How did Talent Compass start?
Spoiler alert: By testing for desirability first
How did we get here?
Back in December 2020, Mission Beyond engaged Red Badger to assist them in achieving their mission to “enhance social mobility and representation by speeding and sustainably scaling the most effective existing and new solutions and practices.”
Red Badger’s Product Strategy proposition was identified as a potential way forward after Mission Beyond recognised “Harnessing the power of digital platforms and products ” as a method for achieving their mission.
The Red Badger Product Strategy approach is to test for customer desirability in an idea for a product or service before considering whether it is viable or feasible. I.e. Don’t waste time, money, and resources on developing an idea that no one wants. With this approach in mind, we agreed on a brief with Mission Beyond to:
Rapidly create, validate ideas and test desirability for solutions for improving social mobility for people from underrepresented and marginalised groups of society entering the workforce
How do we test for desirability?
Product Strategy at Red Badger begins with a Rinse phase, where we run a number of 5-day sprints (following the Design Thinking methodology) to identify multiple desirable solutions to address real customer needs or pain points.
We always begin by speaking with 5–10 people who align with the target customer persona, to understand their context, empathise with their needs and pain points and bust any assumptions we have about them.
Next, we brainstorm about 100 ideas for products or services that would provide solutions to address their needs and pick the most compelling one to test whether it is desirable.
To test for desirability, we launch what is called a smoke test or painted-front door test to measure user sign-up intent as a proxy for desirability.
We agreed that the test would be successful if it achieved a conversion rate (number of users who saw Talent Compass divided by the number of users who tried to sign up for Talent Compass) of 3%. 24 hours later and Talent Compass had an 8% conversion rate!
What do you do when you’ve identified desirability?
After we have run a number of Rinsing sprints and have filtered successful propositions down to one, we run a Rehearse phase.
We call it a Rehearse phase because we are essentially “rehearsing” how the product or service might function with minimal tech and investment. At this stage, we are aiming to test our most risky assumptions (i.e. the ones that have the least evidence and would cause us to pivot should they be disproven).
After a 1 week setup, where we ran a number of activities to weed out our desirability, feasibility, and viability assumptions, we were ready to begin Rehearse. The first assumption on the top of our backlog to test was “We believe a second smoke test can be run that will replicate the original smoke test results”. Being 4 months after December’s test, we wanted to make sure that proposition was still a desirable solution.
How did Talent Compass do its second time?
Well, the short answer is — we’re still here, so it performed well enough for us to continue with Rehearse. The smoke test achieved a 3% conversion rate and gave us enough of an indication to begin running some user testing sessions with our customers to understand their perceptions of a thin slice of the product.
Want to know more about how we’re Rehearsing Talent Compass as a live service? Keep your eyes peeled for our next blog!
