Enhancing device strategy of Acme corporation

Enhancing device strategy of Acme corporation to upgrade the work experience of their employees.

PROJECT SCOPE

• Client– Acme Corporation 

• Timeframe– 6 weeks 

• My role-UX Researcher 

• Team– Me along with another researcher, a UX Consultant and UX delivery Consultant

• Method– Generative Research,Surveys,Personas,Secondary research 

• Tools– Mural, Adobe XD, Teams, Microsoft Forms, Excel Word Speech to text tool and QuickTime Player  

CLIENT KICKOFF

The Client was looking for help to understand their future device needs for thier employees who they like to call information workers. Due to a shift towards a ‘Smart Working’ strategy, their plan was to provide thier employees with devices and accessories that not only meet their needs but also become ‘device they love’.  

Previously device management followed a ‘one size fits all’ approach to allocation. However, as thier employee needs and working environment evolves, a more evidence-based perspective was required to them. 

OBJECTIVES

• Conduct in-depth interviews with different information workers to discover their needs and behaviours.  
• Analysing general workplace trends such as approaches to flexible working and collaboration (remote/in the office). 
• Analyse insights gained and create different personas from these.  
• Analyse competitor approaches and best practices.  
• Research technology trends for future device considerations. 

NOTES

Currently, employees tend to receive a standard Lenovo ThinkPad with some receiving the latest models as they have been added to the portfolio. However, this strategy does not consider specific employee needs and it’s not an extremely impressive device compared to others available in the market. Only 1000-2000 people have these premium devices whilst majority of the business are still using older more functional devices

Methodology

• User Interviews 

• Surveys

• Desk Research 

• Affinity Mapping

• Data Analysis

Primary Research

To conduct our primary research we used two research methods: Qualitative and Quantitative data analysis. We used triangulation analysis to derive the final insights from both the research methods.  

In-depth ‘Information Worker’ colleague interviews

Conducting semi-structured interviews allowed us to gather a detailed understanding of the current primary and peripheral device and software usage, daily tasks, needs, preferences and frustrations.

Methodology

• Screener – We selected a diverse group of information workers across different domains and work profile (customer support colleagues to developers to directors).We engaged with a total of  31 colleagues over a 3-week period. 
• Remote Moderation – These interviews were conducted online using Teams call and calls were recorded with participants consent using QuickTime player.

The Process

• We were a team of three, we distributed the interviews amongst us. Each interview was conducted for around 45-60 mins and were recorded with users consent for notes reference. While taking the interview we recorded the interviews with users consent so as to have a reference for notes later. 
• We created an interview script for our reference. The interview questions revolved around employee’s job profile their nature of work and day to day tasks which they handle, current primary and peripheral device employees are using and their feedback on these devices. 
• Interviewees were also asked to share an image of their current work setup to guide the conversation during the interview. 

Qualitative Data Analysis

The Process

• Key data from these interviews including insights and pain points were recorded on a Mural board. 
•  Once sufficient data was collected, the process of grouping participants and finding common themes began. We started to group the interviewees by common needs and roles.  
• Five distinct groups were found among the interviewees: Designers and Developers, Strategy and Business operations, Sales and Marketing, Security and Customer support and engineering
• Based on our findings, we decided that the clearest method to distinguish the themes was to look at where a participant is usually working. 
• A desk centric worker would not be required to travel frequently to complete their tasks whereas a traveler would be required to travel to different sites frequently in order to complete their tasks. 
• Creators (designers and developers) were put in a separate category within desk centric, as it was found that their requirements were unique. 
• However once we had put our findings into these categories, we found that most participants fit into a hybrid section between desk centric and traveller. 
• Ultimately, we realised that the needs of a traveller meets most of the needs of a desk centric worker, and so settled on two categories: traveller and creator.

Surveys

In order to validate some of the insights generated from the in-depth interviews, and produce some quantitative data that can be considered ‘statistically significant’, we ran surveys with the information  workers. 

The Process

• We engaged with a total of 1223 colleagues through survey. This survey was conducted across people from different roles and positions. 
• A Microsoft form was sent to people across different departments which had basic questions related to the current office device they own, device type, like-ability of current device, what features, and peripheral devices are of utmost importance to them. 
• There were also questions related to employees’ work type, kind of software they use in their daily work schedule to better understand what type of device will suffice their requirement. 

Quantitative Data Analysis

The analysed survey data conducted across people from different roles and positions show a similar trend which depicts similar kinds of device requirements among information workers. 

• Users across all the roles would like to have a traditional laptop. 
• Band wise Director and Senior manager would prefer to have a laptop with detachable keyboard that can be used as a tablet. But having said that Senior Manager (14.3%) and Director (2.3%) holds comparatively smaller section than rest of the positions. 
• Users across all the roles and bands  rated  speed/ memory as the most important feature. 
• Apart from speed, screen quality/ resolution, keyboard quality, camera and microphone are rated the most essential features to have in primary device. 
• For Managing directors and directors weight was also considered among the top 3 features. 
• Headphones, mouse and keyboard  are marked as top 3 accessories by employees across all the roles and bands. 
• Digital pen/ stylus was found out to be the least important accessory. 
• Work with information, Video/audio conference and collaboration/mind map are the major tasks done by users across roles and bands. 
• For creators major tasks also include working with development software/tools. 
• Majority of the users prefer to work on Microsoft operating system. 

Secondary Research

Secondary research in this project has focused on understanding trends for information workers in 2020/21. We did desk research for analysing industry trends with the new way of working and how companies are looking into technology adoption for flexible working and collaboration. 

Findings

• Remote Work in 2020/21 – In-depth research reports from Microsoft and Gartner proved particularly useful for highlighting trends in device use and worker attitudes through this period of remote work.   
• Home Work Set-Ups – A range of different surveys and studies served to illuminate the factors impacting working practices and productivity when working from home.   
• Hybrid Work – Studies from PWC, Microsoft, BCG and BarCo (manufacturer of digital imaging and meeting technologies) serve to provide some indications of what employee expectations and needs will be in the move to ‘Hybrid’ work    

Personas

We have categorised our personas into primary and secondary. We realized with the research results that though all information workers have similar device requirements, there are few exceptions which are worth highlighting. Through qualitative data analysis we came across Travellers and Creators who have special requirements and priorities when it comes to choosing devices for them. Though both of them are information workers their requirements made us  put them under secondary persona category. 

Problem Statements

Problem Statement 1

John, a product manager needs a new laptop which can allow him to work on Mural, One Note and Teams more efficiently and since his current laptop is old and slow, it can often take a considerable amount of time to load or just freeze.But he is not able to get an upgrade for his current device.   

Problem Statement 2

Francesca, a Lead sales specialist, needs a lightweight laptop with long lasting battery life, because she wants to make the most out of her time spent travelling to and from the client location by responding to emails, tweaking presentations or writing up notes. But she has been provided with a bulky device which makes it difficult to carry, especially with other accessories.  

Problem Statement 3

Connor, a senior iOS developer, needs a laptop with high processing power and more storage, because his role requires working on multiple demanding applications simultaneously and large files. But with the limited storage on his device, he has issues with installing new software and saving important files, and he often has to personally manage the hardware limitations.  

Recommendations

• Conducting ideation workshop- Ideation workshops to explore and generate some broad set of ideas to improve the gaps discovered in the current onboarding process with a set of stakeholders and get their inputs/thoughts on same.
• Creating concepts- Concept testing to improve the onboarding experience of graduates. 
• User testing 
• Iterating low fidelity prototypes 

Reflection

Industry Takeaway

The need to improve an existing system is the need to change times and the client believed in this theory. Keeping users in the center they focused on how to evolve their experience and make things smoother for them, which is a commendable thought. New graduates entering the company were given prior importance through this project, which showed how much they cared for their employees. 

Personal Takeaway

 It would be interesting to know if the insights helped in improving next year batch’s onboarding process. We were told to also explore about CT academy but later scope of the project was restricted to onboarding process.