Building a Communication Platform – Learning Launch 

 Challenge   I help coordinate and manage a group of 80 nonprofits across the U.S. that support their local   communities by redistributing donated goods to other smaller nonprofits . My organization is the   national organization and the 80 nonprofits , called , are our   affiliate members . Each member has vastly a different mission and operating style : some are   food banks , some are churches , some are United Ways , and some are shelters . But they all have   crucial experience and wisdom to share with the others .      As the parent organization , our goal to help our 80 unique    feel like a unified community and help each other problem solve remotely . Communication and   maintaining a community feel across 31 states is our biggest barriers to success . When we host   our annual conference in the spring , we see collaboration and innovation happening naturally ,   but it is quickly lost when the event ends . Our goal is to create a sense of community and ease of   communication that will last all year , so we invested in a popular intranet platform that would   require extensive customization .     We were starting with a blank state and open - ended possibilities of what features to build in for   our partners . Due to pressure to get started from above , we did not take a design thinking   approach from the start . We made basic assumptions of what features and designs would best   solve our communication challenge and we got to work . As we started to build features , I grew   worried about low levels of adoption from our 80 partners due to a lack of customer insight on   the front end .      Selection   We reached a point with our intranet where we could pause work in order to test our partner ’s   reaction to the product . We were still at a phase in development where we could change   directions and plans based on feedback if needed without significant financial loss . We had   already completed beta testing on our basic features , which included an interactive map , a help   ticket system , a suggestions box , discussion forums , announcements page , and a dashboard of   historical knowledge . Our hypothesis was that we had created an intuitive platform for   collaboration and that the features would specifically address previous barriers to   communication . We needed to know , before going any further , that our customers would find   value in the solutions . We decided to conduct a learning launch to test our previous assumptions   about what features our partners would find most useful . A learning launch is a design thinking   tool to do just that ; to test your hypothesis of how a user will interact with a product or how your   project or program will successfully function in the real world .     Application   We set up a learning launch in which 6 of our 80 partners from different states , missions ,   backgrounds , and levels of experience with technology would be able to “ test drive ” the   platform . This was not a beta test , because we had already worked out the bugs . More so , we   wanted to test how our users would intuitively interact with the product and whether the features   matched their collaboration and communication needs . We did not want to sway or bias our 

 participants with our own enthusiasm for what we had created , so we chose not to have a face to   face video meeting in which we would explain the instructions .      Instead , we created a brief that explained what the platform was , our goals for creating it , and   where we were in the process . We emphasized that we were looking for all ideas and feedback   and that this process would be iterative . We created a video that introduced how each feature   worked as an orientation to the site . To capture feedback , we created a survey for each feature   with picture for orientation and a couple key questions as well as open ended responses . Then we   let our users into the platform to explore and interact . We gave our testers five days to explore   and record their reactions and reflections via survey . Then we analyzed survey data by   organizing anecdotal feedback and looking for patterns in their responses .     Insight   While we did receive confirming data about our overall goals , we also received crucial feedback   about confusion with some of the features as well as ways to add to features that we had not   thought of . We were able to meet with developers and quickly change our approach . We also   learned an important lesson for adoption : two out of the six testers did not follow the   instructions . That tells us that we should expect about 20 - 30 % of users will not fully read or   understand our launch or onboarding instructions . We have since edited our full launch plan to   include multi - media methods to explain instructions .      The silver lining is that , although the two testers did not follow the proper instructions , we could   tell that they still used the platform as it was intended . This proved our ultimate goal that , while   users may not thoroughly read instructions , the platform itself is user - friendly enough not to   require extensive instructions in the first place .     Approach   While the learning launch was the best tool to use in at this specific stage for our challenge , in   retrospect we should have incorporated design thinking tools to our original challenge . We   should have incorporated our intended users in the process of defining the problem we were   trying to solve before we started working with developers . If we had started with the mind- mapping tool to help communicate on the same level and then incorporated visualization to   achieve our first prototype , we may have been able to launch a product without as many   “ pivots ” . Still , it was a valuable lesson to see that even if you do not start a project with design   thinking tools , you can still pause and use them to back track and test assumptions before it is too   late . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
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: Building a Communication Platform – Learning Launch 

 Challenge   I help coordinate and manage a group of 80 nonprofits across the U.S. that support their local   communities by redistributing donated goods to other smaller nonprofits . My organization is the   national organization and the 80 nonprofits , called , are our   affiliate members . Each member has vastly a different mission and operating style : some are   food banks , some are churches , some are United Ways , and some are shelters . But they all have   crucial experience and wisdom to share with the others .      As the parent organization , our goal to help our 80 unique    feel like a unified community and help each other problem solve remotely . Communication and   maintaining a community feel across 31 states is our biggest barriers to success . When we host   our annual conference in the spring , we see collaboration and innovation happening naturally ,   but it is quickly lost when the event ends . Our goal is to create a sense of community and ease of   communication that will last all year , so we invested in a popular intranet platform that would   require extensive customization .     We were starting with a blank state and open - ended possibilities of what features to build in for   our partners . Due to pressure to get started from above , we did not take a design thinking   approach from the start . We made basic assumptions of what features and designs would best   solve our communication challenge and we got to work . As we started to build features , I grew   worried about low levels of adoption from our 80 partners due to a lack of customer insight on   the front end .      Selection   We reached a point with our intranet where we could pause work in order to test our partner ’s   reaction to the product . We were still at a phase in development where we could change   directions and plans based on feedback if needed without significant financial loss . We had   already completed beta testing on our basic features , which included an interactive map , a help   ticket system , a suggestions box , discussion forums , announcements page , and a dashboard of   historical knowledge . Our hypothesis was that we had created an intuitive platform for   collaboration and that the features would specifically address previous barriers to   communication . We needed to know , before going any further , that our customers would find   value in the solutions . We decided to conduct a learning launch to test our previous assumptions   about what features our partners would find most useful . A learning launch is a design thinking   tool to do just that ; to test your hypothesis of how a user will interact with a product or how your   project or program will successfully function in the real world .     Application   We set up a learning launch in which 6 of our 80 partners from different states , missions ,   backgrounds , and levels of experience with technology would be able to “ test drive ” the   platform . This was not a beta test , because we had already worked out the bugs . More so , we   wanted to test how our users would intuitively interact with the product and whether the features   matched their collaboration and communication needs . We did not want to sway or bias our 

 participants with our own enthusiasm for what we had created , so we chose not to have a face to   face video meeting in which we would explain the instructions .      Instead , we created a brief that explained what the platform was , our goals for creating it , and   where we were in the process . We emphasized that we were looking for all ideas and feedback   and that this process would be iterative . We created a video that introduced how each feature   worked as an orientation to the site . To capture feedback , we created a survey for each feature   with picture for orientation and a couple key questions as well as open ended responses . Then we   let our users into the platform to explore and interact . We gave our testers five days to explore   and record their reactions and reflections via survey . Then we analyzed survey data by   organizing anecdotal feedback and looking for patterns in their responses .     Insight   While we did receive confirming data about our overall goals , we also received crucial feedback   about confusion with some of the features as well as ways to add to features that we had not   thought of . We were able to meet with developers and quickly change our approach . We also   learned an important lesson for adoption : two out of the six testers did not follow the   instructions . That tells us that we should expect about 20 - 30 % of users will not fully read or   understand our launch or onboarding instructions . We have since edited our full launch plan to   include multi - media methods to explain instructions .      The silver lining is that , although the two testers did not follow the proper instructions , we could   tell that they still used the platform as it was intended . This proved our ultimate goal that , while   users may not thoroughly read instructions , the platform itself is user - friendly enough not to   require extensive instructions in the first place .     Approach   While the learning launch was the best tool to use in at this specific stage for our challenge , in   retrospect we should have incorporated design thinking tools to our original challenge . We   should have incorporated our intended users in the process of defining the problem we were   trying to solve before we started working with developers . If we had started with the mind- mapping tool to help communicate on the same level and then incorporated visualization to   achieve our first prototype , we may have been able to launch a product without as many   “ pivots ” . Still , it was a valuable lesson to see that even if you do not start a project with design   thinking tools , you can still pause and use them to back track and test assumptions before it is too   late .
### Output: 