Reduce hybrid and remote employees' sense of disconnection with FordLabs' company culture.
Encourage virtual employees to build social connections with others.
Emerging technology and world-wide events like the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted FordLabs towards a virtual work environment, creating more flexible options for many office workers.
Remote Ford Labs staff (a.k.a. "Labsians") now have difficulty connecting with their company's culture and struggle to establish meaningful friendships with their teammates.
All hybrid and remote employees at FordLabs, with a secondary focus on in person staff
Staff who regularly attend in-person were also included as a secondary user group since they frequently interact with remote employees.
I first conducted secondary research to understand how social interactions are currently experienced in virtual and hybrid work environments at FordLabs.
With secondary research, I found that the structure of social interactions, including the level of details provided, significantly impacted participation in social events.
With my team, I performed a comparative analysis to understand how current virtual interaction tools are used and the value they provide.
Spontaneous interactions were best promoted by features encouraging collaborative teamwork.
Collaborative elements from competitors like Discord's 'raid' notification system were integrated in our forthcoming designs.
Five remote and hybrid employees, including three Product Designers and two Product Managers at FordLabs, were interviewed to learn about the company culture.
I collaboratively sketched with a group of six virtual and hybrid employees from various employers.
Utilizing participatory design methods such as Round Robin sketching and S.C.A.M.P.E.R. mapping helped us find additional opportunities to improve the remote environment.
Participants first played a round of Top Four to simulate a coffee break as a virtual worker.
This boosted communication among participants, and so I took the concept into consideration for the final solution.
The virtual game of Top Four with 4 different remote workers.
Participants simulated a workday on Gather, a virtual HQ platform. Each individual was given a hypothetical role: Product Manager, Product Designer, and Software Engineer.
Participants then identified different opportunities to improve the virtual workday with S.C.A.M.P.E.R. mapping.
Many opted for greater collaboration with their peers.
Participants advocated for third party integration via Zoom, Discord, Slack, etc. and increased text conversations.
Pictured above: many participants suggested including competitions and ice breaker games to encourage virtual collaboration.
Following mapping, 6 timed rounds of Round Robin sketching were completed. Sketching prompts were passed in a circle until everyone contributed.
Participants sketched for ways to incorporate team building and storytelling among their groups.
I sketched for different ways to encourage communication and sharing of events among staff.
I aimed to create a digital interface that could be easily integrated into FordLabs' current Slack workspace, as found from the co-design.
When sketching, I looked into an automated conversation starter prompts and an event notification system in Slack to increase worker participation in social events.
I also sketched for a virtual communication tool that would be on a separate platform outside of Slack. This would encourage more natural video calling that better mimics the flow of real life conversations.
I wanted to better understand what motivates virtual workers to interact with each other, and so I conducted concept testing with 2 Ford Labs Product Designers and 2 Product Managers.
Following concept testing, I decided to construct a virtual newsletter tool that could be integrated into the FordLabs Slack workspace as my final solution.
Within the newsletter tool, users can share different accomplishments, weekend highlights, social events, and life milestones with their coworkers all through an automated Slack thread.
This would work as a Slack API that could be downloaded and added to FordLabs' existing workspace.
The Slack Newsletter tool user flow, above. Users would first be prompted by an automated bot message with various questions, fostering new conversations.
Conversation prompts and questions are suggested for users to share in a post each week, boosting spontaneous connection among staff. Prompt answers are sent to the Newsletter bot and posted in the #newsletter channel as a thread.
The Newsletter prompting screen (above).
An example posted newsletter in a Slack channel, with an attached event invite (above).
Social events can also be attached to each timed newsletter post, allowing for easier outreach and participation. I also added an option to view attendees of each event following concept testing, as knowing who is coming could increase participation in the newsletter.
An issue that I came across, however, is that users would likely only use the newsletter if other workers are also participating.
To overcome this problem, I also designed an event planning tool, which functions as a Slack API. Users can make Pinterest-inspired vision boards and plan out social events. This includes a specific date, time, location, virtual meeting link, and cost of attendance, making virtual connection even easier.
The event planning pop-up screen, above. After planning, events can be shared to a specific Slack channel where users can accept or decline the invite as well as add the event to their calendar.
A huge thank you to my sponsors at Ford Labs, Juliet Jimenez and Lukas Marinovic, as well as my professor, Nancy Rasche. Their continued support and guidance throughout the semester has undoubtedly helped me succeed with this project.
Don't make assumptions. Try to understand the 'why' behind user behavior, not just the 'what'.
I've come to realize that directly talking to users to learn why they make certain choices is essential for designing an effective solution.
Avoiding assumption-making by talking to users in the real world is essential for accurately revealing the context behind different behaviors.
Create a gameplan from the beginning, and include milestone guiding questions.
Framing project milestones as guiding questions rather than method-driven statements helped me get a better sense of the purpose behind my research and design methodology.
By continually asking myself, 'why am I doing this?', I've gotten better at sticking to project goals and choosing research methods that get me to my end vision.
