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Engage and Inspire Through Collaborative Problem Solving
- 1. ENGAGE AND INSPIRE THROUGH COLLABORATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING PWA Conference | May 10, 2016 Kate MacCorkle @KateMacCorkle Jaimi “J.J.” Kercher @jjkercher
- 2. AGENDA About Us Icebreaker Activity Collaboration Framework Final Activity
- 3. ABOUT US KATE Senior UX Researcher USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN LOOK aesthetics organization FEEL sentiment flow USABILITY functionality intuitiveness J.J. Director, User Experience
- 6. PROBLEM SOLVING It’s fiscal year close, and the staff in your department are feeling burnt out and tired. Brainstorm ways that you could re-energize, appreciate, and celebrate staff for a job well done. • Brainstorm ideas silently [2 minutes] • Find a partner and share your ideas [3 minutes] After discussing with your partner and hearing some ideas from others, would you still stick the original plan you came up with on your own?
- 7. Building a Culture of Inclusion
- 8. MAKE IT FLAT Don’t let your org chart be a decision roadmap Everyone in the room has unique talents, operate as equals Decisions made in isolation lack a variety in thinking
- 9. CELEBRATE DIVERSITY...AND CONFLICT Promote an environment of trust and respect, regardless of role or experience Healthy conflict ensures a problem will be approached at different angles
- 10. EMPOWER OTHERS, AUTONOMY WITH DIRECTION Reject the traditional, command and control model Articulate the problem, the outcome, and any constraints Letting individuals figure out the “how” saves you time and builds confidence
- 11. BE A SERVANT LEADER Share ownership & responsibility Put others first Focus on enabling your staff to do what they do best Results in an employee who feels important and cared for
- 13. What are the constraints? What is flexible? How will we know if we are successful (outcomes) How will we measure success? PHASE 1: UNDERSTAND What is the problem? Who are we solving it for? What are their needs and expectations? What’s driving the effort?
- 14. TOOLS FOR UNDERSTANDING WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? define the initiative…why are we here? WHATARE THE CONSTRAINTS? What MUST we do or not do? WHAT IS FLEXIBLE? where can we be creative? WHAT IS DRIVING THE EFFORT? why is this initiative important? WHO ARE WE SOLVING FOR? target audience…who will benefit? CONSIDERATIONS, NEEDS AND EXPECTATIONS WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOK LIKE? how will we know we solved the problem well? HOW WILLWE MEASURE SUCCESS? VALUE PROPOSITION what is our proposed solution, and why do we think it will work? THE PROJECT ONE-PAGER
- 15. PHASE 2: DIVERGE Explore solutions on your own Accommodate a variety of thinking and problem-solving styles • Extroverts who talk to think • Introverts who think to talk Gives everyone a voice
- 16. TOOLS FOR DIVERGENT THINKING MIND MAPPING CARD STORMING STORYBOARDINGPINTEREST
- 17. PHASE 3: CONVERGE Share individual ideas Group brainstorming Build off of one another’s ideas Narrow down the one or few best solutions Build consensus as a team
- 18. TOOLS FOR CONVERGING + AFFINITIZATION SKETCHING DOT VOTING
- 19. PHASE 4: TEST & LEARN Draft your proposal Find your “guinea pig(s)” Collect feedback Iterate
- 20. TOOLS FOR LEARNING AND ITERATION IN PERSON FEEDBACK SURVEYS MOCK TRIAL / ROLE PLAY
- 21. Final Activity
- 22. STAFF APPRECIATION WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? define the initiative…why are we here? WHATARE THE CONSTRAINTS? What MUST we do or not do? WHAT IS FLEXIBLE? where can we be creative? WHAT IS DRIVING THE EFFORT? why is this initiative important? WHO ARE WE SOLVING FOR? target audience…who will benefit? CONSIDERATIONS, NEEDS AND EXPECTATIONS WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOK LIKE? how will we know we solved the problem well? HOW WILLWE MEASURE SUCCESS? VALUE PROPOSITION what is our proposed solution, and why do we think it will work? THE PROJECT ONE-PAGER It’s fiscal year close, and the staff in your department are feeling burnt out and tired. Wait until fiscal close Budget = $30 per staff member Event or activity Day/Time of Day Vendors Give staff the opportunity to relax and feel appreciated for their hard work this year. Employees in your department Most staff is over 35 years of age Want to feel good about their work They like beer & wine Want to get their mind off of work Gluten free and vegan Staff members are excited and re- energized % of staff who participate Staff satisfaction survey
- 23. STAFF APPRECIATION - CONVERGE Organize into groups of 4 to collaborate with. • Affinitize Ideas [5 minutes] • Dot Vote on themes [2 minutes] • Write draft proposal [15 minutes]
- 24. STAFF APPRECIATION - PROPOSAL As a group, write your solution proposal. • How will you solve the problem? • What are the details/logistics of your solution? • How did the project one-pager affect or inform the details? • What are the risks, unknowns, or assumptions in your proposal?
- 25. Presentations
- 26. OUR FIRST DRAFT WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? define the initiative…why are we here? WHATARE THE CONSTRAINTS? What MUST we do or not do? WHAT IS FLEXIBLE? where can we be creative? WHAT IS DRIVING THE EFFORT? why is this initiative important? WHO ARE WE SOLVING FOR? target audience…who will benefit? CONSIDERATIONS, NEEDS AND EXPECTATIONS WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOK LIKE? how will we know we solved the problem well? HOW WILLWE MEASURE SUCCESS? VALUE PROPOSITION what is our proposed solution, and why do we think it will work? THE PROJECT ONE-PAGER Plan an activity for your department to celebrate fiscal year close. • Location? • Food? • Activities? In July Budget = $30/pp (staff only) Serve food Day/Time of Day Entertainment (music, games, etc.) Decor Vendors Indoor/Outdoor Give staff the opportunity to relax and feel appreciated for their hard work this year. Employees in your department Most staff is over 35 years of age Moderate activity level Beer & wine Get their mind off of work Gluten free and vegan People come to and enjoy the event % of staff attending Post-event satisfaction survey
- 27. THANK YOU!
Notas del editor
- [J.J.] We work for AppFolio, a local company that provides portfolio of software solutions that help small and mid-sized businesses improve their workflow so they save time and make more money. Flagship product is Property Manager (this is the product we work on), and we also have MyCase for legal practice management. Together, we are part of the user experience team. Our job requires heavy collaboration between business stakeholders, software engineers, and customers to ensure our software is easy and intuitive to use.
- [J.J.] Our culture at AppFolio is such that the success of our company is driven by the careful coordination and collaboration between a variety of roles and expertise at the company. You can see here that people are at the heart of even our company values. Today we’d like to share some tips and techniques from AppFolio’s culture that we believe can apply to any environment to help make projects more successful and keep staff engaged and interested.
- Partner count clap stomp
- [Kate]
- [J.J.] Make it Flat, Don’t Let Your Org Chart be a Decision Roadmap Org charts are a necessary evil to provide transparency and structure to the operational design of a business. Just because a manager has decision making power on paper doesn’t mean she has to work in isolation to do it. While it’s important for the business to provide direction on division of labor, job responsibilities, and decision-making, good managers know that those hard lines are only on paper.
- [Kate] Celebrate Diversity and Conflict Having a variety of roles, experience levels and personal history is a huge plus in problem solving, because you are able to approach the problem at different angles. This also means there will be differing opinions, so often times collaboration is skipped in favor or preventing conflict. But good managers know that this inherent conflict is good and can be productive in a safe and respectful environment. This healthy tension will result in a solution that is considerate of the individual needs and biases each person represents. This is key at Appfolio, where cross-functional groups of Product Managers, Engineers, and Designers have to work together to ensure our software is serving our business, our customer, and the health and security of our technology infrastructure.
- [J.J.] Empower Others, Autonomy With Direction Everyone's a hero in their own way, so let them show that to you. Resist the typical, hierarchical command and control model of telling staff what to do and how to do it. Instead, be mindful to articulate the problem that needs solving and set clear outcomes, and give them the freedom to find their own path. Here’s an example: Compare “Please go to Albertson’s and pick up 2 bags of tortilla chips, 2 jars of salsa and a vegetable tray for our staff event tomorrow night” with this: “We have our staff event tomorrow night and 8 people have RSVP’d. Can you take care of the hors de vours, please? Our budget is $50.” In the latter, the individual is empowered to complete this task however she would like as long as it meets the stated requirements. So, maybe she’ll go to Albertsons...but maybe there’s a new online catering platform that will deliver and provide better food options. Maybe one of her talents is that she loves to cook and makes the hors de vours herself. Each of us is unique in how we think, learn, communicate and process problem spaces, so what works for one will not work for all. Empowered individuals feel trusted and have a sense of ownership and pride in their work, and are ultimately happier for it.
- [Kate] Be a Servant Leader A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. While traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top of the pyramid,” servant leadership is different. The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible. Our VP of engineering is commonly found moving desks around, vacuuming or putting desks together. He will drop what he is doing at any moment to accept an offer to meet with anyone in the organization - in any department, any role, and any length of tenure. This has a domino effect that impacts our engineers (who take ownership over decisions), our customers (who get products that are genuinely crafted with care), and overall corporate culture (who feel empowered and are proud of the products we build). AppFolio made the top 50 places to work in the US, it is all related!
- [J.J.] The first step in collaboration is defining the goal or problem to be solved. This is the autonomy with direction piece.
- [J.J.] Typically, the manager may present the problem, constraints, and drivers to the team but many of these questions can also be answered collaboratively as a team. For example, I’m always amazed when teams work together to define constraints. Things like budget and time are always considered, even when there isn’t a manager present to remind the group to think about these things. It really provides a dialogue between the group and the business, and making the definition of these buckets the responsibility of the team builds ownership and alignment.
- [J.J.] Extroverted thinkers are happy to get new information in a group setting, and will start making sense of it by talking through it. But introverted thinkers make their best contributions when they’ve had time to process the information and plan how they will present or share their ideas. Introverts are quiet, and often extroverts misinterpret their silence as disagreement, disengagement, or lack of expertise. Because of this, introverts are easily left out of conversations and, over time, become demoralized because of their inability to contribute.
- [J.J.] So what kinds of tools can you use for brainstorming on your own?
- [Kate] The definition of converge is “(things) gradually change so as to become similar or develop something in common. This is the part of collaboration where you bring all the individual ideas to the group and see what overlaps. The best part about this phase is hearing new ideas you hadn’t thought of, and having the opportunity to build more ideas off of each other. This phase can be messy with information at first, but the goal is to whittle away at all of the ideas and narrow down to a solution that the whole group can support.
- [Kate] There is a long list of tools, activities, and techniques to use at the converge stage and here are just a few. Most of the same tools apply from divergent thinking, plus several others that are specific to using in a group.
- [Kate] This is where collaboration extends outside of the team and includes the “customer” - or whoever the solution will impact the most. For us, in software development, this phase is called the “prototype” phase. That’s when we create something (a proposal) that can demonstrate to end users what we are thinking so we can collect feedback. When you are solving a problem for others, though you might be part of the target audience be careful not to assume you represent the needs and desires of everyone. Talk to others, share your proposal, collect input, and make the necessary revisions based on that feedback. There are always revisions. This can be a very enlightening stage!
- [Kate] To collect feedback, conversations are usually the best input. But you can also use things like surveys to collect a general sentiment about an idea or a set of ideas - or even to quickly collect feedback on multiple ideas to see which one resonates. In some situations, it is helpful to physically “act out” your proposal…think of this as a sort of dress rehearsal. In the software world, we do “usability testing”, which is essentially a mock run of a solution that we haven’t built yet. We put a fake prototype in front of users and ask them to navigate through it, which helps us to uncover any potential challenges that users couldn’t otherwise describe without actually doing a dry run.
- [J.J.] We already practiced divergent thinking in the icebreaker activity. Now you and your partner should group up with someone else and their partner to form a group of four. We mentioned that much of this canvas is usually completed by the team, but in the interest of time we are going to assume we’ve already done this part and filled in the blanks.
- [Kate]
- [Kate] Make sure your proposal answers each of these questions.
- [J.J.] 3/4 of the way through designing today’s activity, we realized we had broken the “autonomy with direction” rule. We wanted to share our original canvas with you, which we changed after we realized we were presenting a solution and not a problem. This is just to demonstrate that it is easy to get caught up in your own ideas. The key is to ask yourself, in box one, did you present a problem or a solution?