Defining our user needs statements

Week 4 of the Catalyst Definition Programme for Refugee Women Connect

Refugee Women Connect are a registered charity working with service users, policy makers and the wider sector to support and facilitate refugee women’s access to social justice.

We’ve reached the end of the fourth week of the Catalyst Definition programme and this week has been one of our most productive!

This week we have been able to define our user needs statements after a great session with our Advocacy Group. We pitched our project to the women and the feedback was better than we expected!

Who are our users?

• Women living in Merseyside
• Local partners
• Other organisations in the sector
• Staff
• Volunteers
• Women outside of Merseyside

For the Definition Programme, we have decided to focus on two of our user groups; women living in Merseyside and our staff.

1. What is the problem they have?

Women face the challenge of asserting their rights and entitlements whilst focusing on their wellbeing, during a hostile asylum process. Staff are challenged with busy schedules, cross-team communication, and keeping our CRM up to date.

2. Big things outside of our control

The personal challenges that impact women’s capacity to engage; digital skills, digital poverty, language barriers and immigration cases/trauma.

3. What can we control based on our skills and experience?

We can ensure that our services are as accessible as possible to as many women as possible, and that we communicate clearly and consistently with our users. We can enhance and ensure a woman’s right to choose how she accesses our services through a transparent timetable of events.

4. Needs from a product

The need for a personalised calendar so women can plan their schedules and choose which activities best suit their needs and interests. It needs to have a log in function that is secure yet simple, and a clear ‘exit’ option so women can exit the platform quickly and easily. Staff need to be able to set permissions on the calendar so that they are personalised, and would like it to be connected with our CRM to streamline the process for staff. The platform needs to have the capacity to be developed in the future so we can include information and education videos.

We created the story board below which has helped us visualise how a woman may use our digital service.

We then worked on our user needs statements…

User Needs Statements

As a woman seeking asylum/with refugee status

When I want to access a service at Refugee Women Connect

I need to know which activities/groups are open to me

So that I can choose what support I get based on my current needs.

As a busy member of staff

When I want to engage with the women

I need a quick and easy way to share events and groups

So that women can connect independently without my support where possible.

We also thought about some additional needs based on our research and discussions with women…

User Needs

‘I can’t keep up with all the meetings and activities which means I can’t plan my weeks’

‘I want to know what other activities at Refugee Women Connect I can get involved with’

‘I want to know what external meetings and webinars are happening that I can take part in’

‘I lose the zoom links in WhatsApp groups’

‘I want to meet women outside of the groups I am already a part of’

Although we had developed our user needs, we weren’t convinced that the digital timetable was the right idea. We were worried that the women may be reluctant to use an additional platform and find it unnecessarily complicated. So, earlier this month we met with our Advocacy Group to get their feedback on our ideas so far. This is what they said….

• Having an online timetable will allow people to arrange their days
• I think the idea is ‘perfect’, it will allow us to plan our weeks
• Could we do videos to explain what the event is, and embed these in the timetable?
• Some people may be wary of [the platform], but we should look at it as an opportunity to learn new things
• Using new technology can have long-term benefits e.g. preparation for the workplace, increased digital skills
• Could we run an online training so people understand the platform and feel comfortable using it?

As you can see, the feedback was constructive and positive, so we’re going ahead with prototyping! We’re also going to bring our colleagues into this round of discussions to get their ideas for ways we can make this platform work for them.

We’ll be thinking about what we’d like to include in our prototype, and what are our ‘must haves’. We’d love to include embedded videos as the women in our advocacy group suggested, so we will be talking ourselves into being in front of the camera rather than behind the scenes! Wish us luck!