look for things that will also have value for people beyond the immediate community. It is these things that will be the key to unlocking further economic development potential in Te Karaka.
As part of this phase, we need to make contact with potential customers and investors to measure just how much value Te Karaka can provide them. This phase will test the ideas on real people, with feedback being collected to help inform ways in which the community can improve the experience for their potential customers. This testing process will be documented, and form the basis for the Economic Development Plan for Te Karaka as a service.
Next steps
Over the next couple of weeks we will be conducting online and face to face surveys of people who have a relationship with Te Karaka as a place. We will be sharing the findings as the results come in via the project Facebook Page and Twitter. We will also post copies of the surveys around town so be sure to keep an eye out and get involved!
