NJEA - MS SDM Spring 2020 Studio

ASSEMBLE Amanda Donavanik | Eileen Vogl | Naisargi Shah

Integrative Studio1 | Spring 2020 Ms. Strategic Design & Management Parsons School for Design | The New School

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INdE X

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5

Background About the Client Executive Summary Project Approach Project Timeline

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CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH PROCESS 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4

Initial Discovery Initial Brief Research Methods Desk Research

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CHAPTER 3: SENSE-MAKING 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6

Synthesis Eco-System Mapping Service Blueprint User Journey Affinity Diagramming Insights

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CHAPTER 4: PROTOTYPING & TESTING 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5

Introduction MoSCoW Framework Prototype 1 Assemble About Assemble

90 92 94 100 106

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 5.1 5.2 5.3

Conclusion The Team Bibliography

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ch a p te r 1

introduction

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Background 1.1 : SETTING THE CONTEXT

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THE PROGRAM Parsons School of Design of The New School includes a two-year masters program called Strategic Design and Management. It is focused on building a robust set of tools in design research with a focus on design and systems design. The program is a balanced amalgamation of business challenges and design thinking.

THE COURSE Integrative Studio is an opportunity to apply the theories and tools learned to a real world brief and client project.

Spanning the 15 week semester, students engage with the client and conduct research as if they were an independent design strategy team.

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ABOUT THE CLIENT 1.2 : FOUNDATION OF THE PROJECT

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CLIENT INTRODUCTION Our client this semester was one of the largest educational unions in America. The individual from the organization that we coordinated with was the Associate Director of Professional Development, who has slowly developed an unofficial innovation team within the union administration.

The organization has roughly 250 full time, and 120 part time employees representing 190,000 educators (members). Established over 150 years ago, this union advocates for both a better education system serving the students of the state and better working / living conditions for education professionals.

CLIENT BRIEF For nearly 40 years, the union has focused on a staffcentric strategy to accomplish goals— meaning that members are largely passive and the union staff act on their behalf. This approach has proven to be ineffective at scale, and the union has committed to a strategic shift with a vision of empowering members to self-organize.

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Help us make our union more proactive than reactive by shifting from staff-centric to member-centric organizing.

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h o w m ight w e em p o w er m e mb e rs to proact ively m o b i l i z e?

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1.3 : EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

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PROJECT OVERVIEW In the context of a 15-week project, a state-wide union asks the team “how can we empower members to be more proactive than reactive?”

OPPORTUNITY Solidify the Union’s value proposition to members and make decrease the barriers for members to use the collective power of the union to create the change they want to see.

FINDINGS AND SOLUTIONS The hierarchical communication structure of the union is cutting members off from one another and the current issue raising system puts a high political price on the person seeking change.

We set out to find a way for members to create small, flexible networks around the issues they most cared about, and for all members to have cross-system viability into the priorities, concerns and ideas of their fellow members.

CONCLUSION Assemble is an app that targets the communication channels in large organizations.

It helps members mobilize around issues that affect them, by giving them the platform to organize and connect.

Assemble keeps leadership and administrators updated on the changing needs and priorities of members/ voters/ employees.

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project approach 1.4 : DESIGN THINKING AND PROCESS

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WHAT IS DESIGN THINKING? Design Thinking is a process which provides opportunities of recognizing pain-points of users, understanding and re-evaluating assumptions, and leverage opportunities by conducting extensive research and testing models, to design a well rounded system, product, space or service.

As defined by Interaction Design Foundation, “Design Thinking provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. It is a way of thinking and working as well as a collection of hands-on methods.� It is an intersection of Viability, Feasibility, and Desirability.

DESIGN PROCESS The design process is approached by the divergent and convergent thinking. We call it, the Double Diamond Method.

RESEARCH

SENSE-MAKING

IDEATION

TESTING

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project timeline

1.5 : PROJECT IN TERMS OF THE D

SENSE-MAKING RESEARCH INTRODUCTION

MID

jan 22

jan 29

FEB 26

M

BREAKDOWN MAR 11

M

MID-TERM

RESEARCH AND SENSE-MAKING

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DOUBLE DIAMOND

D-TERM

MAR 11

AR 23

APR 12

APR 22

MAY 6

IDEATION AND PROTOTYPING FEASIBILITY & CONCLUSION DOCUMENTATION

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c h ap te r 2

RE SEARCH PROCE SS

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initial discovery 2.1 : KEY POINTS OF RESEARCH

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INITIAL RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

DESIGN-THINKING WORKSHOPS The Professional Development department of the Union had introduced a series of “design thinking” workshops to their members. But the problem was that only certain staffers were equipped to plan them. Additionally, several other members of the administration did not acknowledge the importance of these design thinking and problem-solving approach, which led to a lack of independence among staffers.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE Simultaneously, we began understanding the workings of the Union by mapping its structure.

In order for us to understand pain-points of the members and staff administration, and design a strategy for them, it was of utmost importance for us to understand the Union’s structure.

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Key questions 2.1 : INITIAL DISCOVERY

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To better understand the current landscape, we set out to answer the following questions: 1. What was the value of the past workshops for the members and Union Administration?

- What have past design processes set out to solve?

- What have those workshops been like?

- How is a design-led process/ workshop initiated?

- How does each “local� operate?

2. How does this organization approach member need and pain points? How effective are its problem-solving strategies?

- What is the political landscape around building design capacity within the union?

- What are best practices for building capabilities in large organizations?

3. What is the ethos of this organization?

- What is the current structure of the organization?

- What are the advantages/disadvantages of the structure?

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initial brief 2.2 : DERIVED FROM CLIENT BRIEF

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h ow mi ght we incr e as ing the de sig n think ing ca pa b i l i tie s within th e u n i on & t heir loc a l a ff iliat e s 29

research methods 2.3 :METHODS USED FOR RESEARCH

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We used the following methods to conduct our research.

INTERVIEWS

DESK RESEARCH

MATERIALS REVIEW

ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

CASE STUDIES AALTO UNIVERSITY

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AEIOU 2.3 : RESEARCH METHOD

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What ACTIVITIES do you need to understand or observe?

- Current workshops - Meetings to conceive of and plan workshops - Current communication mechanisms between members and leadership, leadership to members, within leadership levels and member to member - For profit design thinking training

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What ENVIRONMENTS will be important to visit your stakeholders in?

- Local meeting - Digital spaces: member platform —places that they would hear about a training, internal working—where they work together digitally, how will they access past trainings?

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What INTERACTIONS between people or objects and person, so you need to understand and observe?

- Interactions between facilitator and member during workshops - Interaction between the planner and facilitator, if different - Interactions between member and member during workshops - Interactions between facilitator and member after workshops - Interactions between facilitator and member before workshops.

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What OBJECTS need exploring?

- All of the past training materials (documents, outputs, data, feedback, comments etc.)

- Communication artifacts (magazine, email newsletter) used to market past workshops - Any takehome artifacts from the workshops

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Types of USERS will you need to speak with & observe?

- Workshops facilitators / planners/ designers (if different) - Members who have been to workshops - Members who have not been to workshops - Decision makers who can fund or not fund a new program - Local and county presidents - Members from other unions 33

Interviews 2.3 : RESEARCH METHOD

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INTERVIEW PROCESS To gain a better understanding of the project and pain-points of all the stakeholders, we conducted several interviews with union members, as well as union administrators at various positions. This helped us gauge the deeper nuances of the design thinking workshop process, along with a wholesome understanding of the vertical organizational structure, and how it affects its stakeholders.

Our team followed a very systematic approach for conducting an interview. We generally created a discussion guides, with a questions which could potentially lead the conversation in a desirable direction, if we are conducting a non-directed interview. During each interview, we alternatively took responsible of leading the interview along with taking interview notes and excerpts in real time.

After each interview, the team would revisit the interview recording, and write insights which spoke to us individually, followed by clustering of those insights to recognize further directions of the research.

We conducted 21 interviews. Please find attached analysis of a few interviews on the following pages.

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INTERVIEW 1 WHO Head of Professional Development Department Lead Designer / Client Partner

DISCUSSION GUIDES Q. What has been the biggest success of the workshops so far? What has been the biggest challenge?

Q. What is the process of a workshop coming to be? What are the communication channels with the members?

Q. What is your long-term vision for your organization?

EXCERPTS “being a local leader can mean being antagonistic with management which can have repercussions.”

“Everyone needs me to bail them out with organizing their workshops! I am always overworked.”

“We are using the workshop, really in that learning sphere.

What kind of things can we do, how our members see each other in a collective manner. You know it’s like understanding that we are all connected together and...”

KEY TAKEAWAYS - He is extremely overworked, as he is the only one who know the process of planning a design thinking workshop.

- He has a very clear understanding of the limitations in their communication process between Union and members.

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INTERVIEW 2 WHO Union Staff Local President and Consultant

DISCUSSION GUIDES Q. What are some of the problems of members that you have to address? Would you say your work is stressful?

Q. What are some of the restrictions of the planning process of the workshops? How are inter-union communications like?

EXCERPTS “The amount of fires the president has to put out is unlike anything in our organization.”

“Trying to get around this systemic issue”

KEY TAKEAWAYS - Presidents are overworked and the connecting link between the members and the union staff.

- Hierarchy of the Union sometimes gets in the way of the staff to address member issues in a timely manner.

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INTERVIEW 3 WHO Union Staff Field Representative

DISCUSSION GUIDES Q. What are the pros and cons of how the Union is structured in terms of learning about and acting on members’ needs?

Q. What is the most rewarding part of your job? What is the most frustrating part of your job?

EXCERPTS “Were constantly hitting fast balls. and while were hitting fast balls all these other things are happening.”

“The work is so complicated that the system matches with it” “Member are not interested in connecting with the union unless it effects their personally.”

KEY TAKEAWAYS - The overwhelming aspect of the Field Reps job prevents them from getting personally get involved with ALL their member, which leads to some member needs being ignored.

- The official communication channel with Field Reps is an email, which can be redundant in case of an emergency.

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INTERVIEW 4 WHO Union Member

DISCUSSION GUIDES Q. What are some of the challenges you face in your life as a teacher? What are some problems that the Union can help you with?

Q. Have you ever tried to reach out to the union? Do you know how you would if you needed to?

EXCERPTS - They can help us get more hours to work because I don’t want to go work another job as a seller at the store.

- Their only responsibilities are to negotiate contract and protect our rights as a teacher. I don’t know why else I would contact them.

KEY TAKEAWAYS - Unions do not feel important or close to the member.

They are only contacted for “bigger” work and not everyday grievances.

- There is no streamlined way for individuals to shorten/make it easier the process of contacting the Union.

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“Ou r w hole or g a n i zation is b u ilt a round lo ca ls advocating f or the m selve s.

�

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DESK RESEARCH 2.4 : NEED TO KNOW

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DECREASE IN UNION MEMBERSHIP Union membership has been consistently decreasing in the past decade due to various factors. 2019 has registered the lowest membership rates that Unions have seen since 1997.

This decrease in membership has been attributed to two major factors.

The ever changing job compositions in the US, especially the decline in education sector plays an important role.

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UNIONS WEAKENED In addition to the above, two recent court rulings have dramatically changed the system rules that the union operates in and provide important context for the project.

1. Membership in the union is no longer mandatory. Potential members can choose their union representation, yet our client is still responsible for negotiating and enforcing all contracts as the leading union in the state. A major potential issue for retention and future recruitment.

2. Local presidents, who have historically been 100% dedicated to their elected union positions and paid a full-time salary by the state, are now only able to dedicate 50% of their time to unionrelated responsibilities. As presidents are the main communication channel from members to the union, this weakens the union at a critical time

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a c l e a r va l u e proposition and ac t i v e m e m b e r s h i p h ave n e v e r b e e n m o r e i m p o rta n t.

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ch a p te r 3

sense-making

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synthesis 3.1 : PROCESSES OF SYNTHESIS

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To better understand relationships and see connections in the research, we used these five approaches to make our research visual:

Ecosystem and Stakeholder Mapping Service Blueprints User Journeys Personas Affinity Diagramming

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Eco-system mapping 3.2 : PROCESSES OF SYNTHESIS The ecosystem map is a synthetic representation capturing all the key roles that have an influence on the user, organization and service environment. The ecosystem map is built by first displaying all the entities, and then connecting them based on the type of value they exchange. ref: Service Design Tools

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ECO-SYSTEM MAP 1 Process of design workshops and their execution, with inter-connections between its various stakeholders and their relationships with each other.

1. MEMBERS

Complaint

WORKSHOP RECAP

7. MEMBERS

2. PRESIDENTS WORKSHOP

CORE COORDINATORS

ANALYSIS

Alert

3. FIELD REP

6. OFFICERS

Proposal

INITIAL RESEARCH

WORKSHOP

CORE DESIGN TEAM

FACILITATION

4.COORDINATOR

Brief

WORKSHOP MATERIALS CASE

5. COORDINATOR’S

DISTILLATION

TEAM

MEMBER-WIDE COMMS (ARTICLE) NJEA COMMS LEADERSHIP (CASE STUDY)

TITLE #. ORDER OF INVOLVEMENT

INTERPERSONAL

TEAMS

POSSIBLE

CORE WORK

WORK OUTPUT EVOLUTION

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ECO-SYSTEM MAP 2 Understanding the activities and stakeholders of the Union by studying their interconnections

INITIATIVES ACTIONS SECTORS STAKEHOLDERS THE UNION

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All Connections

Connections to Information (Action) 53

ECO-SYSTEM MAP 3 Organizational Structure of the Union

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INSIGHTS 1 Instead of innovation cutting down on staff time, it is increasing it. A complex, highly time-intensive process has evolved to bring in member voices to inform innovation and change within the union.

INSIGHTS 2 The complexity in the responsibilities of the Union along with the stakeholder involvement and unnecessary number of departmental involvement is clearly visible.

INSIGHTS 3 The lack of proper communication channels is clearly visible in the bottleneck at the Field-Reps position, caused by the innumerable connections from the members to the union, all of which go through the Field Reps.

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service blueprint 3.3 : PROCESSES OF SYNTHESIS A service blueprint is an operational planning tool that provides guidance on how a service will be provided, specifying the physical evidence, staff actions, and support systems / infrastructure needed to deliver the service across its different channels. ref: Service Design Tools

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user journeys 3.4 : PROCESSES OF SYNTHESIS

TOOLS | EMOTIONAL JOURNEY

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Issue

Frustrated that this issue has been going on for so long Lack of confidence that leadership knows what to do or can handle it effectively* Feels stuck and unheard*

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Workshop recrutment

Optimistic that action has been taken* Uncertain about starting a whole new workshop after a full school day Curious to see what this workshop will be like, sounds different*

OPPORTUNITIES

Shorten time between workshop end and first re-connection with members

Find ways to keep members involved that don’t feel heavy or like work.. co

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PERSONAS

Member

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Workshop

A little out of their element with all the new language being thrown around* Energized by the people in the room and the conversation* Tired at times by the many activities required of them*

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Post-workshop

Wonders what ever happened to the project* Original doubts about leadership return* Gets an update long after they’ve forgotten about attending*

Very excited to see it come together and feel they had a real part in contributing*

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ould social media be used effectively?

www.servicedesigntools.org

*Assumptions/ secondhand, need to test

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TOOLS | EMOTIONAL JOURNEY

01

Issue

Overwhelmed that the same issue keeps coming, and that it is so big and systemic Frustrated that they don’t know how to solve it and move towards a solution

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Workshop planning

Optimistic that there may be a solution Feel supported in the process by their ďŹ eld rep.

Feel like it might be a lot of work*

OPPORTUNITIES

Give Presidents a guide on how to follow up with members after the works

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PERSONAS

Presidents

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Workshop

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Post-workshop

Learning new things

Overwhelmed by the data collected*

Happy to see members involved*

Not sure how to follow up with constituents

Optimistic that there are pathways for solutions

Workshop results were not what they expected, felt a bit let down. (not as a result of the process, but the nature of the problem)

Tired at some moments during the middle of the workshop

session and involve them in the longer process

www.servicedesigntools.org

*Assumptions/ secondhand, need to test

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Affinity diagramming 3.5 : PROCESSES OF SYNTHESIS An Affinity Diagram is a tool that gathers large amounts of language data (ideas, opinions, issues) and organizes them into groupings based on their natural relationships (Viewgraph 1). The Affinity process is often used to group ideas generated by Brainstorming ref: Service Design Tools

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INTERVIEW INSIGHTS: PRESIDENT

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insights 3.6 : DERIVED FROM SYNTHESIS

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This synthesis process led us to these five insights: 1. Field reps have far too many responsibilities to reasonably do them all well and being a proactive field rep requires an exceptional employee, which cannot be the basis of the union’s success.

2. Complaining is a very personal process with political pressure creating undue friction for members to voice their concerns and ideas and members having no visibility into others’ complaints reinforces this friction.

3. Empathy, the first foundational mindset of the design thinking approach, is not currently a shared value of the union — and in fact, is in direct contradiction of current member-relation best practices.

4. Union leadership uses very aggressive and antagonistic language when referring to school superintendents and leadership and its own members.

5. Terminology from outside processes can make them feel intimidating and foreign.

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INSIGHT 1

field rep

“

”

Field reps’ responsibilities are very wide ranging, including personal problems of members.

Being a proactive field rep requires an exceptional employee, which cannot be the basis of the Union’s success.

Field Reps have far too many responsibilities to reasonably do them all well.

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HOW MIGHT WE create more focused responsibilities for field reps in order to increase their opportunities for successful service & a proactive union

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INSIGHT 2

Member

“

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Organizations are often like a distant relative who live on the other side of the country. They might as well live in South Korea.

Complaining is a very personal process with political pressure creating undue friction for members to voice their concerns and ideas Members having no visibility into others’ complaints reinforces this friction.

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HOW MIGHT WE create more anonymity and transparency into the complaint process, so that members are more free to use their voices and are better able to hold leaders accountable?

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INSIGHT 3 conference facilitator

“

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If you don’t want to listen to them, you have to pretend that you’re listening because they want to be heard

Empathy, the first foundational mindset of the design thinking approach, is not currently a shared value of the union — and in fact, is in direct contradiction of current member-relation best practices

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HOW MIGHT WE create make empathy a organization-wide value so that members could be better served?

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INSIGHT 4 conference facilitator

“

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We are a warmongering organization.

conference facilitator

“

”

Us empowering them is not always a bad thing - sometimes it is a good thing.

Union leadership uses very aggressive and antagonistic language when referring to school superintendents and leadership AND its own members

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HOW MIGHT WE use language to foster approachability and inclusivity so that trying new things felt more comfortable?

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insights 3.5 : ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

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Currently, Unions the structure of Unions is vertical, stringent and hierarchical.

The flow of conversation goes up through a multi-levelled channel.

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This stringent organizational structure leads to a culture which lays the foundation of isolation for its members, and leads to a lack of proper communication.

An organization whose primary purpose is to help its members organize, has become TOO BUREAUCRATIC to deliver on its promise.

Members believe that the union is on top...

But Really, the members are the Union, and staff is the support.

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To make a shift in the system, new lines of communication have to be established.

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Holding these design prompts in our mind, we were about to choose one to focus on, when we learned that the context of this project changed significantly. Surprisingly, this major change from the “client side� simulated a true client project even more so than before since being free from a specific client ask or expectation in fact, enabled us to reframe this project however was most interesting to us.

The most important part was that the freedom that we had was given us the chance to ask: How might we explore these HMWs that surfaced to their furthest end, without any agenda from us or the client?

In that spirit, we reframed the research questions, revisited the research information, and re-explored the design prompts with a focus on speculative design. After 12 weeks of research, more than 100 documents, 21 interviews, and one site visit, as a result, we have discovered these three new insights:

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HOW MIGHT WE do NOT view unions as 1. Members an “agency for change” nor an

“active community” but more of an “insurance policy” or of an “insurance provider” because an organization whose primary promise is to help its members organize have become too bureaucratic to deliver on its promise.

do NOT know what they 2. Members would go to the unions for because the value of unions is unclear.

do NOT see the benefit of 3. Members being in a union as it shows in the

number of union members in USA from 1985 to 2019 that is declining from over 5,000,000 to below 1,500,000.

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THESE THREE INSIGHTS LED TO ONE DESIGN PROMPT....

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H o w mi gh t w e c r eate m o re trans pa r en cy i n to t h e c o m m u n i c ati on p roce s s , s o th at m e m b e rs a r e m o r e fr e e to us e t h e ir vo i c e s a n d a re b e t t e r a b l e to w or k wi t h le ade r s to fi n d s o l u t i ons ?

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We believe that creating an easy-to-use communications platform for union members and staff will achieve more member engagement, higher satisfaction, a greater sense of community and increased results. And we will know that this is true if we see members interacting more with the union and each other.

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c h ap t e r 4

p r otot ypi ng & te s ti n g

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introduction 4.1 : WHAT IS PROTOTYPING

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WHAT IS PROTOTYPING? Prototypes are often used in the final, testing phase in a Design Thinking process in order to determine how users behave with the prototype, to reveal new solutions to problems, or to find out whether or not the implemented solutions have been successful.

KIND OF PROTOTYPING? KINDS OF PROTOTYPE There are four kind of prototypes: 1 - Theoretical Prototype 2 - Virtual Prototype 3 - Minimum Viable Prototype 4 - Minimum Awesome Product

tests create new ideas for the project

IDEATE

PROTOTYPE

TEST

learn from prototypes to spark more ideas

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moscow framework 4.2 : METHOD OF BUILDING MODELS

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MUST HAVE - Micro-voting - Progress tracking tool(Responsive/proactive) - Full access by all - Anonymity (personal issue side & public voting side) - Easy to use/ seamless communication

SHOULD HAVE - Enable proactivity - Empowering, like you have the power to change your situation, not helpless to the system - Strict community guidelines — highly monitored (need to think of from who)

COULD HAVE - Meeting minutes (Union meetings) - Ideas board, for anyone to put ideas on and people can upvote and downvote (Regulated)

WON’T HAVE - No advertising - No propaganda for the union - Not social

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prototype 1 4.3 : FIRST ITERATION OF IDEATION

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A two-sided grassroots operating system optimized for full transparency and ease of participation that clarifies group input and management actions.

This prototype had two main functions: 1. To facilitate collective conversation, mobilization and issue prioritization a. Open, Reddit inspired 2. To manage individual issues with the Union with more transparency a. Private, amazon return inspired

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Home page, where user can add issues, concerns or ideas in the app, which will encourage the user to collaborate with / communicate with her peers.

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When filing an issue, the user will be asked to define the complaint type, and will be asked to add a brief description to explain the issue to other users.

The case is issued to a “case manager� who is responsible for assigning a team for each case, maintain communication and manage/plan required meetings.

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The user can also get involved in community issues in the app, where they can take a more active part by joining “working groups�.

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TESTING AND FEEDBACK We tested this prototype with 21 people and the overwhelming response was that A. The collective conversation side was more exciting B. The union would never change their structure in such a way to accommodate the private, case management side.

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me e t As s em b l e An app that gives members of a community or organization a tool to communicate and organize around problems that they see and give leadership the visibility they need to understand those priorities and support them.

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The app will open with a heat map which shows a quick video of all the changes that have happened in your working groups since you last opened.

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The home page will show number of issues in your community and ones which are relevant to you, by prioritizing the ones with the most “likes�.

On opening an issue, you will see a brief description of the issue, its heat map, people in your friend list who follow it.

The working group will show you steps that you can take to mobilize, in increasing level of involvement.

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Each working group will have a common chat for conversation around mobilization and planning.

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Messages can be saved, pinned or forwarded, so that the user does not miss out on important information. The user can have private chat with others.

You can visit other friends’ profile, see what issues they follow, or have founded, which local they belong to, and other such basic information.

The user can also create their own working groups. They can write brief description about the issue and schedule steps to mobilize.

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about assemble 4.5 : VALUE PROPOSITION, BUSINESS MODEL

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VALUE FOR MEMBERS

Makes member needs and concerns WIDELY VISIBLE.

Making ORGANIZING AND MOBILIZING easier.

Allow members to easily CONNECT around issues.

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VALUE FOR UNION Be more responsive in real time.

Understand and act on urgent needs in real time.

Have longer runways for emerging problems

See and address underlying problems before they lead to system-wide disruption.

Increase planning efficiency Understand and use member priorities in long-term budgeting and planning

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OFFERING TIERS TIER 1 ACCESS TO RAW DATA

Requires in-house data scientists/analysts

TIER 2 AI ENABLED INSIGHTS

Dashboard of real-time data, requires in-house data scientist / analyst.

TIER 3 PACKAGED INSIGHTS

A report from our strategy & data science team.

Executive-ready reports.

Does not require additional personnel

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BUSINES Insights Reports Increased Roadway

Better member connection

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Fees

UNION ADMINISTRATION

ASSE

SS MODEL Visibility Platform Communication

Data

MBLE

UNION MEMBERS

Mobilization

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cha p te r 5

C onclusion

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This project is a story of disrupting and sustaining. We lost our client halfway through the semester. Since then, the world economy has halted, our class has moved online, and our team is working across a 10.5 hour time difference between New York, Chicago and India. This project has taught us flexibility. More importantly, we have learnt to not waver in the face of a million pivots and post-its.

Regardless of the disruption, or maybe because of it, we have been able to create something so valuable and exciting!

This semester was an unforgettable experience.

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the team

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Representing Thailand, India and the US, we’re grateful to be learning as much from each other as from the project itself.

Naisargi: Illustrator and Designer, Dog-lover, puzzle solver, and funnier than she thinks. She can mostly be found trying to correct the pronunciation of her name.

Eileen: Buckminster Fuller Fan Club Member, Strategist, Sculptor, Birder, Tiny house voyuer.

Amanda: Architect, Neuroscience-nerd, Henry David Thoreau Fan Club Member. If I had it my way, you’d find me in the woods thinking about the healing power of nature, the mystery of time and the power of science.

NAISARGI

EILEEN

AMANDA

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bibLioGRAPHY - Design Thinking for Strategic Innovation: What They Can’t Teach You at Business or Design School, Idris Mootee, 2013 - This is Service Design Thinking, Marc Stickdorn & Jakob Schneider, 2010 - 101Design Methods: A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization, Vijay Kumar, 2013 - A Designer’s Research Manual Jenn+ Ken Visocky O’Grady 2006 CH 1 Overview of Research - A Designer’s Research Manual Jenn+ Ken Visocky O’Grady 2006 CH 2, Practicing Research Driven Design - http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/complete-beginners-guide-to-design-research/ - This is Service Design Doing, Stickdorn - Universal Methods of Design, Bella Martin & Bruce Hanington, Rockport 2012 - Research Questions are not Interview Questions, https://medium.com/mule-design/ research-questions-are-not-interview-questions-7f90602eb533 - This is Service Design Doing, Stickdorn & Schneider, 2019 - Prototype Canvas, https://www.designabetterbusiness.tools/tools/prototype-canvas - The Value Proposition Canvas, https://www.strategyzer.com/canvas/valueproposition-canvas - New Jersey Teachers Association, njea.org - Eco-Mapping Tool, Kumu, kumu.io 120

- National Educational Association, nea.org - History of Unions in United States, https://www.investopedia.com/financialedge/0113/the-history-of-unions-in-the-united-states.aspx - What caused the decline of unions in america?, https://psmag.com/economics/whatcaused-the-decline-of-unions-in-america - Union Membership in US keeps on falling, like almost everywhere, https:// qz.com/1542019/union-membership-in-the-us-keeps-on-falling-like-almost-everywhereelse/ - State of the Union, New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/08/26/ state-of-the-unions - US Labor Unions, https://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/u-s-labor-unions - Brainstorming tools, Mural, mural.co - The Pros and Cons of Unions, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YnhxYFmeH8 - Design Kit, https://www.designkit.org/methods - Method Cards, IDEO, https://www.ideo.com/post/method-cards - Design Thinking, https://designthinking.ideo.com/ - Stakeholder Analysis, https://www.productplan.com/glossary/stakeholder-analysis/ - “Design Thinking...What Is That?� Fast Company. March 20, 2006. Accessed April 28, 2016. http:/www.fastcompany.com/919258/design-thinking-what.

- What is Etoolkit, https://www.ecotoolkit.eu/ecomapping.php

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