CHALLENGE

The Digital team at my organization comprises stakeholders of multiple backgrounds and job profiles.  This is a mix of engineers that develop software products, salesforce that is responsible for selling  products and services and consultants that execute assessments and propose Digital solutions that will  be most apt for the clients. The Knowledge Management and user interface requirements from the tool  for each of these stakeholder groups is different. There was an existing Knowledge Management tool  that was being used by the rest of the organization. The objective of the first phase of the project was to  finalize on Knowledge Management system functionality and user interface requirements.

SELECTION

I used the mind-mapping tool to identify themes around functionality and user interface criteria. The  audience was a diverse group- with different education backgrounds, different nature of jobs and  different expectations on the knowledge management functionality and how the user interface should  appear. Thus, it was important to capture the different perspectives and organize them by themes- an  output that I believed would be delivered effectively by the mind-mapping tool.

APPLICATION AND INSIGHT

18 participants from 6 different groups within the team were invited for the session. The participants  were provided a walkthrough of the existing tool that was being used by the rest of the organization.  Then, there was a break for 20 minutes in which each participant had to capture what they liked about  the UI on a pink chit of paper, what they did not like on a green chit of paper and the aspirations/ wish- list on a blue paper. This exercise was to be done independently with no consultation between the  participants. After the 20 minutes, the chits were collected and pasted on white board. Feedback  around a similar functionality or aspect were pasted close to each other. 5 groups of feedback were  formed. Each group had a common theme and included both the positives as well as the negatives  about the theme, as well as the wish-list and was labelled with a topic.

The major topic categories that came up were: (a) Intuitiveness of UI (b) Quantity of content on the user  interface (c) Search functionality (d) Ability to rate and discuss a document, and (e) Navigation through  the user interface.  The exercise provided great insights into different priorities of the stakeholder group  based on job profile and responsibilities.

APPROACH

The mind-mapping tool is a great tool to capture the inputs and perspective from a diverse set and  identify patterns and common themes between them. Visualization could be an alternate tool that could

be used with the user group. Via this tool, the participants/ stakeholders could be asked to draw out  elements on the user interface of the knowledge management system that would meet their functional  and navigation requirements.


CHALLENGE The Digital team at my organization comprises stakeholders of multiple backgrounds and job profiles . This is a mix of engineers that develop software products , salesforce that is responsible for selling products and services and consultants that execute assessments and propose Digital solutions that will be most apt for the clients . The Knowledge Management and user interface requirements from the tool for each of these stakeholder groups is different . There was an existing Knowledge Management tool that was being used by the rest of the organization . The objective of the first phase of the project was to finalize on Knowledge Management system functionality and user interface requirements . SELECTION I used the mind - mapping tool to identify themes around functionality and user interface criteria . The audience was a diverse group- with different education backgrounds , different nature of jobs and different expectations on the knowledge management functionality and how the user interface should appear . Thus , it was important to capture the different perspectives and organize them by themes- an output that I believed would be delivered effectively by the mind - mapping tool . APPLICATION AND INSIGHT 18 participants from 6 different groups within the team were invited for the session . The participants were provided a walkthrough of the existing tool that was being used by the rest of the organization . Then , there was a break for 20 minutes in which each participant had to capture what they liked about the UI on a pink chit of paper , what they did not like on a green chit of paper and the aspirations/ wish- list on a blue paper . This exercise was to be done independently with no consultation between the participants . After the 20 minutes , the chits were collected and pasted on white board . Feedback around a similar functionality or aspect were pasted close to each other . 5 groups of feedback were formed . Each group had a common theme and included both the positives as well as the negatives about the theme , as well as the wish - list and was labelled with a topic . The major topic categories that came up were : ( a ) Intuitiveness of UI ( b ) Quantity of content on the user interface ( c ) Search functionality ( d ) Ability to rate and discuss a document , and ( e ) Navigation through the user interface . The exercise provided great insights into different priorities of the stakeholder group based on job profile and responsibilities . APPROACH The mind - mapping tool is a great tool to capture the inputs and perspective from a diverse set and identify patterns and common themes between them . Visualization could be an alternate tool that could be used with the user group . Via this tool , the participants/ stakeholders could be asked to draw out elements on the user interface of the knowledge management system that would meet their functional and navigation requirements .