Week 9 & 10 — Generative Research Phase Synthesis and Results
Closing the Generative Research Phase
Swan and Sparrow Workshops
The Swan workshop went great. We had a total of 4 participants but a great diversity of menopausal stages between them. One of them, had very severe and intense menopausal symptoms, other had very mild symptoms, other was a peri-menopausal woman and the last one was a post-menopausal woman.
We started with the ice-breaker which was a game of Cards against Humanity (CAH), including a Period pack (bought from the online store of CAH). This activity helped the participants to engage with the topic and be more open between each other and have fun with it.
Once the topic was introduced, we did the activity of Hopes and Fears, where we asked the participants to share their aspirations and challenges based on their experiences at home, work and other places.
Then we had a sharing session with what they wrote. The sharing showed a lot of insights about their symptoms and how we could intervene to improve their interactions with other people or while going through a menopausal event.
“One of my fears is that I might pass out alone. And since I don’t reach out for help usually, I am afraid that no one would help me in that circumstance” — Marjorie, 2020
After that hopes and fears exercise, we started the make a package task which was divided in writing a letter to their younger self and making a solution for their menopausal symptoms. The latter exercise was kind of tricky to complete, because the participants didn’t want to work with the 3D material and preferred to draw their solution, but they came up with nice solutions for their own problems.
One of the solutions was a super-pill that gave the woman all the vitamins and minerals she needed based on her physiological needs, and the other ones were Guides to Menopause 101, basically all you need to know about menopause.
This helped us understand that there was a lack of information about the symptoms and treatments, even if they asked their doctors. Communication was another insight, since most of them could not share their symptoms or discuss the topic openly with their families, work partners or even other women. It’s still a taboo to speak about this subject.
After this exercise, they got to share a little bit more about their own experiences and it was a very productive workshop, we had a beautiful polaroid taken for each of them as a takeaway.
Once we were done with that, we started working on the Sparrow workshop. Since we were all dealing with the COVID-19 social distancing requirements, we had to ideate a different way to have a workshop with the sparrows that would not violate the health restrictions. So we divided and conquered, 3 of us had a workshop with roommates and 1 did a virtual workshop, with an overall total of 12 participants for the 4 workshops.
These workshops were divided in 2 exercises, one was the futuring activity were we asked the participants to picture themselves in the age were they think they’ll hit menopause, and share an embarassing or challenging moment and a fear related to menopause.
The second activity were follow up questions about empathy with their mothers like, how much contact do they have with their moms and if they discuss about reproductive health at some point, and planning their own futures.
From these workshops we got more insights about the sparrow’s empathy for their mother and if they had a close communication about this subject. Most participants were aware of the symptoms because their moms or close relatives shared their experiences with them, but they were not part of the support system for their mothers, since most sparrows were away during that time.
Research Synthesis
From these workshops, we first digitized the information, quotes and notes from the workshops into an excel sheet, we color coded it and divided it by tasks and main questions.
Then we made an affinity map with the rose-bud-thorn method for both groups in MURAL since by this point we were all isolated because of the COVID-19 restrictions.
From this synthesis we clustered the notes in groups as shown above and these translated to the insights for both groups. Being the main insights the following:
Support System
Swans: Women’s support systems are not restricted to family.Often, they find support in communities outside of immediate family and friends.
Women find their own unique support systems to cope with the emotional changes and the fear of ageing.
Sparrows: Sparrows often times are not around when their mothers go through menopause, so they are not as engaged as support.
“One of my fears is that I might pass out alone. And since I don’t reach out for help usually, I am afraid that no one would help me in that circumstance”
Awareness & Knowledge
Swans: Awareness and knowledge is experiential rather than informational. Women often don’t know where to look for reliable information about their symptoms and how to deal with them.
Sparrows: Most sparrows learn from the topic through conversations of their close relatives (mother, aunts, grandmothers).
“Doctor’s suggested treatments like hormones didn’t work and made my symptoms worse, but it was until a nurse suggested a nuva ring that worked for her, that my problems got solved”
Medical System
Swans: There is a barrier of communication between male doctors and patients, this ties to the previous insight. Since women believe more about the lived experience of the person rather than the information.
Sparrows: Sparrows are not comfortable about sharing their reproductive health with male doctors either.
“My fear started because I have not had symptoms that are severe. My doctor says I’m okay but I’m having a hard time believing it.”
Communication
Swans: Women are not as willing to communicate their symptoms openly with their social circles, since it is still an unspoken topic. Some women are purposely talking with their daughters to create awareness of the subject.
Sparrows: Sparrows have limitations to communicate with their mothers and build empathy for their menopausal symptoms.
“Conversations are about general daily life things and less focused on reproductive health.”
Physical Symptoms
Swans: Women fear that their menopausal symptoms will interfere in their daily life activities or disturb their relationships with other people.
Sparrows: Sparrows are aware that active physical activity will improve their health in the long run and be a solution to severe menopausal symptoms. Most sparrows believe their symptoms will be similar to their mother’s symptoms.
“I want to be out in the woods camping. But how can I prepare for that? I don’t want it to get worse whatever that might be. I am afraid that I get a symptom that I’m not prepared for.”
Social Stigma
Swans: Most women fear to feel old and get stereotyped as unreliable if they show symptoms at work.
Sparrows: Sparrows expect that life would be challenging in general because it’s a transitional phase, and society is harsh on people in aging.
“I do not want to reinforce the stereotype that you are being the crazy female”
Archetypes and Journey Map
After these insights were created, we made the archetypes for both group but instead of generalizing symptoms and attitudes into personas, we created ranges of important factors that affect a women’s reproductive health and mapped the archetypes in those ranges.
Journey Map
From these archetypes we created a journey map for the swans to find the opportunity areas for intervention in a Swan’s transitional life.
Concept Generation
Finally, we did an in-person session to work on concept generation. We had a brainstorming of ideas based on the opportunity area we found from the journey map and targeting Sparrows, Swans or Both.
From this session we created 3 concepts to move forward and focus on 3 opportunity areas: Awareness & Knowledge, Empathy & Communication and Empowerment.
We will have to narrow down these concepts and get feedback from the INDEX team, Peter, Aadya, Hajira and Sofia to move forward, but we feel proud of the output of this phase and our next steps for the next stage.
