Reflection - Mind Mapping + Ethnographic Interviews 

 by Barbara Pedro 

 Challenge      In my company I facilitate Design Thinking sessions by request to help teams of different size to tackle 

 challenges they face in everyday life . Our Global Support technical team reached out to me and asked 

 for help to address the following ​challenge​ : ​“How can we redesign the job experience and 

 increase happiness in Global Support Team ? ” . According to the results of anonymous 

 questionnaire , members of this team ( 20 + people in each of the 5 locations ) showed little interest in work 

 and were demotivated , while the level of trust in the team was critically low .     Design criteria​ : The proposed solution should not have has any impact on ongoing operations 

 ( customer queries to be resolved on time and according to quality standards ) and has to be tested 

 without budget .      Project scope : While the proposed solutions did not require any budget , they needed time and project 

 manager - one employee dedicated 15 % of her worktime to apply the ideas to work process . The ideas 

 will be piloted in November and December in one office location . If in the end of the test period 

 significant improvement in happiness and motivation are observed , these solutions will become 

 “ business as usual ” processes for other 5 + locations .      Time frame : ​We conducted a 4h session to collects user insights and brainstorm on fast solutions . 

 Rapid prototyping / pilot stage will take place in November and December .      Selection     Important Note : While the task was to pick one of the four suggested tools , we needed to 

 conduct preliminary research before moving in to Mind Mapping , since we started from the 

 scratch . Therefore I combined Mind Mapping with preliminary Etnographic Interviewing .      Since we had final users ( Global Support agents ) in the room , we decided that ​Mind Mapping Tool from 

 Week 3 combined with ​etnographic approach ​with elements of Journey Mapping will be the most 

 appropriate tool at this stage . Etnographic research ( the tool described in the ​“Good Kitchen ” Story from 

 Week 1 ) is one of the first steps on “ What is ” stage which allowed us to observe the situations and 

 experiences from daily life that led to dissatisfaction and helped to find out the unarticulated needs of 

 end users by asking deep open - ended questions and watching the user behavior .      In our scenario ​unarticulated ​was the key word , since due to low trust level team members did not 

 share their insights and personal views and did not have time to listen to each other . Along with this , this 

 tool is generally quick to use , allows to step in the boots of the end user and does not require any 

 budget .      To all the information collected during interviews we applied the ​Mind Mapping tool​. It allowed us to 

 look for patterns and identify the most “ painful ” issues . Participants grouped the major repetative 

 concerns on sticky notes according to more general themes and invited representatives of other 

 subgroups ( additional stakeholders ) to provide their fresh view and ideas on existing structure .      Application 

 I divided the participants in 3 working groups and introduced them to the concept of ​active listening - 

 fully involved , without interruptions , elaborating and asking follow - up questions wherever possible . Main 

 rule - only one person speaking at a time . Agents were describing their daily routine in details while 

 answering open - ended questions : “ Tell me about the time when you felt that you were treated unfairly in 

 the workplace ” , “ describe the moments when you feel that your contribution is meaningful ” etc . The 

 managers of the team were appointed as interviewers in each of the groups and were writing down the 

 key points . After the interviewing stage we moved to ​Mind Mapping and I asked them to group the key 

 points under the generalizing insights which might become subchallenges .     After working on patterns in group and receiving feedback from members of other groups , participants 

 were allowed to cast 3 votes each on the idea groups which they found the most relevant and important 

 to solve . Each group had to identify an idea they would work on ( out of 5 - 7 proposed issues ) by voting .     As a result we identified 3 sub - challenges to tackle : 

 ● Poor level of technical & product skills among new agents ; 

 ● Uneven workload during different seasons ; 

 ● Unfair distribution of work volumes in everyday job process . 

 After “ What if ” and “ what wows ” stages where the participants generated ideas in individual and group 

 brainstorming and sorted out those matching the Design Criteria , mentioned above , the groups came up 

 with the ​following ideas for prototyping ​(high - level description here ): 

 ● Re - design the workflow experience for agents to avoid unequal distribution of work ; 

 ● Design an Onboarding framework with dedicated trainers which will allow to train new agents 

 faster and more efficiently ; 

 ● Re - distribute the workload and change the productivity targets in low and peak seasons . 

 Insights      In this challenge I have learnt that creating a safe environment for teams with low trust level and making 

 sure that everyone ’s problems and point of views are heard and taken into consideration by 

 management can be a very powerful experience . After a set of questions the participants finally 

 articulated their needs and concerns ​which allowed us to build solution on this basis . I understood 

 that active listening without interruptions played important role here , since during the regular weekly 

 meetings team members often interrupt each other and show disagreement , which turned out to be one 

 of the drivers for low trust . I could say that etnographic deep interviews with open - ended questions and 

 journey mapping are great tools if you are facing a design challenge in an unknown environment , do n’t 

 have enough facts for analysis and are just not sure where to start .      Regarding Mind Mapping my learning is that it is very important to watch out for ideas - outliers - they 

 might be brilliant but easily get lost if they do n’t get enough support on the spot . Since I ’ve noticed 

 couple of great insights which got lost , I suggested the team to collect absolutely all sticky notes and go 

 through them once again after the session .      Approach     In the limited time frame we had ( 4 hours for collecting user insights and brainstorming on possible 

 solutions ) the in - room etnographic interviewing was the most efficient approach , which helped to break 

 the ice between the teammates , hear and be heard . This particular approach helped us to start from the 

 scratch , allowed me to get to know the end users and gain authority among the participants . The Mind 

 Mapping , which followed , helped to structure personal stories from different people into common issues , 

 experienced by each of the agents in various moments and formats .      If we had more time , I would suggest to take the same approach to the next level : organize 2h-4h 

 shadowing sessions for managers , where they could observe the particular challenges the team faces , 

 collect the insights about tools and instruments the team is using and their impact on overall well - being 

 and do deeper research on personal relationship and respect in the team to work with trust issues . I 

 would also love to invite managers and senior decision - making for an “ exhibition of ideas ” , where they 

 could leave their observations and identify the most feasible solutions based on required time allocation , 

 budget and organizational objectives . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: Barbara Pedro
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Reflection - Mind Mapping + Ethnographic Interviews 

 by Barbara Pedro 

 Challenge      In my company I facilitate Design Thinking sessions by request to help teams of different size to tackle 

 challenges they face in everyday life . Our Global Support technical team reached out to me and asked 

 for help to address the following ​challenge​ : ​“How can we redesign the job experience and 

 increase happiness in Global Support Team ? ” . According to the results of anonymous 

 questionnaire , members of this team ( 20 + people in each of the 5 locations ) showed little interest in work 

 and were demotivated , while the level of trust in the team was critically low .     Design criteria​ : The proposed solution should not have has any impact on ongoing operations 

 ( customer queries to be resolved on time and according to quality standards ) and has to be tested 

 without budget .      Project scope : While the proposed solutions did not require any budget , they needed time and project 

 manager - one employee dedicated 15 % of her worktime to apply the ideas to work process . The ideas 

 will be piloted in November and December in one office location . If in the end of the test period 

 significant improvement in happiness and motivation are observed , these solutions will become 

 “ business as usual ” processes for other 5 + locations .      Time frame : ​We conducted a 4h session to collects user insights and brainstorm on fast solutions . 

 Rapid prototyping / pilot stage will take place in November and December .      Selection     Important Note : While the task was to pick one of the four suggested tools , we needed to 

 conduct preliminary research before moving in to Mind Mapping , since we started from the 

 scratch . Therefore I combined Mind Mapping with preliminary Etnographic Interviewing .      Since we had final users ( Global Support agents ) in the room , we decided that ​Mind Mapping Tool from 

 Week 3 combined with ​etnographic approach ​with elements of Journey Mapping will be the most 

 appropriate tool at this stage . Etnographic research ( the tool described in the ​“Good Kitchen ” Story from 

 Week 1 ) is one of the first steps on “ What is ” stage which allowed us to observe the situations and 

 experiences from daily life that led to dissatisfaction and helped to find out the unarticulated needs of 

 end users by asking deep open - ended questions and watching the user behavior .      In our scenario ​unarticulated ​was the key word , since due to low trust level team members did not 

 share their insights and personal views and did not have time to listen to each other . Along with this , this 

 tool is generally quick to use , allows to step in the boots of the end user and does not require any 

 budget .      To all the information collected during interviews we applied the ​Mind Mapping tool​. It allowed us to 

 look for patterns and identify the most “ painful ” issues . Participants grouped the major repetative 

 concerns on sticky notes according to more general themes and invited representatives of other 

 subgroups ( additional stakeholders ) to provide their fresh view and ideas on existing structure .      Application 

 I divided the participants in 3 working groups and introduced them to the concept of ​active listening - 

 fully involved , without interruptions , elaborating and asking follow - up questions wherever possible . Main 

 rule - only one person speaking at a time . Agents were describing their daily routine in details while 

 answering open - ended questions : “ Tell me about the time when you felt that you were treated unfairly in 

 the workplace ” , “ describe the moments when you feel that your contribution is meaningful ” etc . The 

 managers of the team were appointed as interviewers in each of the groups and were writing down the 

 key points . After the interviewing stage we moved to ​Mind Mapping and I asked them to group the key 

 points under the generalizing insights which might become subchallenges .     After working on patterns in group and receiving feedback from members of other groups , participants 

 were allowed to cast 3 votes each on the idea groups which they found the most relevant and important 

 to solve . Each group had to identify an idea they would work on ( out of 5 - 7 proposed issues ) by voting .     As a result we identified 3 sub - challenges to tackle : 

 ● Poor level of technical & product skills among new agents ; 

 ● Uneven workload during different seasons ; 

 ● Unfair distribution of work volumes in everyday job process . 

 After “ What if ” and “ what wows ” stages where the participants generated ideas in individual and group 

 brainstorming and sorted out those matching the Design Criteria , mentioned above , the groups came up 

 with the ​following ideas for prototyping ​(high - level description here ): 

 ● Re - design the workflow experience for agents to avoid unequal distribution of work ; 

 ● Design an Onboarding framework with dedicated trainers which will allow to train new agents 

 faster and more efficiently ; 

 ● Re - distribute the workload and change the productivity targets in low and peak seasons . 

 Insights      In this challenge I have learnt that creating a safe environment for teams with low trust level and making 

 sure that everyone ’s problems and point of views are heard and taken into consideration by 

 management can be a very powerful experience . After a set of questions the participants finally 

 articulated their needs and concerns ​which allowed us to build solution on this basis . I understood 

 that active listening without interruptions played important role here , since during the regular weekly 

 meetings team members often interrupt each other and show disagreement , which turned out to be one 

 of the drivers for low trust . I could say that etnographic deep interviews with open - ended questions and 

 journey mapping are great tools if you are facing a design challenge in an unknown environment , do n’t 

 have enough facts for analysis and are just not sure where to start .      Regarding Mind Mapping my learning is that it is very important to watch out for ideas - outliers - they 

 might be brilliant but easily get lost if they do n’t get enough support on the spot . Since I ’ve noticed 

 couple of great insights which got lost , I suggested the team to collect absolutely all sticky notes and go 

 through them once again after the session .      Approach     In the limited time frame we had ( 4 hours for collecting user insights and brainstorming on possible 

 solutions ) the in - room etnographic interviewing was the most efficient approach , which helped to break 

 the ice between the teammates , hear and be heard . This particular approach helped us to start from the 

 scratch , allowed me to get to know the end users and gain authority among the participants . The Mind 

 Mapping , which followed , helped to structure personal stories from different people into common issues , 

 experienced by each of the agents in various moments and formats .      If we had more time , I would suggest to take the same approach to the next level : organize 2h-4h 

 shadowing sessions for managers , where they could observe the particular challenges the team faces , 

 collect the insights about tools and instruments the team is using and their impact on overall well - being 

 and do deeper research on personal relationship and respect in the team to work with trust issues . I 

 would also love to invite managers and senior decision - making for an “ exhibition of ideas ” , where they 

 could leave their observations and identify the most feasible solutions based on required time allocation , 

 budget and organizational objectives .
### Output: 