Where It Started
A global enterprise had set a company-wide goal: to help its customers improve their digital accessibility, beyond any single standard or audit. One department owned that goal, with business metrics to move and earlier experiments to learn from. Before any solution could be discussed, the team needed to know which problems to solve first, and for whom.
- Problem Framing
- Customer Research
- Design Sprint
Where We Came In
Our job was to turn that broad goal into one focused initiative. We designed and led the process in two phases: problem framing to find the right problem and the right customer, then a design sprint to shape the solution.
We started with stakeholder workshops to surface the problems, with accessibility experts, a VP of Design, a design lead, product and strategy leaders and experts from operations and solutions in the room. The group prioritized the top ten problems by their impact on the business and on customers. We reviewed the company’s earlier experiments to see what had worked and what hadn’t, and mapped the competitive landscape. With that, we chose the first customer the initiative should serve and defined their persona.
We took the top problems to stakeholders. Before moving into ideation, the team needed proof and real customer insight, so we researched the problems with the company’s customers. Through 25 one-to-one interviews and a survey, we tested our assumptions and explored what we couldn’t learn from the inside: their pain points, their current workarounds, how severe each problem was for them and any unmet needs we hadn’t anticipated. The team went into the sprint with evidence.
The design sprint ran over two days of workshops. Structured voting narrowed the ten problems to one focus, with the sprint’s decider casting the final vote. We reframed the problems as opportunities and set a long-term goal. The team then generated ideas, and we left with one solution and the steps to take it to the board.
Three months later, the company had one focus, a first customer to serve, a long-term goal and one solution to take to the board. The board approved the initiative to move forward.
- Workshop Design & Facilitation
- Stakeholder Workshops
- Problem Framing
- Competitive Research
- Customer Persona
- Customer Interviews & Survey
- Design Sprint
- Opportunity Framing
- Board Presentation
We bring the glue.
You bring the spark.
