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case studies

We're creating a first impression that gets people excited about participating in research.

the challenge

building trust with hundreds of stakeholders

Quality insights rely heavily on the ability to get valuable information from participants. Our research projects often engage anywhere between 30 and 400 stakeholders, meaning our participants have to be willing and able to give honest answers to our questions.

my role

Facilitator, Researcher

project partner

Accounting Firm

the background

An experience that builds trust

One of the biggest variables in gathering data is how much does that person asking the questions trust the person collecting the responses. Our workplace research projects are grounded in following a design thinking process, with that comes a high level of participation from employees. We wanted to redesign our research onboarding meetings to feel more like an exciting opportunity to shape your future space, and less like a training for operating the Starbucks* drive through.

Our original meeting covered what to expect over the course of the research project and told employees about the 4 opportunities for them to engage. It then ended with them filling out a packet in silence before we released them to go back to their jobs.

 

*Many Starbucks coffees were consumed in the process of this project, none were hurt.

the requirements

A meeting that makes a memory

Redesigning something that already exists comes with its own unique set of challenges. We started by taking a step back and identifying what the actual goal for the meeting is. We also examined the current state of the meeting so we could align on what was not working.

 

We wanted to create an experience that gave us the opportunity to humble ourselves as facilitators, a way to pay respects up-front to our users.

Here was our list of requirements:

  • Builds trust between facilitator and participants

  • Is easy, fast, and fun to participate in

  • Breaks tension, feels cathartic

  • Gathers surface level data in a non-threatening, low barrier way

  • Is tangible

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the idea

Pain Points!

Brainstorming a better experience: Through several how-might-we questions and dozens of post-its, we built an activity that met all our requirements. Now introducing: Pain Points! The fun game that gathers data while users throw insights at the researcher.

Pain Points is an interactive experience in two parts. 

  • Part 1: Users get three pieces of paper with different questions on each page. These questions are designed to help identify pain points in their work experience, which are informed by a previous meeting with the organization’s leaders. During each round, users have 1 minute to answer a question, wad up their response, and toss it in a bucket the researcher is holding. This happens a total of three times, until all the questions have been answered. 
     

  • Part 2: Now to see where there is alignment. We ask everyone in the room to stand up and as we read a pain point they go to one side of the room which represents, “I have also experienced this,” or the other side, representing “This is not my experience.” The researcher reads a few of the pain points out loud and sees where people are aligned or not. 

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the result

Data collection and laughter

There’s nothing like the surprising sound of laughter coming from adults. From the moment the crumbled up pain pints begin to fly, very often missing the bucket the researcher is holding, there is usually a palpable shift in the mood in the room. No matter how many times we do this activity, there’s never a a person in the room who isn’t smiling. 

 

And not only that, the data we collected became more accurate and consistent, the onboarding meeting became a more memorable experience for employees, and when it came time to sign up for a one-on-one interview, employees were almost always more likely to sign up for an interview with the researcher who facilitated the onboarding meeting.

 

This indicates that not only are users having more fun while playing this game, but they also come away from the workshop with a rapport with the facilitator. This improved version of the onboarding workshop, including the Pain Points game, is now part of the standard practice adopted by every researcher in our organization.

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