{"id":441,"date":"2019-07-22T14:54:13","date_gmt":"2019-07-22T21:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0060\/?p=441"},"modified":"2019-07-22T15:09:47","modified_gmt":"2019-07-22T22:09:47","slug":"unit-1-activity-4-the-define-phase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0060\/unit-1-activity-4-the-define-phase\/","title":{"rendered":"Unit 1 – Activity 4: The Define Phase"},"content":{"rendered":"
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image by: Dorothy Sidhu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Moving from empathy interviews to distilling and synthesizing in the define phase of the design thinking model, I\u2019ve quickly learned my initial perspectives and assumptions are forced to be put aside in order to hold the space with a beginners mindset; one that is unbiased, non-judgmental and untampered enabling it to be extended, shifted, surprised and enriched from the diversity of thoughts.\u00a0 Through observations, information receiving, dialogue, questioning, and learning’s from the end users it is rewarding and equally invigorating on how much comes up.\u00a0 Design thinking as a tool and method enriches the instructional design process resulting in a better solution that will have a greater chance of adoption.\u00a0 As Eli Woolery commented, \u201cit can be a powerful way to create innovative design solutions to challenging problems and even create new and disruptive business models never considered\u201d (Woolery, 2017).<\/p>\n

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image by: Supriya Nigam<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of my design challenge I\u2019m focusing on ways to support the acclimation of new employees through digital learning technologies to create greater opportunities for socialization in order to help increase interpersonal relationships, connectedness and networks as part of a new employee\u2019s on-boarding experience.\u00a0\u00a0 Our organizations data from 90-day new hire engagement survey\u2019s to exit survey\u2019s suggested low engagement scores and people leaving the organization because of a poor new employee on-boarding experience, alongside leadership and management.<\/p>\n

In the initial phase of designing a new employee on-boarding program, exploring acclimation<\/strong> as one of the three key objectives, followed by guide<\/strong> and develop<\/strong> as the other critical areas will hopefully result in reducing the higher than average voluntary turnover and low engagement scores that the organization has been trending over the past couple of years.<\/p>\n

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image by: Ditte Mortensen<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the empathy phase, using the interview for empathy method I was able to conduct 1:1 sessions in person and video Skype for 30 minutes each with 22 end users in the month of June.\u00a0 The end users consisted of individuals who were recently hired from less than a week ago to 6 months on the job, from different departments and locations.\u00a0 In addition, among the 22 end users, two individuals were ex-staff that were classified as \u2018extreme users\u2019 who had left the organization recently and were open to the idea of having a discussion to share their perspectives to help build a successful new employee on-boarding program.\u00a0 Upon gathering all the various stories, responses, thoughts, ideas, challenges and even solutions from the 22 participants, I was able to group end user responses in to themes and common issues and concerns within a timeline of when these were occurring from the time they were hired.<\/p>\n

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image by: Gavin O’Leary<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Moving in to the define phase, which is intended to help develop a deep understanding of the end users and the design space, as well as come up with actionable problem statements that can be leveraged in the design and creation of a successful solution (d.school, 2016), I took some time to reflect on the initial design challenge and the problem, which was with recent increased trends in new employee voluntary turnover and organizational engagement and exit surveys, employees have expressed challenges and concerns with the lack of a new employee on-boarding\u00a0program and orientation to help support their acclimation in to the organization, team and role resulting in feelings of abandonment, lack of support, uncertainty and disengagement<\/em> and asked if this still was true based on what was collected from end users.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Using the Point of View (POV)<\/strong> and How Might We (HMW)<\/strong> methods created a space to re-frame the design challenge into an actionable problem statement that will support generative ideation and design vision (d.school, 2016).<\/p>\n

Using the POV formula suggested by Stanford University Institute of Design<\/p>\n

[USER<\/strong> \u2013 be specific<\/em>] needs to [USER\u2019S NEED<\/strong> \u2013 user verb<\/em>] because [SURPRISING INSIGHT<\/strong> \u2013 observation and interpretation<\/em>] <\/span><\/p>\n

further supports building out HMW questions, which creates opportunities broad and wide range of solutions, however narrow enough to come up with specific and unique ideas.<\/p>\n

For example<\/em><\/strong> my initial design challenge could now sound like, \u201cA new employee needs to feel connected, supported, and a sense of belonging to the organization, team and individual because it will result in a greater on-boarding experience, resulting in higher engagement, increased retention and trusting relationships.\u201d \u00a0<\/em>As a result of this statement it can result in questions such as the following:<\/p>\n