Research Contracts at Cambridge: Introducing Design Sprints to our team
Design and research project for the University of Cambridge's IT department | August 2023
Skills: leadership, teamwork, facilitation, qualitative research, prototyping, testing
How might we reduce the administrative burden on academic researchers when they request legal contracts needed to carry out their research?
Objectives
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Identify & map user needs & pain points to inform design sprint
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Create an interactive prototype through a week-long intensive design sprint
Methods
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Internal literature review
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Semi-structured interviews
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Design sprint
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Journey mapping
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Storyboarding
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Low-fi prototyping
Outcomes
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Journey map
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Personas
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Design Requirements
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Medium fidelity prototype
The Process
Internal literature review & research planning
Weeks 1 & 2
Run interviews
Week 3
Analysis & synthesis
Design sprint planning
Week 4
Design Sprint & plan for next steps
Week 5
The Solution - a 'smart' legal contract request form
An online request form that auto-populates known user data & uses simple language to guide user along their journey to set up a contract
My Role
User Research & Design Sprint Lead
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Planned & implemented semi-structured interviews to inform design sprint
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Analyzed qualitative data & produced a problem statement & personas to drive design sprint
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Conceived & facilitated week-long, hybrid, 8 person design sprint
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Led usability testing of design sprint prototype with 4 users
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Recommended design changes to prototype & next steps
The Team
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Senior user researcher (myself)
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Product manager
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Content designer
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2 Developers
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2 Subject matter experts
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Communications lead
User Research & Problem Definition
Internal literature review to identify our top 3 problem areas
Researchers feel the contracts processing time is too slow
waiting on legal contracts block them from carrying out their research
The contracts team has a high workload & frequent staff turnover
which slows down processing time
Along with my product manager, I decided to pursue the contract request problem space
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It scaled to a design sprint
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Aligned with leadership goals to simplify administrative processes
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Had a high impact if solved - could potentially improve some of the other problems
There isn't a single way for a researcher to request a contract
this translates into missing information, confusion around workload management, & poor communication between users
Focusing the problem space with semi-structured interviews
I ran interviews to fill in the missing gaps + create problem statements & personas to drive the design sprint - asking question such as:
How do administrators first learn about a contract? How do they feel about this process & why?
Problem Statement
We believe multiple vehicles for contract requests leads to slower processing times for administrators & researchers because it results in chasing down missing & scattered information
Personas
I created simple personas tailored to use in the design sprint
User need
Reese has a brilliant research idea, but needs an agreement in place with collaborators to move forward. She views contracts as an administrative heavy process & does not have time to understand the details.
User need
Drew takes pride in helping researchers win grants, but is burned out from manually pushing the processes along.
User need
Casey has a growing workload due to staff shortages and needs the exact right information from requesters so she can confidently move on in her workflow.
Design sprint time!
I planned and facilitated our 5 day hybrid design sprint
Day 1: Understand & define
In person
Methods: Interviewing subject matter experts, group journey mapping, & review of problem statement + personas
Output: Agreed upon how might we question to drive sprint
How might we reduce the administrative burden on academic researchers when they request legal contracts needed to carry out their research?
Day 2: Inspire & sketch
In person
Methods: Sticky note brainstorms, Crazy 8s, rapid sketching, group disucssions/votes
Output: Agreed upon solution idea & design requirements
Design requirements
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Single entry point that allows for adaptive user journeys
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Automated assistance to fill out form (pre-population)
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High-level context on what the form is asking, and why
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Progressive disclosure
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Maintenance of state (auto-save)
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Friendly, clear language
Day 3: Prototype
Virtual
Methods: Storyboarding & prototyping via Axure tool
Output: Interactive prototype to usability test
Storyboarding snippets
'Day 4': Three day break to usability test due to participant availability
Virtual
Methods: Remotely moderated usability testing, asynchronous team review, qualitative analysis, affinity mapping
Output: Feedback on vague language, missing context, & general reactions to the design. Recommendations for future iterations
Day 5: Review findings & plan next steps
Hybrid
Methods: Group discussion
Output: Plan for next steps & assigned action items
Next steps:
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Use sprint findings and recommendations to plan for an agile sprint
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Socialize sprint findings to the rest of the team & leadership to ensure our work stream aligns with expectations
Sprint Impact
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Demonstrated to the University that we can make fast decisions
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Pushed leadership to delegate ownership of the project
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Set us up for an additional 3 agile sprints to iterate on our prototype (launch TBD)
Reflection
What went well
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User research before the sprint ensured we selected an actionable, data-backed sprint topic
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Sprint was great for engaging the team & creating buy-in
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Quick decision making sped up the project that may have taken months at the University
Takeaways for next time
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'Sprint' means something different to developers, next time have a more formal informational meeting ahead of the sprint
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Prototyping as a group is challenging, next time choose a tool that everyone can use even if it's just paper
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Hybrid method works best with all in person & all online days
"I have no idea what a contract is and the jargon that's involved can seem daunting. It's good this tool is pretty simple!"
