Researching the experience of social involvement.
Summary
Cent degrés is a digital platform for parents, teachers and other members of the community who want to promote healthy active lifestyles among children. The platform informs its members of social initiatives or events and helps them connect with mentors in their respective communities. Québec en forme (QEF), the organization behind the platform, wanted to develop an ambassador program for members who could help their communities implement these projects promoting healthy habits. Our challenge was to understand current Cent degrés members’ expectations for the ambassador program and what would make it most rewarding and effective for them.
My Role
QEF asked Havas Montreal to do research with potential ambassadors to better understand how an ambassador program would best help their community efforts. I collaborated with a Senior UX Designer at Havas to plan research activities and joined her in carrying out user exercises and synthesizing insights from our sessions.
Outcome
Cent Degrés successfully launched its program over three years ago and has more than 760 ambassadors across the province from twenty+ different professional backgrounds.
Process
Key Research Activities
Card Sorting
We asked participants to sort a series of cards with potential ambassador responsibilities and tasks into three groups: those they would like to do frequently, those they would be willing to do from time to time and those they would rather avoid doing.
We additionally left blank cards for participants to write in suggestions they feel had been left out.
Group Discussion
We asked participants to discuss what they would hope to experience in the context of an ambassador program; what would motivate them to become ambassadors and what would distract or discourage them from joining the program.
Brainstorm
Participants were asked to indicate qualities they thought an ideal ambassador should have, on Post-it sticky notes.
They were then invited to discuss among themselves the relationships between these different qualities and how they may overlap.
Priorities
We asked participants to indicate on a Likert scale their level of interest in the different types of benefits or perks they could access by participating in an ambassador program.
They assessed several benefits (ex. receiving conference tickets, learning materials or attending an ambassador event to recognize their efforts) from their own perspective, ranking them from “not at all interested” to “very interested”.
Project Evolution
Activities & materials planning
In keeping with new Cent degrés branding, we designed activity materials for each person to participate in a Closed Card sort and Likert Scale individually.
Interview and activity session
We recorded the results of the exercises (sorting of cards, post-its and Likert scale) in addition to taking note of our observations during the panel discussions.
Empathy / Qualitative Mapping
We produced an empathy map that summarized the results of our interviews and sorted them according to the feelings and words of the participants, what they see and hear about the ambassadors program from the people around them and what threats or opportunities must be taken into account when QEF engages with these active members of the community.
Prospective ambassador journey
I collaborated with the principal UX designer to produce the anticipated journey of members of the ambassador program, including contact and communication points, relevant channels and important messaging themes that would contribute to a positive experience.
Opportunities & Recommendations
With the Customer Experience Map summarizing the whole of the customer journey, we were able to identify opportunities where our eyewear client could make significant strides to improve their overall experience. We delivered strategic recommendations for our client to consider as they planned their next steps.
Adapted communications
How do we maintain the enthusiasm of active ambassadors throughout the year?
We recommended creating staggered communications with content adapted to different types of ambassadors and broadcasting on multiple channels in order to reach as many members as possible.
Flexibility and independence
Although they are happy to be supported by the Cent degrés group, the ambassadors wish to be independent within their communities without being left entirely to their own devices. We highlighted that it was important to give them access to resources and tools to facilitate their role as ambassadors.
Recognition
Although they are altruistic and are volunteers, ambassadors indicated they would be happy to experience moments of recognition that highlighted their efforts and those of their colleagues and that would inspire future ambassadors.
