Helping 284,000 workers embrace creative thinking
To stay ahead of competition, PwC was looking to infuse creative thinking methods into the firm’s work. This gave my team a rare chance to elevate the way 284,000 people worldwide approach their job.
What we inherited
The hub and activity experience didn’t have clear connections to the actual work people were doing. Key content was only available in GoogleSlides and PDF formats, which put a limit on it’s usefulness.
Discovery and research
To ground the team and myself, I interviewed stakeholders and staff, analyzed competing solutions and conducted usability tests on the existing experience. I relied on additional research led by my colleagues to complete the picture.
Usability testing
Initially I conducted in-person usability test sessions. But as the COVID-19 pandemic set in, we switched to remote testing. I captured and synthesized test findings in a format that allowed for patterns to emerge visually.
Stakeholder interviews
My team and I conducted in-person and remote stakeholder and staff interviews that uncovered unique challenges. This helped shape our design strategy and messaging.
Competitive analysis
We examined competitive and inspirational experiences that solved similar problems to uncover effective solutions. I documented our findings in a competitive analysis.
Sharing research insights
I presented all insights from our research efforts to stakeholders and project teams that focused on activation, education and marketing.
I grouped all insights into underlying themes and included a summary, supporting quotes, stakeholder insights and key takeaways.
Generating ideas and solutions
To capitalize on the momentum and excitement we generated while sharing our research, I led brainstorming workshops using our insights to guide the sessions.
After the brainstorming sessions, we ran a prioritization exercise that elevated ideas with the most value, feasibility and promise.
At the end of every workshop, each team generated and committed to an action plan. We checked in periodically to help the teams follow through on their commitments.
Planning the experience
I captured the information architecture of the new content hub in a sitemap, ensuring the experience remained user focused, despite competing stakeholder priorities.
I then created user flows that helped us uncover potential gaps and opportunities.
Wireframing the experience
I started by sketching initial experience design and flow ideas with pen and paper.
I then captured key screens of the new experience in detailed wireframes and collaborated with business, marketing, tech, content and design teams worldwide on validating my decisions.
My team used Adobe XD for wireframes and design. We collaborated in real time often.
I included responsive wireframes to ensure our designs look good on all screen sizes.
Designing and iterating
Once we had an experience strategy in place, I worked closely with the design team on creating a modular template system.
It would have to house all existing content and be flexible enough to seamlessly add new items. I defined all micro interactions like saving and sharing content.
Design iterations often involved slight variations. In this example we explored different approaches for the activity introduction and setup section.
Testing, validating and refining
I created design prototypes and led several rounds of usability testing. As a result we made updates based on direct observations and feedback from our audience.
To help us brainstorm more effectively, I shared participant reactions, comments and notes next to corresponding screen designs.
A small but impactful insight that emerged from usability testing was: people find crossing a completed task off a list deeply satisfying. So we put extra effort into designing this micro interaction.
I tested and refined every touchpoint in the experience, including the default pre-filled email invitation copy. This helped reduce friction and increase adoption.
Implementation
I worked closely with the tech team to ensure that the live experience matched our UX, business and design strategy. Decisions effecting development were captured in a comprehensive template and module guide.
I included detailed annotations with all designs.
Outcome
We designed and launched a web based platform for content in a modular template system. It had the flexiblity to rebuild 73 existing activities across 24 collections while allowing for new ones to be added seamlessly in the future.
During a limited roll out, our activities were used over 300,000 times by 72,000 people across PwC. After a successful internal launch, PwC is planning to make the activities and resources available to the firm’s clients.
