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Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Marysol Ortega Diana Arvayo Miguel Medina Misael León Prepared by: Marysol Ortega & Misael León theuxclinic.com © Nearsoft, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Page 1: Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Prepared by · Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Marysol Ortega Diana Arvayo Miguel Medina Misael León Prepared by: Marysol Ortega & Misael León theuxclinic.com

Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Marysol Ortega Diana Arvayo Miguel Medina Misael León Prepared by: Marysol Ortega & Misael León

theuxclinic.com                                                                                                                             © Nearsoft, Inc. All rights reserved.  

Page 2: Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Prepared by · Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Marysol Ortega Diana Arvayo Miguel Medina Misael León Prepared by: Marysol Ortega & Misael León theuxclinic.com

The UX Clinic is an initiative made to share our design

expertise with the software development community.

Using different design methods, our aim is to facilitate

planning, exploration, concept generation, early

prototype iteration, evaluation, and refinement of

websites and applications submitted to our program.

Each edition of the UX Clinic culminates in a 25

minute-long episode via Hangout On Air (HOA). We

broadcast our process and recommendations for a new

case study every three weeks. This report is the final

outcome of an analysis we have made for the eighth

episode’s case study 7Geese, “a social performance tool for continuous feedback, coaching, recognition, and goal tracking without relying on performance reviews.”  

This document compounds findings resulting from

utilizing a Experience Prototyping1, an approach used

during the discovery phase of our design process. We

conducted a workshop session with a group of

potential users to understand their attitudes, and

expectations toward 1-on-1 meeting sessions within

their company. By doing a workshop our aim was to

discover issues, opportunities, and generate design

ideas to improve the current task flow and interface for

facilitating and documenting 1-on-1 sessions on

7Geese—our case study.

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Page 3: Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Prepared by · Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Marysol Ortega Diana Arvayo Miguel Medina Misael León Prepared by: Marysol Ortega & Misael León theuxclinic.com

a. Case Study: 7Geese

b. Preliminary Analysis: SWOT Analysis / Benchmarking

c. Design Strategy

1. Current Task Flow

2. UX Blueprint

d. Our Process

1. Experience Prototyping

2. Insight Combination

e. Results

1. User Journey Map

2. Visual Design

2.1 Set up a New 1-on-1

2.2 Follow up by Facilitator

2.3 Follow up by the Participant

f. Conclusions

g. References

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Page 4: Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Prepared by · Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Marysol Ortega Diana Arvayo Miguel Medina Misael León Prepared by: Marysol Ortega & Misael León theuxclinic.com

7Geese’s homepage on February, 2015

The purpose of 7Geese is to utilize technology to help

people achieve their goals, live in alignment with their

values, and enable people to unleash their full potential

at work. 7Geese believes that people are intrinsically

motivated to perform their best when organizations

have a compelling vision, clear objectives, and a rich

culture of recognition and support.

7Geese initiated as a side project in 2010 when their

founders identified an opportunity to apply real-time

and continuous components of consumer social media

to performance management. The objective is to help

companies move away from traditional performance

reviews and accelerate employee growth and learning.

7Geese acknowledges that having a happy and

engaged workforce is the best way for organizations to

thrive and achieve sustainable growth.

Currently, 7Geese features a tool to facilitate 1-on-1’s

meetings between managers and employees by

providing tools such as a questionnaire template and

follow-up formats. The 1-on-1 component is the main

focus of this research report. We faced the challenge of

improving the experience of users when utilizing the

1-on-1 feature.

☞ 7geese.com  

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Page 5: Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Prepared by · Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Marysol Ortega Diana Arvayo Miguel Medina Misael León Prepared by: Marysol Ortega & Misael León theuxclinic.com

7Geese allows companies to track people’s performance and facilitates coaching and self-management. Here’s the tool for conducting 1-on-1’s

On the 1-on-1 section, managers and employees have different options 7Geese is a modern approach to performance management

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Page 6: Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Prepared by · Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Marysol Ortega Diana Arvayo Miguel Medina Misael León Prepared by: Marysol Ortega & Misael León theuxclinic.com

Prior to selecting a design method and the specific

activities we would be focusing our efforts on, we made

a SWOT analysis2 of 7Geese. SWOT analysis stands for

an evaluation of Strengths, Weaknesses,

Opportunities, and Threats that describe and affect the

service. During this preliminary analysis we identified

that the approach of translating the 1-on-1 process

into an interface was somehow technical and rigid, and

it might not represent how these type of meetings are

conducted in real life.

The SWOT Analysis provided a framework for

understanding the problem we were going to tackle. In

addition, the analysis allowed us to have an initial

evaluation of the current task flow of 1-on1’s within

the 7Geese service offer.

 

  HELPFUL HURTFUL   Strengths Weaknesses  

INTERNAL Advantages the competition does not have Characteristics that are at a disadvantage  

Characteristic of

the website

● Process is quick and simple

● A template is available to get started

● Facilitator can personalize the

questionnaire

● Users can export a history of previous

1-on-1s as a PDF

● During the session, the facilitator can

see the previous annotations

● Facilitator can have multiple

templates to choose from

● Facilitator can visualize recent

achievements

● At first glance, there's no clear way to

see a follow up for the 1-on-1s

● The 'subject' can also access the prep

notes on edit mode

● The language 'subject' might not be

suitable for the situation

● No full mobile support

● Is unclear how the review process of

the notes work

 

Opportunities Threats  

EXTERNAL Factors that can aid in reaching a goal Factors that can harm the site functionality and

performance or hinder company's goal  

Characteristics of

the environment

and competitors

● There are not a lot of tools for 1:1's

available

● The tools available focus too much on

performance and not that much in building

rapport with employees

● Provides a way to move away from

traditional performance reviews

● There's an increasing tendency within

organizations to focus on people's

well-being

● Growing trend to automate tasks and

have accountability for every process within

companies

● Managers might think they don't

really need a tool for 1:1's since is supposed

to be more laid back and to build trust

● The tool might be perceived as yet

another task's format to fill in

● Companies inner processes might not

observe the need for 1:1's, whether for

being unknown or perceived as unnecessary

● Other existing online tools (text

editors, task-flow managers, note taking

apps, etc.) can be used to keep record of

1:1's

 

         

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Page 7: Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Prepared by · Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Marysol Ortega Diana Arvayo Miguel Medina Misael León Prepared by: Marysol Ortega & Misael León theuxclinic.com

After interpreting the results from the SWOT analysis, we decided to investigate if the 1-on-1 process in 7Geese

reflects the needs of managers and the expectations from employees. As a starting point, we did a breakdown of the

current 1-on-1’s task flow to identify the different touch points, interface elements, and recurring interactions

present in this component.

First step: Starting a new 1-on-1 session

Depending whether the user is a facilitator or

a participant the platform displays different

options:

Participants: Can add their own notes in "Prep

Mode" and Choose a 1-on-1 template

Facilitator: Can begin the 1-on-1 immediately,

Choose a 1-on-1 template, and Create Custom

Template Users should click on “Prep new 1-on-1” to

begin.

Second Step: Completing a 1-on-1 session

Participants: Can add notes “Prep mode” prior

to the 1-on-1 session to comment later during

or after the session.

Facilitator (Manager): Can take notes during

the session using the Discussion Notes form

on the right-hand side of the screen.

Facilitators can also upload attachments.

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Page 8: Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Prepared by · Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Marysol Ortega Diana Arvayo Miguel Medina Misael León Prepared by: Marysol Ortega & Misael León theuxclinic.com

Third step: Viewing completed 1-on-1 session

Users can select the 1-on-1 session they wish

to review from the list on the left of the page.

A blue 1-on-1 icon represents that the user’s

role is as participant; a grey 1-on-1 icon means

that the user is acting as facilitator (manager).

Follow-up: Both participants and facilitators can add

comments to a 1-on-1 session by scrolling to

the bottom and using the "Add a comment"

form.

Additional step: Creating a 1-on-1 template

Only facilitators have the ability to create

custom 1-on-1s templates for their specific

teams.

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Page 9: Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Prepared by · Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Marysol Ortega Diana Arvayo Miguel Medina Misael León Prepared by: Marysol Ortega & Misael León theuxclinic.com

Defining a UX Strategy Blueprint helped us to establish

focus points when applying the method:

Challenges ~ According to Dave Emmet (7Geese’s

Product Designer) the 1-on-1’s section currently feels

disconnected with the rest of the platform’s services. In

addition, 7Geese does not have conclusive feedback

from users confirming that 1-on-1s comply with the

users’ needs and current processes within their

companies. Therefore, our challenge is to investigate

whether or not 7Geese’s 1-on-1s is a compelling

process that accounts for people’s real attitudes and

wants.

Aspirations ~ Our main goal is to offer a reliable 1-on-1

process with an appealing interface for facilitators and

participants alike. We want to determine the ways in

which 7geese can support and facilitate 1-on-1

sessions. We want to produce a human-centered

process that accounts for people’s sentiments, and for

the managerial needs of companies.

Focus Areas ~ Our target audience are managers

usually involved in 1-on-1’s as facilitators,

collaborators from human resources/people

development areas, and employees who are the

interviewees in a 1-on-1. We want to focus on their

attitudes, needs, wants, and emotional states toward

1-on-1’s. Additionally, we want to explore the current

ways these type of sessions are conducted within a real

environment of a company.

Guiding Principles ~ Our goal is to determine good

practices for 1-on-1 sessions in a way that accounts for

people’s expectations and needs. Furthermore, we

want to explore what aspects of both roles —managers

and employees— are the most important when having

1-on-1s, and how those aspects could be transformed

into effective interface components.

Due to the broad nature of the information we want to

gather, we decided to follow a divergent approach to

reveal potential users’ feelings regarding 1-on-1s and

understand what they think and feel about these

meetings. A divergent approach will allow us to design

for the interactions needed to prepare and follow-up a

1-on-1 session.

Activities ~ Based on our guiding principles we planned

an Experience Prototyping1 workshop with six

participants, inviting them to produce a prototype of

their ideal 1-on-1 process, making an emphasis on their

expectations and sentiments. Our objective with the

activity is to understand people’s mental model for

1-on-1s and reinterpret the current interface to

respond to their needs and aspirations.

After the workshop, we outlined a User Journey to

describe the path users would follow, highlighting

interaction touchpoints during the process of setting

up a 1-on-1 session and doing follow ups.

As a final step, we organized insights using an ideation

method called Insight Combination3 as a way to

transform our findings into design proposals.

Measurements ~ The metrics to gauge the success of

the design proposal would be the increment of users’

satisfaction using 7Geese’s 1-on-1 process. The

measurement of these metrics is beyond the scope of

this report— the implementation of our design

proposal is required to measure them— therefore this

document is an invitation for 7Geese’s team to

implement the design proposals included here and

share their measurements with us.

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Page 10: Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Prepared by · Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Marysol Ortega Diana Arvayo Miguel Medina Misael León Prepared by: Marysol Ortega & Misael León theuxclinic.com

The process of preparing a UX Blueprint provided a

guiding path consisting of three main stages we

followed throughout our design process. In the first stage we ran an Experience Prototyping workshop

with six participants. We took a divergent approach by

asking participants to embody their mental models

regarding 1-on-1 meetings as a way for team members

to express issues, ideas, and frustrations that might not

fit into other organizational mechanisms through the

construction of their ideal 1-on-1 process.

During the second stage we analyzed the

user-generated artifacts by arranging them using

Insight Combination method, with the purpose of

generating possible design ideas that could tackle the

different issues concerning 1-on-1s.

Our third stage consisted in the creation of a User Journey Map1 where we portrayed how users should

ideally engage with the service. Finally, we selected

three key touch points and designed three mockups to

visually represent a task flow of our design proposal for

7Geese 1-on-1 process.

Experience Prototyping refers to a simulation of a

product or service within a series of group exercises. It

involves creating and testing low-fidelity prototypes in

semi-realistic scenarios to gain critical feedback, with

the aim of generating meaningful insights for the issue

to explore. Experience Prototyping is helpful to

discover what people know and feel, allowing design

teams to empathize with participants and obtain

inspiration for the design of a service or system.

The purpose of our workshop was to understand what

participants knew about the 1-on-1 process and how it

should be conducted, according to their own

viewpoints. 1-on-1s are useful for frequent and open

communication between managers and employees, and

having this meetings once a week is considered a good

practice. However, there is no unique way 1-on-1s are

held, therefore every company have a variety of

approaches.

The six participants of the workshop had a set of

general characteristics such as holding a Bachelor’s

degree, currently developing a professional career, and

be digital natives. Additionally, we had three

sub-groups in relationship to how familiar they were

regarding 1-on-1s. The first sub-group consisted of

managers that facilitate of 1-on-1s; the second

sub-group were people working on Human

Resources/People Development related areas, often

promoting 1-on-1 meetings; the third sub-group was

people that are subject to have 1-on-1s.

Three main characteristics define our research

process:

Qualitative ~ Evaluate the subjective emotional

spectrum of potential users,

Attitudinal ~ Description of the participants' mental

model towards 1-on-1’s and management, and

Generative ~ Active participation of potential users

producing a prototype of their ideal 1-on-1 session.

Experience Prototyping is a hands-on ideation approach

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Page 11: Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Prepared by · Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Marysol Ortega Diana Arvayo Miguel Medina Misael León Prepared by: Marysol Ortega & Misael León theuxclinic.com

The workshop was conducted by a facilitator and two

observers taking notes. The session was one hour and

30 min-long, divided into three main activities, as

described below:

First stage ~ Presentation: Exercise Introduction (35 minutes) The facilitator gave participants a brief

introductory talk about the purpose of the workshop,

followed by an icebreaker exercise. After that

participants discussed the concept of 1-on-1s, and they

shared as a group their own experiences with this type

of meeting. We also asked participants if they knew any

platform to moderate 1-on-1s.

Second stage ~ Exercise: Creating the 1-on-1 landscape (25 minutes) The group started to map out

their ideal 1-on-1 process. Participants spent the first

five minutes defining the different stakeholders in a

1-on-1. The following 15 minutes were spent thinking

and creating a common user journey for a 1-on-1, from

planification to the subsequent follow-up. By the end

of the mapping activity, they developed their ideal

1-on-1 landscape and identified key touch points they

decided to prototype (3 touch points total).

We used the following set of questions as a guideline to

get the conversation started and drive the discussion:

1. What would it be your ideal 1-on-1? (Before >

During > After)

2. Who is involved?

3. Describe how the process of a 1-on-1 should be

4. What kind of tools/devices you would use?

5. How is the environment?

6. What do you get from it?

7. How frequent would it be?

8. How would you like to keep track of it?

9. What is the value of a 1-on-1 for you?

Third stage ~ Prototyping (30 minutes) The group of

participants broke into three pairs. We provided

assorted materials to use them as inspiration for their

prototypes:

● Human plastic figures

● Office equipment and devices

● Buildings (houses, offices, factories, stores, etc)

● Communication tools (phones, computers, etc)

● Office supplies (markers, highlighters, scissors,

glue, sticky notes, color sheets, tape, eraser)

● Touchpoint templates (paper with images of

phones, screens, etc)

Each group created an experience prototype of their

selected touch point using the materials supplied. The

goal was to make a quick prototype in the first 10 mins,

share it with another team and iterate the initial design

based on feedback.

The groups then presented back their findings to each

other and reflected on the approach taken. From this

exercise we wanted to learn:

● What communication tools are they using in a

specific touch point?

● Who is usually involved and how in an ideal

1-on-1?

● What kind of information is disclosed and how it

should be displayed?

● What are the tasks to accomplish by each

stakeholder?

● What kind of outcomes are being obtained and

generated on each touch point?

The experience prototyping workshop left us with

many useful insights that would serve as inspiration for

the design proposal for 7Geese.

Key Insights: An ideal 1-on-1 should...

1. Use a customized but loose structure

2. Facilitate a casual friendly conversation

3. Have a set action items

4. Allow both parties add follow-up notes

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Page 12: Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Prepared by · Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Marysol Ortega Diana Arvayo Miguel Medina Misael León Prepared by: Marysol Ortega & Misael León theuxclinic.com

On Experience Prototyping participants are actively involved in the discussion of products and services ideas

Participants producing an ideal prototype of 1-on-1 meeting process Participants are given the chance to share their insights

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The whole group participated in the making of an ideal 1-on-1 meeting landscape focusing in three stages: before, during and after a 1-on-1

Each participant had the opportunity to explain their own prototype Experience Prototyping explores multiple angles and perspectives

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Page 14: Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Prepared by · Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Marysol Ortega Diana Arvayo Miguel Medina Misael León Prepared by: Marysol Ortega & Misael León theuxclinic.com

Insight Combination is a design method to quickly generate several initial ideas to refine later into full working design features

Once we gathered data through the Experience

Prototyping workshop, we sort it out to understand

participants’ ideas effectively, facilitating the ideation

process of a design proposal.

We placed participants’ insights on a board using sticky

notes. Next, we listed current design trends into a

second board with the aim of contrast them with the

insights, and see how we could generate design ideas

that could tackle the problems and opportunities

uncovered during the workshop with the users.

This design practice is called Insight Combination, and it

is defined by Kolko (2014) as: “A method of building on insights and established design patterns in order to create initial design ideas.”

Insight Combination was really useful not only because

it helped us shape a great amount of information, but

because it allowed us to envision effective solutions to

human needs and dilemmas.

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Page 15: Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Prepared by · Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Marysol Ortega Diana Arvayo Miguel Medina Misael León Prepared by: Marysol Ortega & Misael León theuxclinic.com

On the first section of the board we placed our research findings On the second section of the board we listed design trends

Insight Combination is an effective way to structure brainstorming sessions Design ideas arise by finding correlations between the other two sections of

the board

During the Insight Combination activity we came up

with multiple design ideas that address team members

needs and also managerial goals. Given the fact that

the resulting items from Insight Combination are just

“seed ideas”, we discussed how to refine them into

finished design concepts. As a team, we singled out the

most promising ones that could potentially bring

positive impact into the 7Geese current 1-on-1

process. At the end we chose to work on three ideas

that cover the full task flow, from preparing a 1-on-1

meeting to the follow-up.

This is a list of the design trends we followed to

generate the initial ideas:

1. Mobile and responsiveness are key

2. Flat design is here to stay

3. Larger emphasis on typography

4. Heavy use of UI Cards to display information

5. Micro Interactions and micro copy

6. Storytelling to communicate benefits

7. Scrolling preferred over clicking

8. Videos convey ideas better than long readings

9. Contextual UX

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Page 16: Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Prepared by · Case Study: 7Geese Design Team: Marysol Ortega Diana Arvayo Miguel Medina Misael León Prepared by: Marysol Ortega & Misael León theuxclinic.com

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Based on the prototypes produced by the workshop

participants and our own observations generated

during the session, we were able to ideate and visually

represent the journey that managers and team

members would undergo when participating in a

1-on-1 meeting. The creation of a journey map allowed

us to envision the expectations that shape the process

of having person to person conversations.

The Journey Map above illustrates the strategy we are

proposing 7Geese for their next design iteration. The

following six points summarize what the new interface

should account for, the process of having a 1-on-1

meeting should be able to:

1. Open the door for communication

2. Build stronger relationships

3. Use open-ended questions (How are you?)

4. Detect issues early (to solve them later)

5. Build trust between manager and participant

6. Boost self-esteem

As a UX deliverable, a Journey Map tells

the story of users’ actions, interactions, and

expectations as they experience the three main stages

of a 1-on-1: Before — During — After

The Journey map story is described in the following

steps:

Before: 1. Facilitators review priority list prior to schedule

the 1-on-1

2. Participant can also request a 1-on-1

3. Both stakeholders choose a date and set-up the

meeting. The meeting will show up in the

calendar of their choice (Google Calendar, iCal,

Outlook, etc)

4. Managers chooses a template guideline,

depending on the situation or participant

5. Participants are given the option to set a list of

topics that he/she wants to discuss

During: 1. No computers or devices should be used, as a

way to facilitate the building of trust

2. 1-on-1 should be short, simple and fluid

3. Note-taking should be done on paper, at plain

sight of the other participant, to avoid the idea of

“secret annotations”

After:

1. Agree on action items

2. Both parties should do a follow-up of the session

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We are proposing the process of preparing 1-on-1 to

be as quick as possible, and act more as a guideline

rather than a fixed questionnaire to follow step by step.

This design proposal is an interpretation of the findings

we encountered during the workshop, where

participants expressed the importance of using 1-on-1s

as a way to have informal conversations with their

managers and team members, a simple check-in to

voice ideas, concerns, and issues. The intimacy granted

by a person to person meeting provides a space for a

conversation that might not happen on a day-to-day

small talk.

On our proposal both facilitators and participants are

given the opportunity to enlist and submit the themes

they would like to discuss during the 1-on-1. Both

parties can prepare having a clear idea what the

conversation will be about. The topics should not be set

on stone, they are just to give a general idea and shape

the meeting.

The interface proposal highlights the importance of

having a 1-on-1 history, that way participants can have

a clear idea of the progress made from one meeting to

the next.

Also, we are listing five principles that act as

recommendations for facilitators and participants

alike. Currently, 7Geese has guidelines to drive the

meeting, but it is on a separate section. However,

during our research phase we realized they are key for

the success of a 1-on-1, thus we giving the principles a

prominent amount of real estate, to be constantly

present in people’s minds.

The 1-on-1 principles are:

1. Fluid conversation

2. Pen and paper for note-taking

3. Relaxed environment

4. In person (or at least face to face on a video call)

5. Build trust and empathy

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Through the feedback we have received from

participants during the experience prototyping

workshop, we realized that having a casual

conversation is the core aspect of a 1-on-1 meeting.

However, it can be difficult for managers to keep track

of all the meaningful details from every team member.

Our design proposal includes in the profile of each

team member key aspects of their personalities, such

as hobbies and quirks. Having specific information

displayed at the top of the page would aid managers to

have a broader insight on the team member, and the

team member would have an opportunity to present

him/herself in a way more convenient to him/her.

A very important feature to have on the 1-on-1’s

interface is the ability to follow-up the agreements,

action items, and topics discussed during the

conversation. Currently, 7Geese allows to input notes

only for each question of the given questionnaire, being

somehow limiting to the way 1-on-1s happen in real

life.

A great amount of insights we gathered during the

Experience Prototyping workshop were related about

the environment where 1-on-1s should be held. An

ideal environment for a 1-on-1 should be relaxing,

allowing calm and lighthearted conversations, with the

purpose of letting participants open up and not feel

they are being evaluated by their managers.

Furthermore, the structure we are proposing in the

previous design mockup shows a list of general topics

rather than a questionnaire. This second mockup

carries on the same concepts. On the screen for 1-on-1

notes —also called Follow-up by Facilitator—,

managers can transcribe general notes they have made

on paper to have a record in the platform. Knowing

that the 1-on-1 notes as we are proposing to be have

no structure, and might be only keywords or key

concepts, we are giving them the flexibility to annotate

as desired.

In addition, the action items that both parties agreed

on should be transcribed here for an effective

follow-up. The relevance of 1-on-1s is that they permit

participants to get to know each other and have a

common ground for growth and self-improvement,

setting up action items accomplishes this demand by

defining a stepping stone for the next meeting and

discuss the progress made.

After the manager adds the notes and action items, he

or she can save the information and notify the team

member, and both review it before closing it up.

This part of the process also includes the ability to set

up the next 1-on-1 and add it to calendar of choice.

Once both parties agree, the date will appear at the top

of the left column.

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During the Experience Prototyping workshop,

participants expressed their concern of not knowing

what notes were taken during the 1-on-1s, as they

often saw their managers entering information on

computers, mobile devices or notebooks, making them

feel judged about what could be written.

The uncertainty of the unknown —such as not knowing

what is being written about you— can be a hindrance

for effective communication and gets in the way of

building trust between facilitator and team member.

Hence, we are suggesting the interface should settle

this uncertainty by allowing the team member to

review what the manager captured and comment upon,

so if any of the parties need to clarify something, the

system can reflect it immediately.

The participant might also have the ability to add their

own notes if he/she sees something is missing that is

worth mentioning, as a secondary way to open the door

for communication. The team member can also suggest

the date of the next 1-on-1.

Another important part of our proposal is the mood

indicator that will be set by the participant before the

1-on-1 meeting. The idea of the mood indicator

sprouted from the workshop and it reflects the need of

letting others know the feelings experienced during a

particular period of time. The aim of the mood indicator

is to have a quick access to the subjective state of the

participant, but defined by him/herself, and help

managers see how people are feeling in general.

While it might be hard for some to express their

feelings openly, it is relatively easy to associate mood

with weather. By using a slider in our interface, team

members can express how easy or hard the week was

for them. This would be a good indicator to get the next

conversation started by simply asking again: “How are

you today?”

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Our aim with the entire process we went through as a

design team is to invite 7Geese to implement our

recommendations on their next design iteration. The

ultimate goal is that the investment of our expertise

and time can bring a positive impact to 7Geese’s

business objectives, while improving the overall

experience of their users, specifically in the 1-on-1

process to adopts a more human-centered approach

that effectively reflects the wants and needs of people.

As a summary we have a series of takeaways that

compile our proposal for 7Geese’s 1-on-1’s strategy:

1. Use a customized but loose structure People are more likely to open-up with their

managers if they do not feel they are being

evaluated. Moving away from a rigid

questionnaire, and adopting a simple guideline to

have the conversation improves the quality of

the meeting. 2. Facilitate a casual friendly discussion

Transform the 1-on-1’s interface into a simple

check-in tool, where people use it to schedule

these conversations, comment on them and

follow-up results. 3. Set action items

The ability to set action items (in form of

follow-up notes) will grant to both, managers and

employees, a sense of accomplishment and will

deliver a framework for the next meeting. 4. Allow both parties access to follow-up notes

Expanding the capability of follow-up notes to be

commented by both parties until an agreement is

settled, could have huge impact on the

self-esteem of the participants and build trust

among them.

The proposed strategy is the result of the analysis and

interpretation of the prototypes made by the group of

potential users we had in our Experience Prototyping

workshop. Participants’ main concern was the way

1-on-1 meetings are held, usually with rigid

protocol-based formats, and the inability to follow-up

on what was said by both parties. We made the 1-on-1

process about building trust and loose the structure

the main focus of our recommendations.

In addition to any recommendation we can give to

7Geese —our featured case study—, we would like this

report to be a resource for designers and

non-designers getting started using design methods

and incorporating users’ input into their design

process. Through the UX Clinic report we share our

process, the type of design methods we use, and most

importantly how we use those methods and adapt

them to each project’s unique characteristics, finally

transforming people’s insights into experience design,

mainly for online platforms and services.

Lastly, we would like to invite designers and

non-designers to feel free to contact us if you want to

chat about UX Design or participate on an episode of

the UX Clinic. We want also to extend an invitation to

all startups and companies that would like to obtain UX

guidance to submit your case study to our initiative, we

will contact you and see if you are a good fit for our

program, and hopefully be featured in one of our

upcoming episodes.

☞ theuxclinic.com

[email protected]

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1Martin, Bella, Bruce Hanington. Universal Methods of Design: 100 Ways to Research

Complex Problems, Develop Innovative Ideas, and Design Effective Solutions,

Experience Prototyping (Method #36) Beverly, MA: Rockport Publishers, 2012

2Grundy, Miles. How to Perform a SWOT Analysis for Your Website. Intechnic

Corporation. USA, February 4th, 2014. [link]

3Kolko, Jon. Insight Combination. AC4D. USA , 2014. [link]

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Get started on making UX part of your best practices and obtain useful insights

from the feedback and usability recommendations our panel will be giving.

Submit your app or website or watch our latest episode:

theuxclinic.com

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