Stakeholder Design Thinking Workshop

Context

After determining where there were misalignments with the team in the stakeholder interviews, I then conducted a stakeholder workshop with the team in order to identify assumptions and concerns associated with the product and it’s end users, which lead to priority mapping and a research roadmap for 2021.

The objective of the stakeholder workshop was twofold:

  1. Identify research questions that key RPA stakeholders had about the project

  2. Prioritize those research needs

Tools: Mural

Method Used: Design Thinking Workshop, Questions & Assumptions, Prioritization Mapping

Participants: 9 stakeholders

Timeframe: 1 week

Stakeholder Workshop Preparation

A 1-hour stakeholder workshop was conducted with the key stakeholders of the team. 9 IBM RPA team members participated in the workshop from different disciplines.

The workshop was divided into 3 parts which are described below:

 

1. Questions & Assumptions

Time Allotted: 30 minutes

 

In the first part of the workshop, our participants identified research questions & assumptions they had concerning the project. In order to get an overview of various kinds of research questions and needs, the Mural board was divided by category of research:

  1. Exploratory Research: Big picture research focused on identifying needs of the users

  2. Strategic Research: Research focused on better understanding needs of the users and beginning to identify the solution

  3. Tactical/Design Research: Research focused on better understanding the solution and beginning to evaluate it with users

  4. Operational Research: Ongoing research operations with users to understand, report on and socialize product usage data

 

2. Prioritization and Discussion

Time Allotted: 20 minutes

 

In the next part of the activity, the stakeholders were asked to read over the research questions and needs identified in the previous activity and vote on the research needs they deem most important. Each stakeholder was allotted 4 “voting tokens” in which they could vote on an individual research question/need.

After the voting concluded, we discussed the top research questions and needs identified by the group.

 

3. Prioritization Grid

Time Allotted: 10 minutes

 

Lastly, as a team, we plotted the top research questions and needs on a prioritization grid by (1) confidence in the team’s current knowledge or understanding of the research question or need on the x-axis, and (2) risk in not knowing the answering or getting it wrong on the y-axis.

Part 1: Research Questions/Needs

Part 1: Research Questions/Needs

Part 2: Prioritization and Discussion

Part 2: Prioritization and Discussion

Part 3: Prioritization Grid

Part 3: Prioritization Grid

During the readout of the workshop, the team was able to align on the top research priorities for the year.

I subsequently created a UX research roadmap that would outline the research projects that would be occurring for the upcoming quarters.