What does a rapid prototyping project feel like?
Hearing from charity participants in their own words
We’re now in the Week 11 of our Catalyst-funded sector challenge into helping people claim Universal Credit remotely. As such, we’re ready to wrap up the work we’ve done in a way that can be take further by charities and government departments.
For some of the charities involved in this project, it was their first experience of a rapid prototyping project. We therefore invited the charity representatives involved in the project to share their experiences.
1. Why did you get involved in this project?
Maggie Houghton (Hyde Foundation)
Transition to 100% remote delivery of our money and welfare benefit advice service due to the coronavirus pandemic presented us with some new challenges. Our BAU provision was probably split 20/80 remote and face to face, so it wasn’t a wholesale transformation of how we deliver advice, however it removed a channel that we felt had been crucial in making sure that all our customers could access the support they needed; we were worried about our ability to service the 20% who would previously have provided with desk-side support.
The increasing volumes of claimants also presented a challenge- with limited capacity we’re constantly looking for good tools that enable our customers to help themselves- it’s empowering for them, and allows us to focus on those who need more intensive support.
Finally- we were keen to explore a new way of delivering a project, to expand our skillset and to make new connections with other organisations wanting to achieve the same for their customer groups.
Elizabeth George (National Ugly Mugs):
Creating tools and resources that make the universal credit application more accessible to those from marginalised communities aligns with some of NUM’s central aims which are to support sex workers in accessing frontline services and the right to live free without exploitation, so I was very excited when joining this project initially. There is, of course, an undeniable and inextricable link between poverty, destitution and sex work. Those that find themselves in financial crisis are more likely to engage in forms of sex work as a means of survival, so it is important to try and reduce the barriers in place that stop survival sex workers from accessing financial assistance from the state where applicable. My main goal when agreeing to take part in this sector challenge was to identify these barriers and contribute to the development of prototypes that would essentially give individuals the autonomy and information they need to better navigate the universal credit application
“The intersectional realities of patriarchy, colonialism and capitalism affect life chances. Poverty, racism, the gender pay gap, limited access to safe and affordable housing, the inaccessibility of education/training, and the scarcity of a living wage, secure employment can all make people vulnerable. These factors, in addition to personal factors such as parenthood, (mental) health conditions and chemical dependency, mean that for some, engaging in sex the industry for survival is the best choice and at times, the only choice available.”
– Raven Bowen (CEO of National Ugly Migs) at the inquiry on Universal credit and survival sex work
It is important to take these dominant forms of oppression listed above into account when envisioning tools and resources that can assist sex workers to navigate the universal credit application process and this is something I have consistently highlighted when engaging in this project. Women of colour, especially trans women and gender non-conforming/non-binary individuals of colour are more likely to face economic hardship, therefore in this case sex work becomes a means of survival for those that do not have the financial assistance and access to state resources that are necessary to stay out of sex work. With this understanding that many of the womxn that find themselves having to engage in survival sex work do not have the access to formal forms of employment, creating prototypes to assist and make the universal credit application process more accessible is crucial and increases the likelihood that sex workers who have limited work privileges have the option to apply for universal credit if they desire to.
Aisling Buckley (Turn2us):
Turn2us aims to support people experiencing financial shocks. We believe everyone has the right to a decent standard of living and a genuine opportunity to thrive.
One of the ways we do this is by providing a free Benefits Calculator, which informs people of what benefits they are entitled to. But we know that the journey does not stop there; many need more support to apply.
I was interested in this project because I was previously involved in a pilot SMS support service tackling the same issue. Unfortunately, this service was not a cost-effective model to pursue at scale. The fact that we would create a scalable prototype for this sector challenge seemed like the perfect opportunity.
Olivia Vicol (Work Rights Centre):
Access to Universal Credit is a major issue. Every week our advisers work with beneficiaries who are in serious financial need, yet struggle to access what’s available at the time they need it most. There are a range of barriers out there — not having the hardware, not having the right level of English to crack the jargon in the application, but also being overwhelmed by the interface and process overall. So we were very keen to see funders invest in access.
2. What have been the highlights of the project?
Maggie Houghton (Hyde Foundation):
An absolute highlight for me has been the pace at which we have progressed- I am still astonished that we’ve ended up with three prototypes that all address the problem on the table. If a team of 4 different charities with some overlapping challenges, but widely different missions can come together and produce what we have in this time frame-imagine what similar organisations with similar target audiences could achieve through this process. A real key to this though has been having a digital partner expertly steering us through the stages of the design progress, and continuously bringing us back to the challenge we were trying to solve when conflicting interests or opinions obscured the way forward.
Elizabeth George (National Ugly Mugs):
I have thoroughly enjoyed the collaborative aspect of the project and the combining of ideas across all charities and organisations involved. Although I entered the project open-minded, it was interesting to observe myself having strict ideas about the problems faced by sex workers and how I wanted to have these translate into the end prototypes. However, through weeks of close discussion and extensive brainstorming, I was able to see how across all charities we would be able to come together to identify common barriers and common goals. Sex workers are a group that fall across multiple intersections, so it was extremely helpful to work alongside charities that also work with members of society that also have multiplicit identities and struggles. It was extremely affirming to work alongside individuals with a shared interest of wanting to minimise the poverty gap and help people access the financial support they are entitled to and deserve.
Aisling Buckley (Turn2us):
Learning from the other organisations has been one of the main highlights, as they have a lot of insight through their casework and experience in user research.
Using the learnings from Connect and Turn2us’ understanding of the benefits system has been rewarding. We were able to provide context and enrich the prototypes.
Olivia Vicol (Work Rights Centre):
It was great to see charities and the digital team come together to tame this big, often quite impenetrable, issue of digital access, and work towards a solution step by step. Seeing the prototypes for the first time was great.
3. What have been the biggest challenges?
Maggie Houghton (Hyde Foundation)
Initially it was trusting the process; it was uncomfortable to spend so much time on analysing the issue we were solving. when you enter a project with a fairly set idea of what the solution to the problem is. What I have absolutely learned through working in this way though is to invest far more time in interrogating the problem we’re trying to solve before progressing with a good idea. Great ideas are fabulous, but only if the problem they seek to solve exists.
Elizabeth George (National Ugly Mugs):
The biggest challenge for me was the timescale of the project and integrating this with other peoples schedules and capacity within a global pandemic. User research was a key factor streaming throughout this project, but it can be definitely difficult, as I have learned the past in previous projects to engage with sex workers for user research. It’s a particularly exhausting and emotionally draining time for sex workers due to threats of the Nordic model being introduced in the U.K and the increased financial strain sex workers have been under whilst having no access to governmental funds in the pandemic — many seemed enthusiastic initially to take part, but other personal factors then took over. So although things didn’t exactly go as expected in that regard, I think having compassion for every individual’s personal experience and timeline was greatly important.
Aisling Buckley (Turn2us):
It was really valuable having various organisations in the cluster; but it would have been useful to have more individuals who had applied to Universal Credit in the workshops.
Olivia Vicol (Work Rights Centre):
User research is hard. Testing a prototype, something that’s only part-way there, takes a degree of imagination. It takes work to get beneficiaries who have a very immediate, urgent need, to take that step back and imagine how they might do things differently, with the help of a product that’s also still being developed. But it’s all part of the process.
If you would have any questions about this project, please get in touch: hello@dynamicskillset.com
