Deloitte Digital
iPad workshop app
Deloitte Digital is a digital agency that prides itself on using connected ideas and the latest technology to create new growth for its clients. As part of their offerings, they facilitate workshops for their clientele. However, the traditional methods of using flip charts and sticky notes were not reflective of the agency's drive for cutting-edge technology and often resulted in participants deferring to the most senior person in the room.
Deloitte Digital approached me to join them for a short period of time to design a new way of conducting workshops that would encourage greater group participation and align with the agency's technology credentials.
The brief
Create a proof of concept for an iPad app that replaces traditional analogue workshop tools.
Deloitte Digital facilitates workshops and has identified some first-hand insights about how these workshops usually go. They have observed:
Participants tend to defer to the most senior person in the room, limiting the emergence of alternative ideas.
The loudest voices often drown out other participants with quieter demeanours, causing valuable contributions to be lost.
As a tech leader, Deloitte Digital's image matters when selling to clients, so it is important to leverage the advantages of technology.
My role
I worked closely with Deloitte Digital's workshop facilitators to develop a proof of concept that could be pitched to senior management within the agency. My involvement included:
Affinity mapping
Ideation
Flow mapping
Wireframing
Prototyping
Guerrilla testing within Deloitte Digital
Visual design
The problem
Our ambition for the app was to encourage everyone in the workshop to get involved and generate more ideas from the group.
Our high-level goals for the app were to:
Prevent workshops from being dominated by bosses and extroverts
Inject some fun into the workshop
Make sure the good ideas get noticed.
Make good ideas get noticed. In 3 weeks.
My task was to create a proof of concept that would showcase innovative ideas to senior management at Deloitte Digital. The catch? I only had three weeks to do it. To meet this tight deadline, I had to think quickly, wireframe rapidly, conduct guerrilla testing, iterate frequently, and polish the visuals with speed and precision.
Insight and research
Ideation and Affinity mapping
To kick off the ideation process, myself and members of the Deloitte Digital team conducted an affinity mapping exercise where we brainstormed and captured ideas on Post-it notes. These ideas were then collated and organized.
Flow diagrams
Next, we created rough flow diagrams on whiteboards to consider the potential structure of the iPad app. Once we had a general idea of how it might function, I created a more detailed flow diagram.
How do we champion ideas over personalities?
To ensure that the best ideas are heard during workshops, our affinity mapping exercise identified six key requirements for the iPad app:
Generate and rate questions from the group
Get participants to answer these questions and rate the answers
Capture ideas from an ideation session
Drawing exercise
Group poll
Capture commitments from participants for future actions
Solution
The proposed solution to encourage participation and anonymity among all workshop participants was to provide each participant with a linked iPad. This would allow short sessions of idea generation and critique with anonymity, as well as group discussions about the results at key stages of the workshop through a 'facilitator' view that could be cast onto a large TV in the room.
Early iterations
The early iterations of the app's key pages were focused on functionality and were created as low-fidelity prototypes. These were then tested through guerrilla testing within Deloitte Digital. Based on the feedback received, further iterations were made to refine the app's design and functionality.
Judge ideas incognito
Participants have their own iPad which list all unattributed suggestions from the group. The user selects a suggestion, (in this case a possible question), from the left of the screen.
A blue circle is then dragged and dropped onto where the user believes it fits within a 4-square Eisenhower Grid.
Participants can add their own suggestions at any point, knowing that the rest of the group will be judging it on its merits, rather than their seniority within the group’s hierarchy.
The big idea
The concept of "building a rocket ship" was a creative and effective way to gamify the workshop and keep participants engaged. It also tied well into Deloitte Digital's desire to be seen as forward-thinking and innovative. By using an analogy that related to the participants' business goals, the concept helped to emphasize the importance of collaboration and working towards a common goal. Overall, this was a great example of how a creative idea can help to elevate a project and bring it to the next level.
Early concept drawing
Research
There was nothing out there that did what we were trying to do, we were breaking new ground. So for research, I looked at computer games, science fiction and actual real-life rocket ship blueprints. This formed the inspiration for what the app should look and feel like.
Progress is shown with the rocket’s build
Each new task for the workshop participants would result in the rocket ship’s build progressing in the following order:
Engine
Main body
Top cone
Fins
Fuel
BLAST OFF!
Commitments for future actions as a journey to the Moon and beyond…
Outcome
My clients at Deloitte Digital were pleased with the results, which exceeded their expectations of what could be achieved in only 3 weeks.
