The main assignment for LRNT527 – Creating Digital Resources tasks students to build a digital learning resource of personal significance and relevance related to any combination of the following: learning, technology, design, and innovation.

To begin this process, students were asked to review Stanford University Institute of Design’s Bootcamp Bootleg  and IDEO’s Design Kit which discuss a variety of methods to assist in empathizing with end users and to then select which methods would be useful for when we are designing our digital learning resource.

The digital learning resource I am planning to develop will focus on improving the current document-heavy method of training that my employer, an internet and telecommunications company, uses for new Helpdesk hires and the ongoing training of current employees.

In order to gain empathy for the user, I have chosen to use a blended Interview and Journey Map method which will enable me to gain deeper insight into how the current staff handle a customer troubleshooting call. Even though staff are all given the same training manuals, each person may tend to follow a varying path to assisting a customer on a troubleshooting call. Therefore the Journey Map will assist me in visualizing how the staff currently conduct a call and through Interviews I will be able to get deeper insights into staff troubleshooting methods, needs assessments, and improvements for company training methods.

Some challenges do present themselves for the data collection process. Since I am normally involved in the day-to-day interactions with end users and have gone through the current training myself, there are some biases based on my own learning and onboarding experience which I would like to integrate into the digital resource. I have to be careful not to impart my opinions when conducting the interviews or diagramming the Journey Map and ensure that my colleagues can provide a clear, low pressure discussion.

Another obstacle will be timing and also location. My colleagues and I all work in different offices and various shifts so the chances of a real-time in-person interview will be low. This may limit the depth of discussion during the interviews but my focus is to schedule a phone interview with my colleagues either at lunch or after a shift.

The interviews will be focused on asking the rep to describe their personal process for solving one product/service issue. It will be the same issue presented to all the interviewees. It will help give me better insight into their work processes and to get insights from their own training experience. My goal is to understand the pain points they face when troubleshooting and what various steps they utilize. From there I can then formulate a potential digital resource that will enable reps to easily locate the information needed when troubleshooting which benefits both the employee and also the customer (end user) since the troubleshooting will be more efficient.

References:

IDEO. (2015). Design Kit – Methods. Retrieved from http://www.designkit.org/methods

Stanford University Institute of Design. (2016). Bootcamp Bootleg.  Retrieved from http://dschool-old.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/METHODCARDS-v3-slim.pdf