Empathy in Action: Kickstarting an HCI Project for a Mentoring Organization
Hello!
We are a group of UX Designers and Researchers at Carnegie Mellon in the Master’s of Human-Computer Interaction(MHCI) Program. The MHCI program culminates with a 8-month long capstone client project where we utilize Design Research and Thinking methods to drive innovation for our client. Our team is working with The Mentoring Partnership (TMP), a non-profit organization based in Pittsburgh, PA that builds the capacity of local mentoring programs that create networks of caring adults for every youth.
Building Team Culture
We plan to implement an agile method where we will complete 2-week sprints throughout the duration of the capstone project.
Our first step as a team was to outline a project plan with targeted outcomes for each week to share with the client, faculty, and to track our progress. We crafted outcomes based on the project description provided by the client and faculty that described the need to explore technology that would bolster operational efficiency or capacity-building for TMP.
Next, we crafted a team charter to define our team’s values, working styles, roles, expectations, and plan how to navigate conflict and roadblocks. This team framework will provide us with structure as we chart a path through the uncertainty of applying HCI in a new domain and execute the first part of our project, namely exploratory research.
First Exposure to the Mentorship Community
In our first week, we received a recommendation from our program faculty members to attend a mentorship conference, known as the National Mentoring Summit, in Washington DC. Given our initial lack of knowledge about mentoring, we were excited to gather insights about the mentoring space and network with those who work in the industry.
During the conference, each team member participated in various workshops to gain more knowledge about different areas of mentorship. To list a few, we sought insights about how mentoring organizations operate internationally, virtual mentoring curriculum, and mentoring strategies designed for incarcerated youth. We intercepted and casually interviewed individuals during the workshops and within conference communal spaces to expand our networks. We also explored booths and engaged with available exhibitors to gain more insights about technology used in the industry and other programs in the community.
One notable interviewee was Michael Garringer, the senior director of research and evaluation for MENTOR. As someone who has worked in the mentoring and education space for almost two decades, he shared valuable insider knowledge and thoroughly connected his experiences with our inquiries. In short, the conference was extremely valuable to our project and broadened our knowledge of this domain.
Client Kickoff to Uncover Opportunities
Shortly after the conference, we had our kickoff meeting with TMP. Our primary goal for the kickoff meeting was to gain a deeper understanding of the internal dynamics at TMP and to develop a comprehensive insight into how they deliver their services to customers.
Role Playing
To understand how the current organization operates and to tap into their multitude of experiences with youth mentoring, we decided our first activity would be roleplaying. Roleplaying is an empathy-building activity where participants assume the role of characters and collaboratively create stories or act out scenarios.
We had the TMP staff act out 2 scenarios: a mentor support group discussing challenges with a variety of youth groups, and a faux client meeting between TMP staff and a youth mentorship organization looking to acquire training resources from TMP.
While reflecting on the activity, the TMP staff questioned whether mentors were aware of the resources available for them currently and if they were accessible. Overall, this activity served as an effective tool to initiate discussion around the current challenges the mentors and organization face.
Service Blueprinting
Despite having attended conferences and conducted initial background research on TMP, our understanding of their internal operations was still limited. Therefore, for our second activity, we chose to use a service blueprint — a way to visualize interactions between the customer and the business and the internal actions of a business — as a tool to provide insights into how different parts of the company cooperate to deliver services to its customers.
We invited all TMP staff members to use sticky notes to outline the steps involved in a hypothetical scenario where “an organization seeks help from TMP”.
This activity revealed the detailed steps TMP staff undertake when providing services to their clients. One surprising finding was that the process was more complex than we initially anticipated. Therefore, our team plans to conduct further in-depth research to fully comprehend these aspects.
Stakeholder Mapping
Our experiences at the conference informed us that organizations in the mentoring industry have complex networks at both organizational and individual levels. Recognizing the complexity of these interconnections, we sought to create a stakeholder map, a visual diagram that illustrates the stakeholders involved with an organization and their relationships between one another.
To foster active participation from the TMP staff, we began sketching a stakeholder map on a whiteboard. We encouraged staff members to use sticky notes to identify any overlooked stakeholders. Our approach was flexible — we allowed any adjustments to our initial map, such as erasing or redrawing lines to better represent connections.
A particularly interesting aspect of this activity was the staff’s feedback on the significance of each stakeholder. They expressed this through the size of the circles representing each stakeholder on the map: the larger the circle, the greater the focus dedicated to that stakeholder. This feedback provided valuable insights into the flow of value between stakeholders in TMP’s ecosystem and TMP’s current business priorities.
Kickoff Reflection
It was our first time running an extensive client meeting, and thankfully, it was a successful kickoff! We tried risky group activities, like role-playing, which ultimately broke the ice, allowed us to empathize with our stakeholders, and set the scene for the next activities going forward. The Mentoring Partnership team was open to jumping into all activities we had planned, which created a constructive and open environment between us all. We were glad to hear the value they found in the activities we had planned, especially with the service blueprint. As much as it was valuable to them, it was more valuable to us. These four hours together allowed us to dive deeper into the interactions TMP has with its network and form a deeper relationship with our client.
During our post-kickoff team debrief, we reflected on the learning experience this meeting provided. The insights we learned led to new questions, highlighting the need for further exploration and understanding.
Accomplishments and Next Steps
For many in our group, the conference was our first in-person opportunity to attend a professional conference. We are proud of ourselves for quickly gaining insights from various sources and perspectives. Through networking, we acquired extensive knowledge about the industry, delving deeper into the intricate dynamics of the mentoring ecosystem. We identified existing challenges and potential areas for improvement. To process the gathered information, we plan to employ the “Walking the Wall” method. We are excited about our future research to further our understanding.
Tips and Tricks:
- Initiate communication with clients at the earliest opportunity to establish mutual understanding and clarify expectations.
- Acknowledge the importance of networking and remain open to continuous learning. While mentoring was a novel field for many of us, the conference significantly underscored the industry’s significance and enhanced our appreciation for the meaningful work we are engaged in.
- Lay a solid groundwork early! Understanding who your clients are, what their goals are, and why they do what they do, will build your passion for the project and the problem.
For future MHCI students:
- Take the lead with everything! Determine how you will spend your time at meetings and take risks — they pay off! 🎉
- Here’s a helpful link for setting up a notion workspace for project management.
Thanks for reading!
The TMP Capstone Team
Note: This project is not intended to contribute to generalizable knowledge and is not human subjects research.
