Complex Problems and Facilitation
As a Senior User Experience Designer at a smaller company like Inkling, I wore many hats. I used my user experience skills to dive into problems all across the company and lead cross-functional teams to success in areas that went beyond user interfaces.
Tiger Team Lead: Benefits and Culture
I was tapped by our Executive team to lead a cross-functional “tiger team” team of people looking to solve a few issues Inkling was having: 1. We were having trouble retaining talent. and 2. We were having trouble attracting good quality talent to fill those roles.
Over the course of 3 months, my team and I used extra time we had each week to get to work on understanding the issues. We used the Design Thinking Method to break this complex and nuanced problem into manageable chunks. We interviewed many of our coworkers, both through qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys, analyzed their data, formulated hypotheses, ideated on solutions, tested those solutions, and finally presented to the Exec team.
Ultimately, we came to the conclusion that a majority the employee churn we had gone through was due to a past CEO and his decisions. That had tapered off, and the remaining employees were happy with the new leadership team and the company as a whole. However, they requested more transparency from their Execs when it came to business finances. They also requested a 401k match, stating that was the biggest issue with Inkling - our benefits didn’t match our competitors.
There were things that were implemented right away due to our work: a mentorship program, higher Learning & Development budget, a “social” committee (sorely needed due to our fully remote worklife), and a shortened interview process - all things we proposed that would retain our current employees while also attracting new talent.
Leading this project challenged me in wonderful ways, and I got to try my hand at leading a team of non-designers. I loved every second of it, and look forward to doing more projects like this in the future.
Use the grid below to go on the Miro journey that I led my team through.
